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Late Thursday, as rumors swirled regarding the Brown University gunman, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins used social media, highlighting the uncertainty and directing people to her network’s 9pm newscast.

While CNN is certainly not a impeccable news source, her words resonated for a lot of people. It is one of the outlets where you can find fact-based and generally trustworthy reporting – particularly during breaking news situations like the one unfolding in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.

A Precarious State Amid a Corporate Tug-of-War

Yet CNN, now middle-aged, finds itself in a vulnerable position as two massive media empires vie for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.

No matter the result, the destiny of CNN has been drawn into a high-stakes game of business acquisition, instead of as a question of what benefits the information-seeking public.

“This represents another instance of the deep structural problems with origins in many years of governmental choices,” stated Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Penn.

The speculation about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – overlooks a larger point.

“It gets presented as a business story with powerful individuals as the central actors, but there is very little discussion of the common good,” Pickard added.

A Further Element: The Former President

The network's predicament is complicated by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his main “fake news” adversary.

Remember the cries of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his administration’s punitive suspension of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in official meetings.

Trump now says that the network requires new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will insulate him from negative coverage and examination. That is a factor in why he seems to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.

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

The company, parent of CBS News, also recently placed the conservative Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that venerable news network.

An Outcome of Continued Turmoil

Significantly, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a standalone company. That would be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s far from a secure position. That arrangement could pave the way for CNN for a future sale. The cycle continues.

According to Timothy Wu, a lot of this is against the law, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that competition laws should prohibit both deals.

“Both acquisition attempts would be harmful to the country, and both should be challenged by anti-trust authorities,” Wu argued.

The Fundamental Challenge and a Way Ahead

Whatever happens in this situation, the underlying crisis persists.

“What we have now is a profoundly structure that undermines democracy, but we ought not succumb to a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard said. Policy decisions – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this overly commercial monster, and different policy decisions can fix it.

Can reform occur in an era where the head of the FCC will not confirm that the agency is independent? Overhaul is highly improbable now, but that should not imply it will be impossible forever.

Initiatives that bolster independent news organizations, aid local journalism, fund public media, and prevent the concentration of media power in a handful of hands are within reach – they are necessary for a healthy democracy.

When it comes to media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations such as CNN must not be pawns in the newest corporate chess match.