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On Thursday evening, amid swirling speculation concerning the Brown University gunman, the network's Kaitlan Collins took to social media, pointing out the conflicting information and directing people to her channel's 9pm newscast.

While it is by no means a flawless news source, her words resonated for a lot of people. It stands as one of the organizations where one can locate fact-based and generally reliable reporting – particularly during crises like the one unfolding close to a New Hampshire storage facility.

A Precarious State During a Corporate Tug-of-War

But the news network, now 45 years old, finds itself in a precarious position as two massive media conglomerates battle over ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.

Regardless of who wins, the destiny of CNN has turned into a high-stakes game of business acquisition, instead of as a question of what serves the news-consuming public.

“This represents another instance of the deep structural problems with origins in decades of policy decisions,” noted Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

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

“It gets presented as a corporate drama with influential figures as the protagonists, but there is very little discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard said.

The Additional Factor: The Former President

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

Remember the cries of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his administration’s punitive revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in White House briefings.

Trump now says that CNN needs new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will protect him from journalistic oversight. That is a factor in why he appears to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.

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

Paramount, parent of CBS News, also recently installed the conservative Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that storied news network.

A Future of More Instability

It is important to note, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a standalone company. That would be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s hardly a guarantee of stability. That arrangement could position CNN for yet another acquisition. The cycle continues.

If you ask Timothy Wu, a lot of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance recently argued that competition laws should block both deals.

“Each proposed deal would be bad for the country, and both should be contested by anti-trust authorities,” Wu recently wrote.

The Fundamental Problem and a Path Forward

Whatever happens with this particular battle, the larger issue endures.

“The present media landscape is a profoundly structure that undermines democracy, but we shouldn’t give in to a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard emphasized. Regulatory choices – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this overly commercial monster, and different policy decisions can tackle it.

Will that happen 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 never happen.

Policies that strengthen independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, finance public media, and prohibit the concentration of media power in a handful of hands are within reach – they are necessary for a healthy democracy.

In the world of media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations including CNN cannot be pawns in the latest acquisition battle.