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This past Thursday night, while unconfirmed reports spread concerning a shooting at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins took to social media, highlighting the uncertainty and guiding the public to her channel's 9pm newscast.

While CNN is certainly not a flawless news source, her words resonated to many. It remains one of the broadcasters where you can find fact-based and largely trustworthy reporting – particularly during fast-moving events such as the one developing near a New Hampshire storage facility.

A Precarious State During a High-Stakes Tug-of-War

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

Whatever the outcome, the destiny of CNN has become part of a high-risk game of business acquisition, rather than as a question of what benefits the news-consuming public.

“This is yet another example of the profound systemic issues with origins in decades of policy decisions,” noted Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Penn.

The debate about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a more important point.

“It gets presented as a corporate drama with powerful individuals as the protagonists, but there is scant discussion of the public interest,” Pickard said.

The Complicating Layer: Donald Trump

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

Recall the cries of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his administration’s punitive withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in official meetings.

Trump now claims that CNN needs new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will shield him from negative coverage and examination. That is one reason why he appears to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.

Trump has reason to favor that company 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 appointed the conservative Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that historic news network.

A Possibility of Further Instability

It is important to note, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a independent unit. That would be a relief to many at the network, but it’s far from a secure position. That arrangement could set up CNN for yet another acquisition. The cycle continues.

In the view of Timothy Wu, much of this is against the law, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance stated that anti-trust laws should prohibit both deals.

“Both acquisition attempts would be harmful to the country, and both should be contested by the government,” Wu argued.

The Fundamental Issue and a Potential Solution

Regardless of the resolution regarding CNN, the underlying crisis remains.

“Our current system is a profoundly system hostile to democracy, but we must resist the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard emphasized. Regulatory choices – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this hyper-commercialized monster, and revised policy decisions can tackle it.

Will that happen in an era where the head of the FCC won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Overhaul is highly improbable 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 concentration of media power in too few hands are achievable – they are essential for a healthy democracy.

In the world of media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations such as CNN must not be pieces in the most recent corporate chess match.