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On Thursday evening, amid swirling speculation concerning the Brown University gunman, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, pointing out the conflicting information and pointing viewers to her channel's 9pm newscast.

While it is by no means a impeccable news source, her message seemed accurate for a lot of people. It stands as one of the outlets where one can locate fact-based and generally reliable reporting – notably during fast-moving events like the one unfolding in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.

An Uncertain Position Amid a High-Stakes Battle

Yet the news network, now 45 years old, finds itself in a vulnerable position as two huge media empires vie for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.

No matter the result, the fate of CNN has turned into a high-stakes game of corporate ownership, instead of as a question of what helps the news-consuming public.

“This is yet another example of the deep structural problems with origins in many years of policy decisions,” stated Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Pennsylvania University.

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

“It gets presented as a corporate drama with key players as the protagonists, but there is scant discussion of the public interest,” Pickard explained.

The Complicating Layer: Donald Trump

This situation is further muddied by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his chief “fake news” foe.

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

Trump now says that the network requires new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will protect him from journalistic oversight. That is a factor in why he seems to support 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.

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

A Future of More Uncertainty

Significantly, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a standalone company. This might be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s far from a safe harbor. That arrangement could pave the way for CNN for another sale. It never ends.

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

“Either merger would be harmful to the country, and both should be challenged by the government,” Wu argued.

The Fundamental Challenge and a Path Forward

No matter the outcome regarding CNN, the larger issue remains.

“What we have now is a very anti-democratic system, but we shouldn’t give in to learned helplessness,” Pickard noted. Regulatory choices – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this hyper-commercialized monster, and new policy decisions can address it.

Will that happen in an era where the top communications regulator refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Reform is a distant prospect now, but that should not imply it will not happen in the future.

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

When it comes to media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations such as CNN must not be tools in the latest corporate chess match.