On Thursday evening, as rumors swirled concerning an incident at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, pointing out the conflicting information and guiding the public to her channel's 9pm newscast.
Although it is by no means a impeccable news source, her statement rang true for numerous observers. It is one of the broadcasters where you can find grounded and mostly dependable reporting – notably during fast-moving events like the one taking place in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Vulnerable Position During a Corporate Tug-of-War
Yet CNN, now 45 years old, finds itself in a vulnerable situation as two giant media empires vie for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the future of CNN has been drawn into a high-stakes game of corporate ownership, instead of as a question of what helps the news-consuming public.
“Here is one more case of the fundamental flaws with origins in decades of governmental choices,” noted Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Penn.
The debate about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a broader point.
“The narrative is crafted as a business story with powerful individuals as the main characters, but there is hardly any discussion of the public interest,” Pickard said.
A Further Element: Political Influence
This situation is further muddied by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his chief “fake news” adversary.
Recall the chants of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his team's disciplinary withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in White House briefings.
Trump now asserts that CNN needs new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will protect him from journalistic oversight. That is one reason why he seems to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
He has grounds to like that suitor more. For one thing, it is run 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, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that historic news network.
A Future of Further Turmoil
Notably, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a separate entity. This might be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a guarantee of stability. That structure could position CNN for a future sale. The cycle continues.
In the view of Timothy Wu, a lot of this is illegal, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance stated that competition laws should block both deals.
“Both acquisition attempts would be bad for the country, and both should be opposed by anti-trust authorities,” Wu recently wrote.
The Bigger Problem and a Potential Solution
Whatever happens regarding CNN, the larger issue persists.
“What we have now is a very anti-democratic system, but we ought not succumb to the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard emphasized. Policy decisions – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this overly commercial monster, and new policy decisions can tackle it.
Will that happen in an era where the head of the FCC refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Reform is very unlikely now, but that is not to say it will not happen in the future.
Measures that bolster independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, subsidize public media, and outlaw the concentration of media power in very few hands are not only possible – they are essential for a robust democracy.
When it comes to media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations including CNN shouldn’t be tools in the newest corporate chess match.
