This Power Struggle Over CNN Shows The Extent to Which Flawed US Journalism Truly Is.

This past Thursday night, while unconfirmed reports spread concerning the Brown University gunman, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins took to social media, noting the confusion and guiding the public to her channel's 9pm newscast.

While CNN is certainly not a perfect news source, her statement seemed accurate to many. It remains one of the outlets where there exists grounded and mostly dependable reporting – particularly during crises like the one taking place close to a New Hampshire storage facility.

A Precarious Position During a High-Stakes Tug-of-War

But CNN, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a uncertain state as two massive media corporations vie for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.

No matter the result, the destiny of CNN has been drawn into a high-stakes game of mergers and acquisitions, instead of as a question of what helps the information-seeking public.

“This is yet another example of the deep structural problems with roots in decades of policy decisions,” said Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

The speculation about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – overlooks a larger 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 explained.

The Complicating Layer: The Former President

The CNN scenario is made more complex by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his primary “fake news” adversary.

Remember the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his team's disciplinary revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in White House briefings.

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

Trump has reason to like that company more. For one thing, it is controlled by David Ellison, son of the pro-Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.

Paramount, parent of CBS News, also recently appointed the conservative Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that storied news network.

An Outcome of More Uncertainty

Notably, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a standalone company. Such a move could be a relief to many at the network, but it’s hardly a safe harbor. That arrangement could pave the way for CNN for yet another acquisition. The cycle continues.

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

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

The Core Problem and a Path Forward

Regardless of the resolution regarding CNN, the bigger problem remains.

“The present media landscape is a very anti-democratic system, but we must resist a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard said. Government actions – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this overly commercial monster, and new policy decisions can tackle it.

Will that happen in an era where the head of the FCC won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Change is highly improbable now, but that should not imply it will be impossible forever.

Policies that support independent news organizations, aid local journalism, finance public media, and prevent the accumulation of media power in very few hands are not only possible – they are vital for a robust democracy.

In the world of media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations such as CNN must not be tools in the newest merger game.