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

This past Thursday night, amid swirling speculation concerning a shooting at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins took to social media, highlighting the uncertainty and pointing viewers to her channel's 9pm newscast.

Even though the network is hardly a flawless news source, her message rang true to many. It remains one of the outlets where there exists grounded and mostly dependable reporting – particularly during breaking news situations such as the one developing near a New Hampshire storage facility.

An Uncertain State During a Corporate Struggle

Yet CNN, now 45 years old, finds itself in a precarious situation as two massive media empires compete 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 mergers and acquisitions, not as a question of what serves the news-consuming public.

“This is yet another example of the profound systemic issues with origins in many years of governmental choices,” stated Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the Pennsylvania University.

The speculation about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – overlooks a broader point.

“It is often framed as a corporate drama with powerful individuals as the main characters, but there is scant discussion of the common good,” Pickard said.

The Additional Layer: Political Influence

The CNN scenario is complicated by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his main “fake news” foe.

Recall the chants of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his administration's retaliatory withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in official meetings.

Trump now asserts that the network requires new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will insulate him from journalistic oversight. That is one reason why he seems to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.

Trump has reason to favor that suitor 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 placed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that venerable news network.

An Outcome of Continued Uncertainty

Notably, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a separate entity. This might be a relief to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a secure position. That setup could set up CNN for another sale. It never ends.

If you ask Timothy Wu, much of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that competition laws should disallow both deals.

“Each proposed deal would be bad for the country, and both should be contested by anti-trust authorities,” Wu stated.

The Fundamental Issue and a Way Ahead

No matter the outcome regarding CNN, the larger issue persists.

“Our current system is a profoundly system hostile to democracy, but we shouldn’t give in to a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard said. Regulatory choices – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this profit-obsessed monster, and revised policy decisions can fix it.

Will that happen in an era where the top communications regulator will not confirm that the agency is independent? Reform is highly improbable now, but that is not to say it will never happen.

Policies that support independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, finance public media, and outlaw the consolidation of media power in too few hands are not only possible – they are necessary for a robust democracy.

In the world of media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations such as CNN cannot be pieces in the latest merger game.