On Thursday evening, while unconfirmed reports spread concerning a shooting at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins used social media, pointing out the conflicting information and guiding the public to her network’s 9pm newscast.
While CNN is certainly not a flawless news source, her message seemed accurate for numerous observers. It remains one of the organizations where you can find fact-based and largely trustworthy reporting – particularly during crises like the one unfolding in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Vulnerable Situation Amid a High-Stakes Struggle
However CNN, now 45 years old, finds itself in a precarious situation as two giant media empires compete for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
Regardless of who wins, the fate of CNN has been drawn into a major game of business acquisition, rather than as a question of what serves the news-consuming public.
“Here is one more case of the deep structural problems with origins in decades of policy decisions,” stated Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the University of Pennsylvania.
The speculation about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – overlooks a more important point.
“It gets presented as a financial tale with powerful individuals as the protagonists, but there is very little discussion of the common good,” Pickard added.
The Complicating Layer: Donald Trump
The network's predicament is further muddied by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his chief “fake news” adversary.
Recall the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his team's disciplinary withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in White House briefings.
Trump now claims that CNN needs new ownership. Many see this as a desire for ownership that will shield him from criticism and scrutiny. That is part of why he appears to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.
There is a basis to like that bidder more. For one thing, it is led by David Ellison, son of the Trump-friendly Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
Paramount, parent of CBS News, also recently installed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that historic news network.
A Future of More Turmoil
Notably, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a standalone company. This might be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s hardly a safe harbor. That setup could pave the way for CNN for yet another acquisition. The cycle continues.
If you ask 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.
“Both acquisition attempts would be bad for the country, and both should be contested by the government,” Wu argued.
The Core Issue and a Path Forward
No matter the outcome in this situation, the larger issue remains.
“The present media landscape is a very structure that undermines democracy, but we ought not succumb to learned helplessness,” Pickard emphasized. Government actions – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this profit-obsessed monster, and new policy decisions can tackle it.
Will that happen in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Change is very unlikely now, but that should not imply it will be impossible forever.
Measures that support independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, finance public media, and prohibit the consolidation of media power in too few hands are achievable – they are necessary for a robust democracy.
When it comes to media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations including CNN shouldn’t be pieces in the most recent corporate chess match.
