Late Thursday, amid swirling speculation regarding an incident at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, noting the confusion and pointing viewers to her channel's 9pm newscast.
While the network is hardly a perfect news source, her statement rang true to many. It stands as one of the organizations where one can locate reality-based and largely reliable reporting – particularly during fast-moving events like the one taking place in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.
An Uncertain Position Amid a Business Struggle
However the news network, now 45 years old, finds itself in a vulnerable position 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-stakes game of corporate ownership, rather than as a question of what serves the news-consuming public.
“This represents another instance of the profound systemic issues with roots in decades of regulatory actions,” stated Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
The debate about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a more important point.
“The narrative is crafted as a business story with key players as the central actors, but there is hardly any discussion of the public interest,” Pickard said.
A Further Factor: The Former President
The network's predicament is complicated by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his primary “fake news” antagonist.
Remember the cries of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his team's disciplinary revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his sparring with Collins in White House briefings.
Trump now says that CNN needs new ownership. Many see this as a desire for ownership that will insulate him from journalistic oversight. That is part of why he seems to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.
Trump has reason to prefer 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.
Paramount, parent of CBS News, also recently installed the conservative Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that storied news network.
An Outcome of Further Uncertainty
It is important to note, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a separate entity. Such a move could be a relief to many at the network, but it’s hardly a safe harbor. That structure could position CNN for a future sale. It never ends.
According to Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that competition laws should disallow both deals.
“Each proposed deal would be harmful to the country, and both should be contested by the government,” Wu recently wrote.
The Fundamental Challenge and a Potential Solution
No matter the outcome regarding CNN, the bigger problem endures.
“Our current system is a highly anti-democratic system, but we must resist a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard noted. Government actions – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this hyper-commercialized monster, and revised policy decisions can fix it.
Can reform occur in an era where the top communications regulator won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Change is very unlikely now, but that doesn’t mean it will never happen.
Measures that strengthen independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, finance public media, and prohibit the consolidation of media power in too few hands are not only possible – they are vital for a robust democracy.
In the world of media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations like CNN cannot be tools in the newest corporate chess match.
