Late Thursday, amid swirling speculation regarding a shooting at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins used social media, noting the confusion and pointing viewers to her channel's 9pm newscast.
While it is by no means a perfect news source, her words resonated for numerous observers. It remains one of the broadcasters where one can locate reality-based and mostly reliable reporting – especially during crises such as the one unfolding close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Vulnerable State Amid a Business Tug-of-War
Yet CNN, now 45 years old, finds itself in a precarious situation as two huge media empires compete for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
Whatever the outcome, the destiny of CNN has been drawn into a high-risk game of business acquisition, instead of as a question of what serves the information-seeking public.
“This represents another instance of the profound systemic issues with origins in many years of governmental choices,” stated Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
The speculation about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – overlooks a more important point.
“The narrative is crafted as a business story with powerful individuals as the central actors, but there is scant discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard explained.
The Additional Layer: The Former President
The network's predicament is made more complex by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his chief “fake news” adversary.
Remember the cries of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his administration's retaliatory revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in official meetings.
Trump now asserts that the network requires new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will shield him from journalistic oversight. That is part of why he seems to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
There is a basis to like that bidder 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 placed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that storied news network.
A Future of More Uncertainty
Significantly, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a independent unit. Such a move could be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s far from a guarantee of stability. That arrangement could pave the way for CNN for another sale. It never ends.
In the view of Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is illegal, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that competition laws should block both deals.
“Each proposed deal would be detrimental to the country, and both should be challenged by the government,” Wu argued.
The Fundamental Issue and a Path Forward
Whatever happens with this particular battle, the bigger problem persists.
“The present media landscape is a very anti-democratic system, but we must resist the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard noted. Regulatory choices – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this overly commercial monster, and different policy decisions can address it.
Can reform occur in an era where the top communications regulator refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Reform is a distant prospect now, but that doesn’t mean it will not happen in the future.
Initiatives that support independent news organizations, aid local journalism, finance public media, and prohibit the consolidation of media power in too few hands are not only possible – they are essential for a healthy democracy.
Regarding media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations including CNN shouldn’t be tools in the latest merger game.
