Late Thursday, amid swirling speculation about a shooting at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, highlighting the uncertainty and guiding the public to her network’s 9pm newscast.
While the network is hardly a perfect news source, her words rang true to many. It is one of the outlets where there exists grounded and mostly trustworthy reporting – especially during crises like the one developing close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious Position Amid a Corporate Struggle
Yet the news network, now middle-aged, finds itself in a precarious position as two huge media conglomerates battle over ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the future of CNN has been drawn into a major game of corporate ownership, rather than as a question of what benefits the news-consuming public.
“Here is one more case of the deep structural problems with origins in decades of regulatory actions,” noted Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the Penn.
The conjecture about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a more important point.
“It is often framed as a business story with influential figures as the central actors, but there is scant discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard added.
The Complicating Element: Political Influence
The CNN scenario is further muddied by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his chief “fake news” foe.
Remember the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his administration’s punitive revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in White House briefings.
Trump now asserts that the network requires new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will shield him from journalistic oversight. That is one reason why he seems to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.
Trump has reason to like that suitor more. For one thing, it is controlled 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 right-leaning Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that storied news network.
A Future of Continued Turmoil
Significantly, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a independent unit. This might be a relief to many at the network, but it’s hardly a guarantee of stability. That structure could position CNN for a future sale. It never ends.
According to Timothy Wu, much of this is illegal, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that anti-trust laws should disallow both deals.
“Each proposed deal would be detrimental to the country, and both should be challenged by regulators,” Wu argued.
The Bigger Challenge and a Way Ahead
Regardless of the resolution with this particular battle, the bigger problem persists.
“The present media landscape is a very system hostile to democracy, but we must resist a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard noted. Government actions – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this overly commercial monster, and new policy decisions can address it.
Is this likely in an era where the top communications regulator will not confirm that the agency is independent? Change is very unlikely now, but that doesn’t mean it will not happen in the future.
Initiatives that support independent news organizations, aid local journalism, fund public media, and prevent the concentration of media power in very few hands are within reach – they are essential for a functioning democracy.
Regarding media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations such as CNN must not be pawns in the newest acquisition battle.
