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Late Thursday, as rumors swirled concerning a shooting at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins took to social media, noting the confusion and directing people to her network’s 9pm newscast.

Although the network is hardly a flawless news source, her words resonated for a lot of people. It stands as one of the outlets where there exists grounded and largely dependable reporting – especially during breaking news situations like the one developing close to a New Hampshire storage facility.

A Precarious State Amid a Business Tug-of-War

However CNN, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a precarious state as two massive media conglomerates compete for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.

Whatever the outcome, the fate of CNN has been drawn into a high-stakes game of corporate ownership, rather than as a question of what benefits the information-seeking public.

“This is yet another example of the fundamental flaws with roots in many years of governmental choices,” noted Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the Penn.

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

“It is often framed as a financial tale with key players as the main characters, but there is hardly any discussion of the public interest,” Pickard explained.

The Additional Element: Political Influence

This situation is made more complex by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his main “fake news” adversary.

Think back to the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his administration's retaliatory revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in press briefings.

Trump now says that CNN needs 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.

He has grounds to favor that bidder more. For one thing, it is run by David Ellison, son of the pro-Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.

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

A Possibility of Continued Instability

It is important to note, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a separate entity. Such a move could be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s far from a guarantee of stability. That setup could position CNN for yet another acquisition. It never ends.

If you ask Timothy Wu, a lot of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance stated that anti-trust laws should disallow both deals.

“Each proposed deal would be bad for the country, and both should be contested by regulators,” Wu recently wrote.

The Core Problem and a Way Ahead

No matter the outcome regarding CNN, the underlying crisis remains.

“What we have now is a very system hostile to democracy, but we must resist learned helplessness,” Pickard said. Government actions – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this hyper-commercialized monster, and different policy decisions can address it.

Will that happen in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Overhaul is a distant prospect now, but that should not imply it will never happen.

Measures that bolster independent news organizations, aid local journalism, finance public media, and prohibit the accumulation of media power in very few hands are achievable – they are essential for a functioning democracy.

When it comes to media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations including CNN shouldn’t be pawns in the latest merger game.