🔗 Share this article

Late Thursday, as rumors swirled about a shooting at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins took to social media, noting the confusion and guiding the public to her channel's 9pm newscast.

Although the network is hardly a flawless news source, her message seemed accurate for a lot of people. It is one of the outlets where you can find grounded and generally trustworthy reporting – notably during crises such as the one developing in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.

A Precarious State During a High-Stakes Struggle

Yet the news network, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a precarious situation as two giant media empires vie for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.

Regardless of who wins, the future of CNN has become part of a high-risk game of business acquisition, not as a question of what serves the news-consuming public.

“This is yet another example of the profound systemic issues with origins in many years of governmental choices,” said Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the Pennsylvania University.

The debate about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a broader point.

“It is often framed as a corporate drama with influential figures as the central actors, but there is scant discussion of the public interest,” Pickard explained.

The Complicating Element: The Former President

The network's predicament is complicated by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his primary “fake news” antagonist.

Recall the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his team's disciplinary withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in official meetings.

Trump now says that the network requires new ownership. Many see this as a desire for ownership that will protect him from criticism and scrutiny. That is part of why he seems 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 Trump-friendly Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.

The company, owner of CBS News, also recently appointed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that venerable news network.

A Possibility of Continued Instability

Significantly, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a standalone company. This might be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s far from a guarantee of stability. That arrangement could pave the way for CNN for another sale. The cycle continues.

In the view of 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 disallow both deals.

“Each proposed deal would be bad for the country, and both should be opposed by anti-trust authorities,” Wu stated.

The Bigger Problem and a Path Forward

No matter the outcome in this situation, the bigger problem persists.

“The present media landscape is a profoundly structure that undermines democracy, but we ought not succumb to learned helplessness,” Pickard emphasized. Government actions – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this overly commercial monster, and revised policy decisions can address it.

Can reform occur in an era where the head of the FCC refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Overhaul is very unlikely now, but that is not to say it will never happen.

Initiatives that support independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, finance public media, and outlaw the concentration of media power in a handful of hands are not only possible – they are essential for a healthy democracy.

In the world of media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations such as CNN shouldn’t be pieces in the most recent corporate chess match.