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Late Thursday, while unconfirmed reports spread regarding the Brown University gunman, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins took to social media, pointing out the conflicting information and pointing viewers to her network’s 9pm newscast.

Even though the network is hardly a impeccable news source, her statement rang true for a lot of people. It remains one of the outlets where you can find grounded and generally trustworthy reporting – especially during crises such as the one developing in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.

An Uncertain Situation During a High-Stakes Struggle

But CNN, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a vulnerable state as two huge media empires compete for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.

No matter the result, the fate of CNN has turned into a high-risk game of corporate ownership, instead of as a question of what serves the information-seeking public.

“This is yet another example of the fundamental flaws with origins in many years of regulatory actions,” noted Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a academic specializing in media policy at the University of Pennsylvania.

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

“It is often framed as a financial tale with powerful individuals as the main characters, but there is scant discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard added.

The Additional Element: The Former President

The network's predicament is made more complex by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his main “fake news” antagonist.

Recall the cries of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his team's disciplinary revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in press briefings.

Trump now asserts that CNN needs new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will shield him from journalistic oversight. That is a factor in why he seems to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.

He has grounds to like that suitor 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.

Paramount, owner of CBS News, also recently appointed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that storied news network.

An Outcome of Further Uncertainty

Notably, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a standalone company. Such a move could be a relief to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a secure position. That setup could set up CNN for a future sale. The cycle continues.

In the view of Timothy Wu, a lot of this is illegal, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that competition laws should block both deals.

“Each proposed deal would be detrimental to the country, and both should be challenged by the government,” Wu recently wrote.

The Fundamental Challenge and a Way Ahead

No matter the outcome regarding CNN, the bigger problem endures.

“Our current system is a profoundly anti-democratic system, but we ought not succumb to learned helplessness,” Pickard emphasized. Government actions – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this overly commercial monster, and revised policy decisions can address it.

Can reform occur in an era where the head of the FCC won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Reform is highly improbable now, but that doesn’t mean it will be impossible forever.

Policies that bolster independent news organizations, aid local journalism, subsidize public media, and prevent the concentration of media power in too few hands are within reach – they are essential for a healthy democracy.

Regarding media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations including CNN shouldn’t be tools in the most recent merger game.