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

This past Thursday night, as rumors swirled about a shooting at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins took to social media, noting the confusion and pointing viewers to her channel's 9pm newscast.

Although the network is hardly a perfect news source, her message rang true for numerous observers. It stands as one of the broadcasters where there exists fact-based and mostly reliable reporting – particularly during breaking news situations such as the one unfolding near a New Hampshire storage facility.

A Vulnerable Position During a High-Stakes Battle

Yet the news network, now middle-aged, finds itself in a vulnerable situation as two huge media corporations vie for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.

No matter the result, the fate of CNN has been drawn into a high-stakes game of business acquisition, instead of as a question of what benefits the news-consuming public.

“Here is one more case of the fundamental flaws with roots in many years of policy decisions,” said Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the University of Pennsylvania.

The conjecture 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 influential figures as the protagonists, but there is scant discussion of the common good,” Pickard added.

The Additional Element: Political Influence

The CNN scenario is made more complex by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his main “fake news” antagonist.

Recall the cries of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his team's disciplinary revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in press briefings.

Trump now claims that CNN needs new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will protect him from negative coverage and examination. That is one reason why he seems to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.

There is a basis to prefer that suitor more. For one thing, it is run by David Ellison, son of the pro-Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.

The company, owner of CBS News, also recently placed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that storied news network.

A Future of More Instability

It is important to note, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a separate entity. Such a move could be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s far from a secure position. That setup could set up CNN for yet another acquisition. The cycle continues.

In the view of Timothy Wu, a lot of this is against the law, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that anti-trust laws should prohibit both deals.

“Each proposed deal would be detrimental to the country, and both should be opposed by regulators,” Wu recently wrote.

The Core 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 ought not succumb to a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard emphasized. Policy decisions – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this overly commercial monster, and new policy decisions can fix it.

Can reform occur in an era where the top communications regulator will not confirm that the agency is independent? Change is very unlikely now, but that should not imply it will be impossible forever.

Measures that strengthen independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, subsidize public media, and prevent the concentration of media power in very few hands are within reach – they are essential for a functioning democracy.

Regarding media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations like CNN shouldn’t be pieces in the latest acquisition battle.