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Late Thursday, as rumors swirled concerning a shooting at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, pointing out the conflicting information and guiding the public to her network’s 9pm newscast.

While it is by no means a perfect news source, her message seemed accurate for a lot of people. It is one of the outlets where you can find reality-based and mostly trustworthy reporting – notably during crises such as the one unfolding in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.

A Precarious Position Amid a Business Battle

But the news network, now middle-aged, finds itself in a vulnerable position as two massive media conglomerates compete for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.

Whatever the outcome, the destiny of CNN has become part of a high-risk game of corporate ownership, instead of as a question of what helps the news-consuming public.

“Here is one more case of the deep structural problems with roots in many years of governmental choices,” noted Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a academic specializing in media policy at the University of Pennsylvania.

The conjecture about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a more important point.

“It is often framed as a corporate drama with powerful individuals as the central actors, but there is very little discussion of the public interest,” Pickard explained.

The Additional Layer: Political Influence

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

Remember the chants of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his team's disciplinary suspension of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his sparring with Collins in White House briefings.

Trump now asserts that CNN needs new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will shield him from negative coverage and examination. That is a factor in why he appears to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.

Trump has reason to like that bidder more. For one thing, it is controlled by David Ellison, son of the ally of Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.

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

A Future of Continued Instability

Notably, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a standalone company. This might be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a guarantee of stability. That arrangement could set up CNN for yet another acquisition. There is no finish line.

In the view of Timothy Wu, a lot of this is illegal, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance stated that anti-trust laws should block both deals.

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

The Core Problem and a Potential Solution

Regardless of the resolution regarding CNN, the bigger problem persists.

“Our current system is a highly system hostile to democracy, but we ought not succumb to a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard said. Government actions – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this profit-obsessed monster, and new policy decisions can fix it.

Is this likely in an era where the top communications regulator will not confirm that the agency is independent? Reform is very unlikely now, but that should not imply it will not happen in the future.

Measures that strengthen independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, subsidize public media, and outlaw the consolidation of media power in very few hands are within reach – they are essential for a healthy democracy.

When it comes to media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations such as CNN must not be tools in the most recent acquisition battle.