This Corporate Battle For CNN Highlights The Extent to Which Dysfunctional US Journalism Now Is.

This past Thursday night, amid swirling speculation about the Brown University gunman, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins took to social media, pointing out the conflicting information and directing people to her channel's 9pm newscast.

Although CNN is certainly not a perfect news source, her words seemed accurate for a lot of people. It is one of the outlets where you can find fact-based and largely dependable reporting – notably during breaking news situations like the one taking place close to a New Hampshire storage facility.

An Uncertain State Amid a Business Tug-of-War

However the news network, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a uncertain state as two massive media empires vie for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.

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

“This represents another instance of the profound systemic issues with origins in decades of governmental choices,” noted Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the Pennsylvania University.

The conjecture about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a broader point.

“It gets presented as a business story with key players as the central actors, but there is very little discussion of the common good,” Pickard explained.

A Further Element: Political Influence

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

Remember the chants of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his team's disciplinary suspension of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in official meetings.

Trump now says that the network requires new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will protect him from journalistic oversight. That is part of why he seems to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.

There is a basis 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.

The company, owner of CBS News, also recently appointed the conservative Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that historic news network.

An Outcome of Continued Turmoil

Notably, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a separate entity. Such a move could be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s hardly a safe harbor. That structure could pave the way for CNN for another sale. The cycle continues.

In the view of Timothy Wu, much of this is illegal, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance recently argued that competition laws should block both deals.

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

The Core Challenge and a Way Ahead

Regardless of the resolution in this situation, the underlying crisis persists.

“What we have now is a highly anti-democratic system, but we must resist a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard said. Regulatory choices – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this profit-obsessed monster, and revised policy decisions can tackle it.

Will that happen in an era where the top communications regulator refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Change is very unlikely now, but that should not imply it will never happen.

Policies that support independent news organizations, aid local journalism, finance public media, and prevent the consolidation of media power in too few hands are achievable – they are necessary for a healthy democracy.

In the world of media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations such as CNN cannot be pieces in the most recent corporate chess match.