Late Thursday, while unconfirmed reports spread concerning a shooting at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins used social media, highlighting the uncertainty and guiding the public to her channel's 9pm newscast.
While CNN is certainly not a perfect news source, her words resonated to many. It remains one of the outlets where you can find reality-based and largely trustworthy reporting – especially during breaking news situations like the one unfolding in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Vulnerable Situation During a Business Tug-of-War
However CNN, now 45 years old, finds itself in a precarious situation as two massive media corporations vie for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the destiny of CNN has turned into a high-stakes game of corporate ownership, rather than as a question of what helps the information-seeking public.
“Here is one more case of the deep structural problems with origins in decades of governmental choices,” noted Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
The conjecture about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – overlooks a broader point.
“It gets presented as a business story with powerful individuals as the protagonists, but there is scant discussion of the common good,” Pickard explained.
The Additional Factor: Donald Trump
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” adversary.
Remember the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his administration’s punitive withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in press briefings.
Trump now asserts that the network requires new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will insulate him from criticism and scrutiny. That is a factor in why he appears to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.
He has grounds to favor that suitor more. For one thing, it is controlled 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 placed the conservative Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that historic news network.
A Future of Continued Turmoil
Significantly, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a standalone company. That would be a relief to many at the network, but it’s far from a guarantee of stability. That setup could set up CNN for yet another acquisition. The cycle continues.
In the view of Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is illegal, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance recently argued that competition laws should block both deals.
“Each proposed deal would be detrimental to the country, and both should be opposed by regulators,” Wu stated.
The Bigger Challenge and a Way Ahead
Whatever happens regarding CNN, the underlying crisis persists.
“Our current system is a profoundly anti-democratic system, but we ought not succumb to the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard noted. Government actions – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this overly commercial monster, and different policy decisions can address it.
Will that happen in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Change is a distant prospect now, but that doesn’t mean it will be impossible forever.
Initiatives that bolster independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, subsidize public media, and prohibit the consolidation of media power in a handful of hands are not only possible – they are vital for a functioning democracy.
In the world of media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations such as CNN cannot be tools in the most recent acquisition battle.
