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On Thursday evening, while unconfirmed reports spread regarding the Brown University gunman, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, highlighting the uncertainty and guiding the public to her network’s 9pm newscast.

While CNN is certainly not a perfect news source, her statement resonated for numerous observers. It remains one of the organizations where one can locate grounded and mostly trustworthy reporting – notably during crises like the one developing close to a New Hampshire storage facility.

A Precarious Position Amid a Business Battle

However the news network, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a vulnerable situation as two massive media conglomerates vie for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.

Whatever the outcome, the destiny of CNN has become part of a high-stakes game of corporate ownership, not as a question of what helps the information-seeking public.

“This represents another instance of the deep structural problems with roots in decades of governmental choices,” said Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the Pennsylvania University.

The speculation about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a more important point.

“It gets presented as a corporate drama with influential figures as the protagonists, but there is scant discussion of the public interest,” Pickard added.

The Complicating Element: The Former President

The network's predicament is further muddied by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his primary “fake news” antagonist.

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

Trump now says that CNN needs new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will protect 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 prefer that bidder 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, 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.

A Future of Further Turmoil

It is important to note, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a standalone company. That would 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 a future sale. It never ends.

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

“Either merger would be detrimental to the country, and both should be contested by the government,” Wu recently wrote.

The Bigger Issue and a Potential Solution

Whatever happens regarding CNN, the bigger problem remains.

“What we have now is a highly system hostile to democracy, but we must resist the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard said. Policy decisions – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this profit-obsessed monster, and different policy decisions can fix it.

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

Measures that bolster independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, fund public media, and outlaw the consolidation of media power in too few hands are within reach – they are vital for a functioning democracy.

In the world of media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations such as CNN cannot be pawns in the most recent corporate chess match.