This past Thursday night, while unconfirmed reports spread concerning the Brown University gunman, the network's Kaitlan Collins used social media, noting the confusion and guiding the public to her channel's 9pm newscast.
While CNN is certainly not a flawless news source, her words resonated for numerous observers. It stands as one of the outlets where there exists fact-based and generally dependable reporting – especially during breaking news situations such as the one developing in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.
An Uncertain Situation Amid a Corporate Struggle
Yet the news network, now 45 years old, finds itself in a vulnerable state as two giant media empires battle over ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
Regardless of who wins, the future of CNN has been drawn into a major game of corporate ownership, rather than as a question of what helps the news-consuming public.
“This represents another instance of the deep structural problems with roots in decades of governmental choices,” stated Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
The debate about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a more important point.
“It is often framed as a corporate drama with key players as the protagonists, but there is very little discussion of the public interest,” Pickard added.
The Additional Factor: Donald Trump
The network's predicament is complicated by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his chief “fake news” adversary.
Remember the chants of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his team's disciplinary revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in official meetings.
Trump now asserts that CNN needs new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will protect him from negative coverage and examination. That is a factor in why he seems to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
He has grounds to like that company more. For one thing, it is led by David Ellison, son of the Trump-friendly Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
The company, parent of CBS News, also recently installed the conservative Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that storied news network.
A Future of More Turmoil
Notably, if Netflix prevails, 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 not exactly a safe harbor. That arrangement could set up CNN for yet another acquisition. The cycle continues.
According to Timothy Wu, a lot of this is against the law, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that anti-trust laws should disallow both deals.
“Each proposed deal would be harmful to the country, and both should be challenged by the government,” Wu argued.
The Core Challenge and a Way Ahead
Regardless of the resolution with this particular battle, the bigger problem remains.
“The present media landscape is a profoundly system hostile to democracy, but we ought not succumb to learned helplessness,” Pickard noted. Government actions – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this hyper-commercialized monster, and different policy decisions can fix it.
Will that happen in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair will not confirm that the agency is independent? Reform is very unlikely now, but that should not imply it will never happen.
Measures that support independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, subsidize public media, and prevent the concentration of media power in very few hands are not only possible – they are essential for a healthy democracy.
When it comes to media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations like CNN cannot be tools in the latest corporate chess match.
