On Thursday evening, amid swirling speculation concerning the Brown University gunman, the network's Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, noting the confusion and directing people to her channel's 9pm newscast.
While the network is hardly a impeccable news source, her message resonated for a lot of people. It remains one of the broadcasters where you can find fact-based and mostly dependable reporting – especially during crises such as the one developing close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious Situation During a High-Stakes Battle
Yet CNN, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a precarious position as two huge media empires vie for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the destiny of CNN has become part of a high-stakes game of mergers and acquisitions, instead of as a question of what serves the information-seeking public.
“Here is one more case of the deep structural problems with origins in decades of governmental choices,” stated Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the Pennsylvania University.
The conjecture about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a more important point.
“It is often framed as a financial tale with key players as the central actors, but there is very little discussion of the common good,” Pickard said.
The Complicating Element: Donald Trump
This situation is complicated by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his chief “fake news” antagonist.
Remember the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his administration's retaliatory revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his sparring with Collins in White House briefings.
Trump now says that CNN needs new ownership. Many see this as a desire for ownership that will shield him from negative coverage and examination. That is one reason why he appears to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.
There is a basis to like that company more. For one thing, it is controlled by David Ellison, son of the pro-Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
The company, owner of CBS News, also recently installed the conservative Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that venerable news network.
An Outcome of Further Uncertainty
Significantly, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a separate entity. Such a move could be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s hardly a secure position. That setup could set up CNN for yet another acquisition. It never ends.
In the view of Timothy Wu, a lot of this is against the law, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that competition laws should disallow both deals.
“Each proposed deal would be harmful to the country, and both should be opposed by regulators,” Wu recently wrote.
The Fundamental Issue and a Way Ahead
Regardless of the resolution with this particular battle, the larger issue persists.
“What we have now is a profoundly anti-democratic system, but we shouldn’t give in to a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard emphasized. Government actions – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this overly commercial monster, and different policy decisions can fix it.
Is this likely in an era where the top communications regulator won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Change is very unlikely now, but that doesn’t mean it will not happen in the future.
Initiatives that strengthen independent news organizations, aid local journalism, finance public media, and outlaw the consolidation of media power in a handful of hands are not only possible – they are necessary for a robust democracy.
In the world of media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations like CNN cannot be pawns in the most recent corporate chess match.
