This past Thursday night, amid swirling speculation regarding an incident at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins took to social media, highlighting the uncertainty and directing people to her channel's 9pm newscast.
While the network is hardly a flawless news source, her words rang true to many. It stands as one of the organizations where there exists grounded and generally reliable reporting – particularly during breaking news situations like the one unfolding near a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Vulnerable Situation Amid a High-Stakes Battle
However the news network, now middle-aged, finds itself in a vulnerable state as two huge media empires vie for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
Whatever the outcome, the destiny of CNN has become part of a high-stakes game of mergers and acquisitions, not as a question of what serves the information-seeking public.
“Here is one more case of the profound systemic issues with roots in decades of policy decisions,” said Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a academic specializing in media policy at the University of Pennsylvania.
The conjecture about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a broader point.
“It is often framed as a corporate drama with key players as the main characters, but there is scant discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard said.
The Additional Element: Political Influence
The network's predicament is complicated by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his main “fake news” adversary.
Think back to the cries of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his administration's retaliatory revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in White House briefings.
Trump now claims that the network requires new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will protect him from negative coverage and examination. That is one reason why he seems to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.
There is a basis to like that bidder 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, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that historic news network.
A Possibility of More Uncertainty
It is important to note, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a standalone company. This might be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s hardly a secure position. That arrangement could set up CNN for another sale. The cycle continues.
According to Timothy Wu, a lot of this is against the law, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that competition laws should block both deals.
“Either merger would be bad for the country, and both should be opposed by anti-trust authorities,” Wu argued.
The Fundamental Problem and a Way Ahead
Whatever happens in this situation, the bigger problem endures.
“What we have now is a profoundly anti-democratic system, but we must resist the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard said. Policy decisions – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this hyper-commercialized monster, and new policy decisions can fix it.
Will that happen in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair will not confirm that the agency is independent? Reform is highly improbable now, but that doesn’t mean it will be impossible forever.
Initiatives that bolster independent news organizations, aid local journalism, finance public media, and prohibit the concentration of media power in very few hands are achievable – they are necessary for a healthy democracy.
When it comes to media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations including CNN cannot be pieces in the most recent merger game.
