This past Thursday night, while unconfirmed reports spread regarding the Brown University gunman, the network's Kaitlan Collins used social media, pointing out the conflicting information and guiding the public to her channel's 9pm newscast.
Even though it is by no means a impeccable news source, her statement rang true for a lot of people. It is one of the broadcasters where you can find fact-based and generally reliable reporting – particularly during breaking news situations such as the one developing near a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious State During a Corporate Tug-of-War
However CNN, now 45 years old, finds itself in a vulnerable state as two giant media empires compete for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the future of CNN has turned into a major game of mergers and acquisitions, not as a question of what benefits the news-consuming public.
“This represents another instance of the fundamental flaws with origins in many years of regulatory actions,” said Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the Pennsylvania University.
The conjecture about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a more important point.
“The narrative is crafted as a corporate drama with key players as the central actors, but there is hardly any discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard said.
A Further Element: Donald Trump
The CNN scenario is further muddied by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his main “fake news” foe.
Remember the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his administration's retaliatory withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his sparring with Collins in White House briefings.
Trump now says that the network requires new ownership. Many see this as a desire for ownership that will insulate him from journalistic oversight. That is one reason why he seems to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.
Trump has reason to prefer that bidder more. For one thing, it is controlled by David Ellison, son of the Trump-friendly Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
The company, parent of CBS News, also recently placed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that historic news network.
An Outcome of Further Instability
Notably, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a independent unit. This might be a relief to many at the network, but it’s far from a safe harbor. That setup could set up CNN for yet another acquisition. There is no finish line.
According to Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is illegal, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance stated that competition laws should disallow both deals.
“Either merger would be bad for the country, and both should be opposed by anti-trust authorities,” Wu argued.
The Core Issue and a Way Ahead
Regardless of the resolution in this situation, the bigger problem remains.
“What we have now is a very anti-democratic system, but we ought not succumb to learned helplessness,” Pickard said. Regulatory choices – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this profit-obsessed 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? Change is very unlikely now, but that should not imply it will be impossible forever.
Measures that support independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, finance public media, and prevent the accumulation of media power in a handful of hands are not only possible – they are necessary for a healthy democracy.
When it comes to media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations including CNN cannot be pawns in the latest acquisition battle.
