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Late Thursday, as rumors swirled concerning the Brown University gunman, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins took to social media, highlighting the uncertainty and guiding the public to her network’s 9pm newscast.

Although it is by no means a perfect news source, her words seemed accurate for a lot of people. It remains one of the organizations where you can find grounded and generally dependable reporting – especially during crises like the one unfolding in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.

An Uncertain Position Amid a Corporate Tug-of-War

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

Regardless of who wins, the fate of CNN has turned into a high-stakes game of mergers and acquisitions, instead of as a question of what serves the news-consuming public.

“This represents another instance of the fundamental flaws with origins in decades of policy decisions,” stated Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a academic specializing in media policy at the University of Pennsylvania.

The speculation about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – overlooks a more important point.

“It is often framed as a corporate drama with key players as the main characters, but there is scant discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard explained.

The Additional Element: Donald Trump

The network's predicament is made more complex by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his chief “fake news” adversary.

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

Trump now asserts that CNN needs new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will insulate him from criticism and scrutiny. That is a factor in why he appears to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.

He has grounds to prefer that company 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 placed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that storied news network.

An Outcome of Further Turmoil

It is important to note, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a separate entity. Such a move could be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a safe harbor. That arrangement could pave the way for CNN for a future sale. It never ends.

According to Timothy Wu, a lot of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that competition laws should disallow both deals.

“Both acquisition attempts would be detrimental to the country, and both should be opposed by regulators,” Wu stated.

The Core Issue and a Path Forward

Regardless of the resolution in this situation, the bigger problem persists.

“What we have now is a very anti-democratic system, but we must resist the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard said. Government actions – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this overly commercial monster, and revised policy decisions can fix it.

Can reform occur in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Reform is a distant prospect now, but that doesn’t mean it will be impossible forever.

Initiatives that support independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, subsidize public media, and outlaw the consolidation of media power in too few hands are not only possible – they are necessary for a functioning democracy.

In the world of media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations such as CNN shouldn’t be tools in the newest corporate chess match.