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This past Thursday night, while unconfirmed reports spread about a shooting at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins took to social media, noting the confusion and pointing viewers to her channel's 9pm newscast.

Although CNN is certainly not a impeccable news source, her message resonated to many. It remains one of the outlets where there exists reality-based and generally dependable reporting – notably during breaking news situations such as the one unfolding near a New Hampshire storage facility.

A Vulnerable State Amid a Business Tug-of-War

However CNN, now 45 years old, finds itself in a uncertain position as two giant media conglomerates vie for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.

Regardless of who wins, the fate of CNN has become part of a high-risk game of corporate ownership, instead of as a question of what serves the information-seeking public.

“This is yet another example of the fundamental flaws with origins in decades of regulatory actions,” said Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the Pennsylvania University.

The speculation about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – overlooks a larger point.

“It gets presented as a corporate drama with key players as the main characters, but there is very little discussion of the public interest,” Pickard added.

The Complicating Factor: Political Influence

The CNN scenario is complicated by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his primary “fake news” antagonist.

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

Trump now asserts 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 come down on the side of 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, parent of CBS News, also recently installed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that historic news network.

A Future of Continued Uncertainty

Notably, if Netflix wins, 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 not exactly a safe harbor. That setup could pave the way for CNN for yet another acquisition. It never ends.

If you ask Timothy Wu, a lot of this is against the law, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance recently argued that competition laws should disallow both deals.

“Either merger would be harmful to the country, and both should be opposed by anti-trust authorities,” Wu argued.

The Bigger Issue and a Path Forward

Whatever happens regarding CNN, the underlying crisis persists.

“Our current system is a profoundly anti-democratic system, but we ought not succumb to a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard noted. Policy decisions – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this profit-obsessed monster, and different 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? 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, finance public media, and outlaw the accumulation of media power in a handful of hands are achievable – they are essential for a healthy democracy.

Regarding media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations like CNN shouldn’t be pieces in the latest merger game.