On Thursday evening, as rumors swirled about a shooting at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins used social media, highlighting the uncertainty and guiding the public to her network’s 9pm newscast.
Although CNN is certainly not a impeccable news source, her statement seemed accurate to many. It stands as one of the outlets where one can locate reality-based and generally trustworthy reporting – particularly during crises like the one unfolding in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.
An Uncertain Position During a Business Struggle
But the news network, now 45 years old, finds itself in a vulnerable position as two giant media corporations battle over ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the future of CNN has turned into a high-stakes game of mergers and acquisitions, rather than as a question of what benefits the news-consuming public.
“This represents another instance of the deep structural problems with origins in many years of regulatory actions,” said Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
The debate about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a larger point.
“It is often framed as a business story with powerful individuals as the protagonists, but there is hardly any discussion of the public interest,” Pickard explained.
The Complicating Layer: The Former President
The network's predicament is further muddied by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his main “fake news” foe.
Think back to the chants of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his team's disciplinary suspension of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in White House briefings.
Trump now claims 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 come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
There is a basis to like that suitor more. For one thing, it is led 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 right-leaning Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that storied news network.
An Outcome of Further Instability
Notably, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a independent unit. Such a move could be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s far from a safe harbor. That structure could position CNN for yet another acquisition. It never ends.
If you ask Timothy Wu, a lot of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance stated that anti-trust laws should block both deals.
“Each proposed deal would be harmful to the country, and both should be contested by regulators,” Wu argued.
The Bigger Problem and a Potential Solution
Regardless of the resolution in this situation, the underlying crisis remains.
“The present media landscape is a very system hostile to democracy, but we shouldn’t give in to learned helplessness,” Pickard said. Government actions – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this hyper-commercialized monster, and revised policy decisions can tackle it.
Is this likely in an era where the head of the FCC won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Overhaul is a distant prospect now, but that doesn’t mean it will never happen.
Measures that strengthen independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, finance public media, and outlaw the concentration of media power in too few hands are within reach – they are essential for a functioning democracy.
Regarding media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations including CNN cannot be tools in the most recent acquisition battle.
