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This past Thursday night, while unconfirmed reports spread about a shooting at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins used social media, highlighting the uncertainty and directing people to her network’s 9pm newscast.

While it is by no means a impeccable news source, her words rang true to many. It is one of the organizations where one can locate fact-based and generally trustworthy reporting – especially during fast-moving events such as the one unfolding in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.

A Precarious State During a High-Stakes Struggle

But the news network, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a precarious state as two huge media conglomerates vie for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.

Whatever the outcome, the future of CNN has been drawn into a high-risk game of corporate ownership, not as a question of what benefits the news-consuming public.

“This represents another instance of the deep structural problems with origins in decades of governmental choices,” noted Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a academic specializing in media policy at the Penn.

The speculation about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a more important point.

“It is often framed as a business story with powerful individuals as the protagonists, but there is scant discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard said.

A Further Element: The Former President

This situation is complicated by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his primary “fake news” adversary.

Recall the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his team's disciplinary withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his sparring with Collins in official meetings.

Trump now asserts that CNN needs new ownership. Many see this as a desire for ownership that will protect him from journalistic oversight. That is part of why he appears to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.

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

The company, owner of CBS News, also recently placed the conservative Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that storied news network.

A Future of Continued Instability

It is important to note, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a standalone company. This might be a relief to many at the network, but it’s hardly a secure position. That structure could pave the way for CNN for yet another acquisition. It never ends.

If you ask Timothy Wu, a lot of this is illegal, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that anti-trust laws should disallow both deals.

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

The Fundamental Problem and a Way Ahead

No matter the outcome in this situation, the bigger problem endures.

“The present media landscape is a profoundly structure that undermines democracy, but we ought not succumb to learned helplessness,” Pickard emphasized. Regulatory choices – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this hyper-commercialized monster, and different policy decisions can fix it.

Will that happen in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Change is very unlikely now, but that should not imply it will never happen.

Initiatives that support independent news organizations, aid local journalism, subsidize public media, and prevent the concentration of media power in very few hands are achievable – they are necessary for a functioning democracy.

When it comes to media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations like CNN shouldn’t be pieces in the most recent corporate chess match.