On Thursday evening, amid swirling speculation regarding the Brown University gunman, the network's Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, highlighting the uncertainty and pointing viewers to her network’s 9pm newscast.
Even though the network is hardly a impeccable news source, her words seemed accurate to many. It remains one of the outlets where there exists reality-based and largely reliable reporting – particularly during breaking news situations such as the one developing close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious Position During a High-Stakes Tug-of-War
But CNN, now middle-aged, finds itself in a precarious situation as two giant media empires battle over ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
Whatever the outcome, the fate of CNN has been drawn into a high-risk game of mergers and acquisitions, not as a question of what serves the information-seeking public.
“This represents another instance of the profound systemic issues with roots in decades of regulatory actions,” noted Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the University of Pennsylvania.
The speculation about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a broader point.
“The narrative is crafted as a business story with influential figures as the main characters, but there is very little discussion of the public interest,” Pickard explained.
The Additional Element: Political Influence
The CNN scenario is made more complex by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his primary “fake news” adversary.
Think back to the cries of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his administration's retaliatory suspension of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in press briefings.
Trump now claims that CNN needs new ownership. You can read that 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.
He has grounds to prefer that suitor 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.
Paramount, parent of CBS News, also recently installed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that historic news network.
A Possibility of More Uncertainty
It is important to note, if Netflix is successful, 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 not exactly a secure position. That setup could pave the way for CNN for another sale. The cycle continues.
According to Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that competition laws should prohibit both deals.
“Each proposed deal would be bad for the country, and both should be challenged by regulators,” Wu recently wrote.
The Bigger Problem and a Way Ahead
Whatever happens with this particular battle, the underlying crisis remains.
“What we have now is a very system hostile to democracy, but we ought not succumb to a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard noted. Government actions – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this profit-obsessed monster, and revised policy decisions can address it.
Will that happen in an era where the head of the FCC won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Overhaul is very unlikely now, but that doesn’t mean it will be impossible forever.
Policies that bolster independent news organizations, aid local journalism, fund public media, and prohibit the consolidation of media power in very few hands are not only possible – they are vital for a healthy democracy.
In the world of media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations like CNN shouldn’t be pawns in the most recent acquisition battle.
