This past Thursday night, amid swirling speculation about a shooting 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 remains one of the outlets where one can locate reality-based and mostly trustworthy reporting – notably during fast-moving events like the one unfolding close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
An Uncertain Situation During a Business Tug-of-War
But CNN, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a uncertain state as two huge media empires battle over ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the destiny of CNN has turned into a high-stakes game of business acquisition, rather than as a question of what helps the news-consuming public.
“This is yet another example of the profound systemic issues with origins in many years of regulatory actions,” noted Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a academic specializing in media policy at the University of Pennsylvania.
The speculation about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – overlooks a more important point.
“It gets presented as a business story with key players as the main characters, but there is scant discussion of the common good,” Pickard explained.
A Further Factor: The Former President
This situation is complicated by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his primary “fake news” foe.
Think back to the chants of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his administration’s punitive withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his sparring with Collins in press briefings.
Trump now asserts that CNN needs new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will protect him from criticism and scrutiny. That is part of why he appears to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.
Trump has reason to prefer that company more. For one thing, it is led 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, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that historic news network.
A Possibility of Further Turmoil
Notably, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a standalone company. Such a move could be a relief to many at the network, but it’s hardly a secure position. That structure could position CNN for a future sale. It never ends.
If you ask Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is against the law, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that anti-trust laws should block both deals.
“Either merger would be bad for the country, and both should be challenged by anti-trust authorities,” Wu stated.
The Bigger Challenge and a Way Ahead
Whatever happens in this situation, the underlying crisis endures.
“What we have now is a profoundly structure that undermines democracy, but we must resist a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard emphasized. Regulatory choices – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this profit-obsessed monster, and revised policy decisions can address it.
Is this likely in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair will not confirm that the agency is independent? Change is very unlikely now, but that should not imply it will never happen.
Policies that strengthen independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, fund public media, and prohibit the concentration of media power in very few hands are within reach – they are necessary for a healthy democracy.
In the world of media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations such as CNN must not be pieces in the most recent merger game.
