This Power Struggle For CNN Shows The Extent to Which Dysfunctional American Media Now Is.

Late Thursday, while unconfirmed reports spread regarding a shooting at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins took to social media, highlighting the uncertainty and directing people to her network’s 9pm newscast.

Although it is by no means a perfect news source, her statement resonated to many. It stands as one of the outlets where you can find grounded and largely reliable reporting – particularly during fast-moving events such as the one taking place in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.

An Uncertain Position Amid a Business Battle

However the news network, now 45 years old, finds itself in a vulnerable state as two giant media empires vie for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.

No matter the result, the fate 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 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 – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a more important point.

“It is often framed as a corporate drama with powerful individuals as the main characters, but there is scant discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard said.

The Complicating Factor: Donald Trump

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

Think back to the cries of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his administration’s punitive withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in White House briefings.

Trump now says that the network requires new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will protect him from journalistic oversight. That is one reason why he appears to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.

There is a basis to favor that company 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 installed the conservative Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that venerable news network.

An Outcome of Further Turmoil

Significantly, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a separate entity. That would be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s hardly a guarantee of stability. That arrangement could set up CNN for a future sale. There is no finish line.

If you ask Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is illegal, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that anti-trust laws should block both deals.

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

The Bigger Problem and a Path Forward

Regardless of the resolution in this situation, the bigger problem persists.

“The present media landscape is a profoundly structure that undermines democracy, but we shouldn’t give in to a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard emphasized. Government actions – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this profit-obsessed monster, and revised policy decisions can tackle it.

Can reform occur in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Overhaul is highly improbable now, but that is not to say it will be impossible forever.

Measures that bolster independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, subsidize public media, and prohibit the consolidation of media power in a handful of hands are within reach – they are vital for a robust democracy.

When it comes to media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations including CNN cannot be pawns in the most recent merger game.