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This past Thursday night, as rumors swirled concerning a shooting at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins took to social media, pointing out the conflicting information and pointing viewers to her network’s 9pm newscast.

While CNN is certainly not a impeccable news source, her words resonated for a lot of people. It stands as one of the outlets where one can locate reality-based and largely dependable reporting – particularly during breaking news situations like the one taking place close to a New Hampshire storage facility.

An Uncertain Situation During a High-Stakes Struggle

But CNN, now middle-aged, finds itself in a uncertain situation as two massive media corporations vie for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.

Whatever the outcome, the destiny of CNN has become part of a major game of business acquisition, rather than as a question of what helps the news-consuming public.

“Here is one more case of the deep structural problems with origins in decades of policy decisions,” stated Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Penn.

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

“It is often framed as a business story with key players as the main characters, but there is very little discussion of the public interest,” Pickard added.

The Complicating Layer: Political Influence

This situation is made more complex by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his main “fake news” antagonist.

Recall the cries of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his administration's retaliatory suspension of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in White House briefings.

Trump now claims that CNN needs new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will shield him from criticism and scrutiny. That is part of why he seems to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.

There is a basis to prefer that company 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.

Paramount, parent of CBS News, also recently installed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that storied news network.

An Outcome of Continued Instability

Notably, if Netflix is successful, 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 guarantee of stability. That setup could position CNN for a future sale. It never ends.

According to Timothy Wu, a lot of this is against the law, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance recently argued that anti-trust laws should disallow both deals.

“Each proposed deal would be harmful to the country, and both should be challenged by regulators,” Wu argued.

The Bigger Problem and a Way Ahead

Regardless of the resolution in this situation, the bigger problem remains.

“The present media landscape is a very system hostile to democracy, but we shouldn’t give in to learned helplessness,” Pickard noted. Regulatory choices – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this overly commercial monster, and revised policy decisions can fix it.

Will that happen in an era where the top communications regulator won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Overhaul is highly improbable now, but that is not to say it will be impossible forever.

Measures that bolster independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, finance public media, and outlaw the concentration of media power in too few hands are achievable – they are vital 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 latest acquisition battle.