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This past Thursday night, as rumors swirled concerning the Brown University gunman, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins took to social media, highlighting the uncertainty and pointing viewers to her network’s 9pm newscast.

Even though the network is hardly a flawless news source, her words resonated for a lot of people. It remains one of the outlets where one can locate reality-based and largely trustworthy reporting – notably during fast-moving events such as the one taking place in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.

A Vulnerable Situation During a Business Struggle

But CNN, now 45 years old, finds itself in a precarious situation as two huge media corporations compete for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.

No matter the result, the fate of CNN has been drawn into a high-risk game of business acquisition, instead of as a question of what serves the news-consuming public.

“Here is one more case of the fundamental flaws with roots in decades of governmental choices,” said Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

The speculation about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a more important point.

“The narrative is crafted as a business story with influential figures as the main characters, but there is very little discussion of the public interest,” Pickard added.

The Complicating Factor: The Former President

The network's predicament is further muddied by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his main “fake news” adversary.

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

Trump now asserts that CNN needs new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will shield him from journalistic oversight. That is one reason why he seems to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.

There is a basis to prefer that suitor more. For one thing, it is controlled 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 appointed the conservative Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that historic news network.

An Outcome of Continued Instability

Notably, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a separate entity. That would be a relief to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a guarantee of stability. That arrangement could position CNN for yet another acquisition. It never ends.

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

“Either merger would be detrimental to the country, and both should be contested by the government,” Wu recently wrote.

The Core Issue and a Path Forward

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

“The present media landscape is a profoundly system hostile to democracy, but we shouldn’t give in to the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard emphasized. Regulatory choices – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this profit-obsessed monster, and new policy decisions can fix it.

Is this likely in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Change is very unlikely now, but that doesn’t mean it will not happen in the future.

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

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