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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, highlighting the uncertainty and guiding the public to her channel's 9pm newscast.

Even though CNN is certainly not a flawless news source, her message rang true for a lot of people. It stands as one of the outlets where there exists reality-based and largely dependable reporting – particularly during crises like the one taking place in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.

An Uncertain State Amid a High-Stakes Struggle

Yet CNN, now middle-aged, finds itself in a vulnerable state as two massive media corporations battle over ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.

Regardless of who wins, the future of CNN has become part of a major game of business acquisition, not as a question of what serves the news-consuming public.

“Here is one more case of the profound systemic issues with roots in decades of policy decisions,” noted Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the Penn.

The speculation about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – overlooks a broader point.

“The narrative is crafted as a financial tale with powerful individuals as the main characters, but there is very little discussion of the public interest,” Pickard said.

The Complicating Layer: The Former President

This situation is made more complex by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his main “fake news” adversary.

Recall the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his administration’s punitive suspension of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in press briefings.

Trump now claims that CNN needs new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will shield him from criticism and scrutiny. That is one reason why he appears to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.

There is a basis to favor that bidder more. For one thing, it is run 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 conservative Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that venerable news network.

An Outcome of Further Instability

Notably, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a independent unit. This might be a relief to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a secure position. That structure could pave the way for CNN for yet another acquisition. It never ends.

According to Timothy Wu, a lot of this is illegal, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance recently argued that anti-trust laws should prohibit both deals.

“Each proposed deal would be detrimental to the country, and both should be contested by regulators,” Wu recently wrote.

The Fundamental Issue and a Way Ahead

Whatever happens with this particular battle, the underlying crisis endures.

“What we have now is a very system hostile to democracy, but we must resist a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard said. Regulatory choices – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this profit-obsessed monster, and new policy decisions can fix it.

Can reform occur in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Reform is a distant prospect now, but that should not imply it will not happen in the future.

Policies that bolster independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, finance public media, and prevent the accumulation of media power in a handful of hands are achievable – they are vital for a healthy democracy.

In the world of media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations such as CNN must not be pawns in the latest acquisition battle.