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Late Thursday, as rumors swirled about a shooting at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins used social media, noting the confusion and pointing viewers to her channel's 9pm newscast.

While CNN is certainly not a flawless news source, her message resonated for numerous observers. It remains one of the outlets where one can locate reality-based and mostly reliable reporting – particularly during fast-moving events such as the one developing near a New Hampshire storage facility.

An Uncertain State Amid a Corporate Struggle

However the news network, now middle-aged, finds itself in a vulnerable position as two giant media empires compete for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.

No matter the result, the fate of CNN has been drawn into a high-stakes game of business acquisition, rather than as a question of what helps the news-consuming public.

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

The conjecture about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a more important point.

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

The Complicating Element: Donald Trump

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

Remember the chants of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his administration’s punitive revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his sparring with Collins in official meetings.

Trump now asserts that CNN needs new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will insulate him from negative coverage and examination. That is a factor in why he seems to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.

He has grounds to favor that suitor more. For one thing, it is led by David Ellison, son of the pro-Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.

The company, owner of CBS News, also recently appointed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that historic news network.

An Outcome of Continued Instability

Significantly, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a separate entity. That would be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s far from a safe harbor. That setup could pave the way for CNN for another sale. The cycle continues.

If you ask Timothy Wu, much of this is against the law, anyway. The influential voice 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 challenged by the government,” Wu argued.

The Core Challenge and a Path Forward

Whatever happens regarding CNN, the larger issue endures.

“The present media landscape is a highly anti-democratic system, but we ought not succumb to the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard said. Policy decisions – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this hyper-commercialized monster, and revised policy decisions can address it.

Is this likely in an era where the top communications regulator won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Change is a distant prospect now, but that should not imply it will not happen in the future.

Measures that bolster independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, fund public media, and prevent the concentration of media power in a handful of hands are not only possible – they are necessary for a robust democracy.

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