This Power Struggle For the Cable News Network Highlights The Extent to Which Flawed US Media Now Is.

On Thursday evening, as rumors swirled about a shooting at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins used social media, highlighting the uncertainty and guiding the public to her channel's 9pm newscast.

While CNN is certainly not a perfect news source, her words resonated for a lot of people. It is one of the broadcasters where there exists reality-based and largely reliable reporting – especially during crises such as the one taking place in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.

A Precarious Situation During a Business Tug-of-War

But CNN, now 45 years old, finds itself in a uncertain situation as two massive media empires compete for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.

No matter the result, the future of CNN has been drawn into a major game of corporate ownership, not as a question of what benefits the news-consuming public.

“This represents another instance of the profound systemic issues with roots in decades of regulatory actions,” stated Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Penn.

The conjecture about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – overlooks a broader point.

“It is often framed as a business story with powerful individuals as the main characters, but there is hardly any discussion of the common good,” Pickard added.

The Complicating Factor: Donald Trump

The network's predicament is further muddied by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his primary “fake news” foe.

Think back to the chants of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his team's disciplinary suspension of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his sparring with Collins in official meetings.

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

He has grounds to like 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, owner of CBS News, also recently installed the conservative Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that historic news network.

An Outcome of Further Instability

Notably, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a separate entity. Such a move could be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a guarantee of stability. That structure could set up CNN for another sale. It never ends.

According to Timothy Wu, a lot of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that anti-trust laws should disallow both deals.

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

The Bigger Issue and a Path Forward

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

“The present media landscape is a highly structure that undermines democracy, but we shouldn’t give in to the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard noted. Policy decisions – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this profit-obsessed monster, and revised policy decisions can address it.

Can reform occur in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair will not confirm that the agency is independent? Overhaul is very unlikely now, but that should not imply it will be impossible forever.

Measures that bolster independent news organizations, aid local journalism, subsidize public media, and outlaw the consolidation of media power in very few hands are within reach – they are essential for a healthy democracy.

Regarding media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations including CNN must not be pieces in the latest corporate chess match.