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This past Thursday night, as rumors swirled concerning an incident 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 impeccable news source, her statement seemed accurate to many. It is one of the organizations where you can find fact-based and mostly trustworthy reporting – particularly during breaking news situations like the one unfolding near a New Hampshire storage facility.

A Precarious State During a Corporate Struggle

Yet CNN, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a precarious situation as two massive media corporations vie for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.

Whatever the outcome, the future of CNN has turned into a high-stakes game of business acquisition, not as a question of what helps the information-seeking public.

“Here is one more case of the fundamental flaws with roots in many years of regulatory actions,” noted Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a academic specializing in media policy at the University of Pennsylvania.

The debate about who will own 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 key players as the main characters, but there is hardly any discussion of the public interest,” Pickard added.

The Complicating Layer: Political Influence

The network's predicament is further muddied by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his primary “fake news” adversary.

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

Trump now asserts that the network requires new ownership. Many see this as a desire for ownership that will insulate him from criticism and scrutiny. That is part of why he seems to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.

He has grounds to favor that suitor 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.

Paramount, parent of CBS News, also recently placed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that storied news network.

A Possibility of More Turmoil

It is important to note, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a separate entity. This might be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a safe harbor. That structure could set up CNN for another sale. The cycle continues.

In the view of Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is illegal, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance recently argued that anti-trust laws should prohibit both deals.

“Either merger would be harmful to the country, and both should be contested by the government,” Wu recently wrote.

The Bigger Problem and a Way Ahead

Regardless of the resolution with this particular battle, the larger issue remains.

“Our current system is a highly structure that undermines democracy, but we ought not succumb to the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard emphasized. Regulatory choices – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this hyper-commercialized monster, and new policy decisions can address it.

Can reform occur in an era where the head of the FCC refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Change is a distant prospect now, but that doesn’t mean it will never happen.

Measures that support independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, fund public media, and prevent the consolidation of media power in too few hands are achievable – they are essential for a healthy democracy.

When it comes to media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations like CNN cannot be pawns in the newest acquisition battle.