On Thursday evening, amid swirling speculation about a shooting at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins used social media, pointing out the conflicting information and directing people to her channel's 9pm newscast.
While CNN is certainly not a impeccable news source, her message resonated to many. It remains one of the outlets where one can locate reality-based and generally trustworthy reporting – especially during crises such as the one unfolding in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Vulnerable Position During a High-Stakes Tug-of-War
But the news network, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a vulnerable state as two massive media corporations battle over ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
Whatever the outcome, the future of CNN has been drawn into a high-risk game of corporate ownership, not as a question of what serves the information-seeking public.
“Here is one more case of the deep structural problems with origins in many years of regulatory actions,” said Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the Penn.
The conjecture about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – overlooks a more important point.
“It is often framed as a corporate drama with influential figures as the central actors, but there is hardly any discussion of the public interest,” Pickard said.
The Complicating Factor: Political Influence
The CNN scenario is made more complex by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his chief “fake news” adversary.
Recall the cries of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his administration's retaliatory suspension of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his sparring with Collins in official meetings.
Trump now claims that CNN needs new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will protect him from criticism and scrutiny. That is a factor in why he seems to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
Trump has reason to favor 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.
The company, parent of CBS News, also recently installed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that storied news network.
A Possibility of Continued Turmoil
Notably, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a separate entity. That would be a relief to many at the network, but it’s far from a guarantee of stability. That arrangement could position CNN for another sale. It never ends.
In the view of Timothy Wu, a lot of this is illegal, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance recently argued that competition laws should block both deals.
“Both acquisition attempts would be harmful to the country, and both should be contested by anti-trust authorities,” Wu argued.
The Bigger Challenge and a Potential Solution
No matter the outcome with this particular battle, the bigger problem persists.
“What we have now is a highly structure that undermines democracy, but we shouldn’t give in to the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard emphasized. Government actions – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this overly commercial monster, and new policy decisions can address it.
Is this likely in an era where the top communications regulator won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Reform is highly improbable now, but that doesn’t mean it will never happen.
Measures that support independent news organizations, aid local journalism, subsidize public media, and prevent the accumulation of media power in too few hands are within reach – they are vital for a robust democracy.
Regarding media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations including CNN must not be pawns in the latest acquisition battle.
