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This past Thursday night, amid swirling speculation regarding a shooting at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, pointing out the conflicting information and guiding the public to her network’s 9pm newscast.

Even though the network is hardly a flawless news source, her message resonated for a lot of people. It remains one of the broadcasters where you can find grounded and generally trustworthy reporting – notably during breaking news situations like the one unfolding close to a New Hampshire storage facility.

A Precarious State Amid a High-Stakes Struggle

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

Regardless of who wins, the fate of CNN has been drawn into a major game of mergers and acquisitions, not as a question of what serves the news-consuming public.

“This represents another instance of the profound systemic issues with origins in decades of regulatory actions,” stated Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Penn.

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

“The narrative is crafted as a financial tale with key players as the central actors, but there is scant discussion of the public interest,” Pickard added.

The Additional Element: Donald Trump

This situation is complicated by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his chief “fake news” antagonist.

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 clashes with Collins in press briefings.

Trump now says that the network requires new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will protect him from journalistic oversight. 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 prefer that suitor more. For one thing, it is run by David Ellison, son of the pro-Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.

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

An Outcome of More Turmoil

Significantly, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a separate entity. That would be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s far from a guarantee of stability. That arrangement could pave the way for CNN for a future sale. There is no finish line.

According to Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that anti-trust laws should block both deals.

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

The Fundamental Problem and a Potential Solution

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

“What we have now is a profoundly structure that undermines democracy, but we ought not succumb to a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard said. Regulatory choices – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this overly commercial monster, and different policy decisions can address it.

Is this likely in an era where the head of the FCC won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Overhaul is a distant prospect now, but that should not imply it will never happen.

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

In the world of media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations like CNN shouldn’t be pawns in the newest corporate chess match.