On Thursday evening, while unconfirmed reports spread about the Brown University gunman, the network's Kaitlan Collins used social media, highlighting the uncertainty and pointing viewers to her channel's 9pm newscast.
Even though the network is hardly a perfect news source, her statement resonated for a lot of people. It remains one of the organizations where there exists fact-based and mostly trustworthy reporting – especially during fast-moving events like the one unfolding near a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious State During a High-Stakes Battle
But CNN, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a uncertain state as two giant media empires battle over ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the future of CNN has turned into a high-risk game of corporate ownership, not as a question of what benefits the news-consuming public.
“This represents another instance of the fundamental flaws with roots in many years of regulatory actions,” said Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a academic specializing in media policy at the Pennsylvania University.
The debate about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a more important point.
“It gets presented as a business story with key players as the central actors, but there is very little discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard added.
The Additional Factor: The Former President
The CNN scenario is made more complex by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his chief “fake news” antagonist.
Remember the cries of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his administration’s punitive withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in official meetings.
Trump now asserts that CNN needs new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will shield him from journalistic oversight. That is part of why he seems to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.
He has grounds to favor that bidder more. For one thing, it is led by David Ellison, son of the pro-Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
The company, owner of CBS News, also recently installed the conservative Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that historic news network.
A Possibility of Continued Uncertainty
Significantly, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a standalone company. Such a move could be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s far from a guarantee of stability. That arrangement could position CNN for a future sale. There is no finish line.
According to Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is against the law, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that anti-trust laws should prohibit both deals.
“Either merger would be detrimental to the country, and both should be contested by regulators,” Wu argued.
The Fundamental Problem and a Path Forward
Regardless of the resolution in this situation, the underlying crisis endures.
“The present media landscape is a highly structure that undermines democracy, but we shouldn’t give in to the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard said. Regulatory choices – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this overly commercial monster, and new policy decisions can tackle it.
Can reform occur in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Reform is a distant prospect now, but that should not imply it will never happen.
Initiatives that support independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, finance public media, and prohibit the concentration of media power in too few hands are not only possible – they are necessary for a healthy democracy.
In the world of media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations including CNN shouldn’t be tools in the latest corporate chess match.
