This Tug-of-War For the Cable News Network Shows The Extent to Which Broken American Media Has Become.

On Thursday evening, amid swirling speculation 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.

While CNN is certainly not a flawless news source, her message resonated to many. It remains one of the organizations where you can find grounded and largely reliable reporting – notably during fast-moving events such as the one developing close to a New Hampshire storage facility.

A Precarious Situation During a Corporate Struggle

Yet CNN, now 45 years old, finds itself in a vulnerable state as two massive media corporations compete for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.

Regardless of who wins, the future of CNN has turned into a major game of corporate ownership, rather than as a question of what serves the news-consuming public.

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

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

“It is often framed as a financial tale with influential figures as the main characters, but there is very little discussion of the public interest,” Pickard said.

The Additional Factor: Donald Trump

This situation is further muddied by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his main “fake news” adversary.

Think back to the chants of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his team's disciplinary revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in official meetings.

Trump now asserts that CNN needs new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will insulate him from journalistic oversight. That is part of why he seems to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.

There is a basis to prefer that company more. For one thing, it is led 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 lead editor of that storied news network.

A Future of Further Instability

Significantly, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a independent unit. That would be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s hardly a safe harbor. That setup could pave the way for CNN for yet another acquisition. The cycle continues.

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

“Either merger would be harmful to the country, and both should be contested by regulators,” Wu argued.

The Fundamental Challenge and a Path Forward

Whatever happens with this particular battle, the underlying crisis endures.

“Our current system is a very structure that undermines democracy, but we shouldn’t give in to the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard noted. Regulatory choices – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this overly commercial monster, and revised policy decisions can tackle it.

Is this likely in an era where the head of the FCC refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Reform is a distant prospect now, but that is not to say it will not happen in the future.

Measures that support independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, subsidize public media, and prevent the consolidation of media power in very few hands are within reach – they are necessary for a healthy democracy.

Regarding media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations including CNN cannot be tools in the latest corporate chess match.