The Corporate Battle For CNN Highlights How Dysfunctional US Journalism Now Is.

Late Thursday, while unconfirmed reports spread about the Brown University gunman, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, noting the confusion and guiding the public to her network’s 9pm newscast.

Although the network is hardly a impeccable news source, her message rang true for a lot of people. It stands as one of the outlets where you can find reality-based and mostly reliable reporting – especially during fast-moving events such as the one unfolding in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.

A Precarious Situation Amid a High-Stakes Tug-of-War

However the news network, now 45 years old, finds itself in a precarious state as two giant media conglomerates vie for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.

Regardless of who wins, the destiny of CNN has turned into a high-stakes game of business acquisition, not as a question of what benefits the news-consuming public.

“Here is one more case of the fundamental flaws with origins in decades of governmental choices,” noted Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the Penn.

The conjecture about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – overlooks a larger point.

“It is often framed as a business story with key players as the main characters, but there is scant discussion of the public interest,” Pickard added.

The Additional Layer: The Former President

The network's predicament is made more complex by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his chief “fake news” foe.

Recall the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his administration’s punitive suspension of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in official meetings.

Trump now asserts that CNN needs new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will shield him from journalistic oversight. That is a factor in why he appears to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.

He has grounds to like that suitor 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 appointed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that storied news network.

A Future of Continued Turmoil

It is important to note, if Netflix is successful, 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 not exactly a guarantee of stability. That structure could pave the way for CNN for another sale. The cycle continues.

According to Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is against the law, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that anti-trust laws should block both deals.

“Either merger would be bad for the country, and both should be challenged by anti-trust authorities,” Wu argued.

The Fundamental Challenge and a Path Forward

No matter the outcome with this particular battle, the underlying crisis remains.

“Our current system is a profoundly structure that undermines democracy, but we ought not succumb to a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard said. Policy decisions – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this overly commercial monster, and different policy decisions can tackle it.

Is this likely in an era where the top communications regulator will not confirm that the agency is independent? Overhaul is highly improbable now, but that doesn’t mean it will be impossible forever.

Policies that bolster independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, finance public media, and outlaw the accumulation of media power in too few hands are within reach – they are essential for a robust democracy.

In the world of media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations like CNN must not be pieces in the most recent corporate chess match.