On Thursday evening, amid swirling speculation concerning an incident at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins took to social media, highlighting the uncertainty and pointing viewers to her channel's 9pm newscast.
While it is by no means a flawless news source, her statement rang true to many. It is one of the organizations where there exists fact-based and largely reliable reporting – especially during crises such as the one unfolding in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious Situation During a Corporate Battle
Yet the news network, now middle-aged, finds itself in a uncertain state as two giant media empires vie for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the future of CNN has turned into a high-stakes game of mergers and acquisitions, instead of as a question of what serves the news-consuming public.
“This is yet another example of the profound systemic issues with roots in many years of regulatory actions,” stated Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a academic specializing in media policy at the University of Pennsylvania.
The debate about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a more important point.
“The narrative is crafted as a financial tale with influential figures as the main characters, but there is scant discussion of the public interest,” Pickard said.
A Further Element: Donald Trump
This situation is made more complex by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his chief “fake news” foe.
Think back to the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his team's disciplinary suspension of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in White House briefings.
Trump now claims that the network requires new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will shield him from journalistic oversight. That is part of why he appears to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
There is a basis to favor that bidder more. For one thing, it is run by David Ellison, son of the ally of Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
The company, parent of CBS News, also recently installed the conservative Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that historic news network.
A Possibility of Continued Instability
Significantly, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a standalone company. Such a move could be a relief to many at the network, but it’s hardly a safe harbor. That setup could set up CNN for a future sale. It never ends.
In the view of Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is against the law, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance recently argued that competition laws should prohibit both deals.
“Either merger would be harmful to the country, and both should be contested by regulators,” Wu recently wrote.
The Bigger Challenge and a Way Ahead
No matter the outcome regarding CNN, the underlying crisis persists.
“What we have now is a highly structure that undermines democracy, but we must resist a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard emphasized. Regulatory choices – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this hyper-commercialized monster, and new policy decisions can address it.
Will that happen in an era where the top communications regulator will not confirm that the agency is independent? Change is very unlikely now, but that is not to say it will be impossible forever.
Measures that bolster independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, fund public media, and outlaw the accumulation of media power in too few hands are not only possible – they are vital for a functioning democracy.
Regarding media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations such as CNN cannot be pieces in the newest acquisition battle.
