This past Thursday night, as rumors swirled concerning the Brown University gunman, the network's Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, noting the confusion and pointing viewers to her channel's 9pm newscast.
While CNN is certainly not a perfect news source, her message seemed accurate to many. It is one of the organizations where you can find reality-based and mostly dependable reporting – particularly during breaking news situations such as the one taking place close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
An Uncertain Situation During a Corporate Struggle
Yet CNN, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a uncertain situation as two massive media empires compete for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the future of CNN has been drawn into a high-risk game of corporate ownership, not as a question of what helps the news-consuming public.
“This is yet another example of the profound systemic issues with origins in many years of policy decisions,” said Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Penn.
The speculation about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – overlooks a broader point.
“The narrative is crafted as a corporate drama with powerful individuals as the main characters, but there is hardly any discussion of the common good,” Pickard added.
A Further Layer: Political Influence
The CNN scenario is further muddied by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his main “fake news” antagonist.
Remember the cries of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his administration's retaliatory revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in White House briefings.
Trump now says that CNN needs new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will protect him from journalistic oversight. That is one reason why he appears to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.
He has grounds to favor that company more. For one thing, it is controlled by David Ellison, son of the Trump-friendly Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
Paramount, parent of CBS News, also recently appointed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that historic news network.
A Possibility of More Uncertainty
Significantly, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a separate entity. This might be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s hardly a safe harbor. That setup could set up CNN for another sale. There is no finish line.
In the view of Timothy Wu, much of this is against the law, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that anti-trust laws should block both deals.
“Either merger would be detrimental to the country, and both should be contested by regulators,” Wu recently wrote.
The Bigger Issue and a Path Forward
Regardless of the resolution with this particular battle, the underlying crisis endures.
“What we have now is a profoundly anti-democratic system, but we must resist the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard noted. Government actions – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this overly commercial monster, and different policy decisions can address it.
Can reform occur in an era where the head of the FCC refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Reform is highly improbable now, but that is not to say it will be impossible forever.
Policies that strengthen independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, finance public media, and outlaw the accumulation of media power in a handful of hands are achievable – they are necessary for a robust democracy.
Regarding media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations like CNN shouldn’t be pieces in the most recent merger game.
