🔗 Share this article

Late Thursday, as rumors swirled regarding the Brown University gunman, the network's Kaitlan Collins took to social media, highlighting the uncertainty and guiding the public to her network’s 9pm newscast.

While it is by no means a perfect news source, her message resonated to many. It remains one of the outlets where one can locate grounded and mostly reliable reporting – especially during crises like the one developing in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.

An Uncertain Position Amid a Business Battle

But CNN, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a uncertain situation as two giant media corporations vie for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.

No matter the result, the destiny of CNN has become part of a high-stakes game of business acquisition, rather than as a question of what benefits the news-consuming public.

“This is yet another example of the fundamental flaws with origins in many years of policy decisions,” noted Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Pennsylvania University.

The debate about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a more important point.

“It gets presented as a corporate drama with key players as the central actors, but there is very little discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard said.

The Additional Layer: Donald Trump

The CNN scenario is further muddied by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his primary “fake news” foe.

Remember the chants of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his team's disciplinary suspension of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in press briefings.

Trump now says that the network requires new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will insulate him from journalistic oversight. That is a factor in why he seems to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.

Trump has reason to prefer that bidder 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 appointed the conservative Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that venerable news network.

An Outcome of More Turmoil

Significantly, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a standalone company. This might 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, much of this is against the law, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance recently argued that competition laws should prohibit both deals.

“Both acquisition attempts would be detrimental to the country, and both should be opposed by anti-trust authorities,” Wu recently wrote.

The Core Problem and a Way Ahead

No matter the outcome regarding CNN, the bigger problem remains.

“What we have now is a profoundly anti-democratic system, but we must resist a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard noted. Government actions – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this hyper-commercialized monster, and new policy decisions can fix it.

Is this likely in an era where the top communications regulator will not confirm that the agency is independent? Reform is a distant prospect now, but that should not imply it will be impossible forever.

Initiatives that strengthen independent news organizations, aid local journalism, finance public media, and outlaw the accumulation of media power in too few hands are achievable – they are vital for a healthy democracy.

When it comes to media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations including CNN must not be tools in the latest merger game.