Late Thursday, while unconfirmed reports spread about an incident 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.
Even though the network is hardly a perfect news source, her message seemed accurate for a lot of people. It remains one of the broadcasters where you can find fact-based and generally reliable reporting – notably during crises such as the one unfolding near a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious Position Amid a Business Battle
However the news network, now middle-aged, finds itself in a precarious situation as two huge media corporations compete 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 business acquisition, instead of as a question of what benefits the information-seeking public.
“This is yet another example of the profound systemic issues with roots in decades of policy decisions,” stated Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a academic specializing in media policy at the Penn.
The debate 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 powerful individuals as the protagonists, but there is hardly any discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard explained.
A Further Element: Political Influence
The CNN scenario is complicated by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his primary “fake news” foe.
Remember the chants of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his team's disciplinary revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in official meetings.
Trump now asserts that the network requires new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will protect him from journalistic oversight. That is one reason why he seems to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.
He has grounds to like that suitor more. For one thing, it is run by David Ellison, son of the ally of Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
The company, parent of CBS News, also recently appointed the conservative Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that venerable news network.
A Possibility of Further Uncertainty
It is important to note, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a standalone company. That would be a relief to many at the network, but it’s far from a secure position. That arrangement could set up CNN for a future sale. It never ends.
According to Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is illegal, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that competition laws should disallow both deals.
“Each proposed deal would be bad for the country, and both should be opposed by anti-trust authorities,” Wu recently wrote.
The Bigger Challenge and a Way Ahead
No matter the outcome with this particular battle, the larger issue remains.
“Our current system is a profoundly anti-democratic system, but we ought not succumb to learned helplessness,” Pickard said. Policy decisions – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this profit-obsessed monster, and new policy decisions can address it.
Can reform occur in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Change is very unlikely now, but that is not to say it will not happen in the future.
Measures that strengthen independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, finance public media, and outlaw the accumulation of media power in very few hands are within reach – they are necessary for a healthy democracy.
In the world of media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations such as CNN must not be pieces in the newest corporate chess match.
