This Power Struggle Over the Cable News Network Highlights The Extent to Which Dysfunctional American Media Has Become.

Late Thursday, as rumors swirled regarding the Brown University gunman, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins used social media, noting the confusion and guiding the public to her channel's 9pm newscast.

While the network is hardly a impeccable news source, her words seemed accurate to many. It stands as one of the broadcasters where one can locate fact-based and mostly reliable reporting – particularly during crises such as the one taking place near a New Hampshire storage facility.

An Uncertain Situation Amid a Corporate Battle

Yet CNN, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a precarious position as two huge media corporations compete for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.

Regardless of who wins, the future of CNN has become part of a major game of business acquisition, not as a question of what helps the information-seeking public.

“This is yet another example of the profound systemic issues with roots in decades of governmental choices,” noted Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a academic specializing in media policy at the University of Pennsylvania.

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

“It is often framed as a business story with powerful individuals as the central actors, but there is scant discussion of the common good,” Pickard said.

The Additional Layer: The Former President

This situation is complicated by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his chief “fake news” antagonist.

Recall the cries of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his administration's retaliatory revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes 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 seems to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.

He has grounds to prefer that company more. For one thing, it is led by David Ellison, son of the ally of Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.

Paramount, owner of CBS News, also recently placed the conservative Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that venerable news network.

A Future of Further Turmoil

Notably, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a standalone company. That would be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a safe harbor. That arrangement could pave the way for CNN for yet another acquisition. It never ends.

According to Timothy Wu, a lot of this is against the law, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that anti-trust laws should block both deals.

“Each proposed deal would be detrimental to the country, and both should be contested by regulators,” Wu stated.

The Fundamental Problem and a Path Forward

Regardless of the resolution with this particular battle, the bigger problem endures.

“Our current system is a profoundly system hostile to democracy, but we ought not succumb to a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard emphasized. Government actions – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this profit-obsessed monster, and revised policy decisions can fix it.

Will that happen in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair will not confirm that the agency is independent? Reform is a distant prospect now, but that is not to say it will never happen.

Measures that strengthen independent news organizations, aid local journalism, finance public media, and outlaw the concentration of media power in too few hands are not only possible – they are essential for a robust democracy.

Regarding media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations like CNN cannot be pawns in the most recent merger game.