This past Thursday night, while unconfirmed reports spread about the Brown University gunman, the network's Kaitlan Collins took to social media, noting the confusion and pointing viewers to her channel's 9pm newscast.
Although the network is hardly a perfect news source, her message seemed accurate to many. It remains one of the organizations where you can find grounded and mostly trustworthy reporting – particularly during breaking news situations such as the one taking place near a New Hampshire storage facility.
An Uncertain State Amid a High-Stakes Tug-of-War
However CNN, now 45 years old, finds itself in a uncertain position as two huge media conglomerates vie for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
Regardless of who wins, the future of CNN has become part of a major game of mergers and acquisitions, rather than as a question of what benefits the news-consuming public.
“This is yet another example of the profound systemic issues with roots in decades of policy decisions,” stated Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the Pennsylvania University.
The conjecture about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a more important point.
“It gets presented as a corporate drama with powerful individuals as the central actors, but there is scant discussion of the common good,” Pickard explained.
The Additional Layer: Political Influence
The network's predicament is complicated by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his primary “fake news” foe.
Remember the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his administration's retaliatory revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in press briefings.
Trump now says that the network requires 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 aggressive takeover attempt.
Trump has reason to like that suitor more. For one thing, it is led by David Ellison, son of the pro-Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
Paramount, parent of CBS News, also recently placed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that venerable news network.
A Future of More Instability
It is important to note, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a separate entity. Such a move could be a relief to many at the network, but it’s far from a guarantee of stability. That setup could pave the way for CNN for yet another acquisition. There is no finish line.
In the view of Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is illegal, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance stated that anti-trust laws should block both deals.
“Either merger would be bad for the country, and both should be opposed by the government,” Wu recently wrote.
The Bigger Challenge and a Path Forward
Whatever happens with this particular battle, the bigger problem remains.
“What we have now is a profoundly structure that undermines democracy, but we ought not succumb to a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard emphasized. Regulatory choices – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this profit-obsessed monster, and different policy decisions can address it.
Will that happen in an era where the top communications regulator won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Change is a distant prospect now, but that doesn’t mean it will be impossible forever.
Initiatives that support independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, fund public media, and prohibit the accumulation of media power in very few hands are within reach – they are vital for a robust democracy.
In the world of media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations such as CNN cannot be tools in the newest acquisition battle.
