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This past Thursday night, as rumors swirled concerning the Brown University gunman, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins used social media, pointing out the conflicting information and guiding the public to her channel's 9pm newscast.

While the network is hardly a impeccable news source, her statement seemed accurate for a lot of people. It stands as one of the outlets where you can find reality-based and largely trustworthy reporting – notably during fast-moving events like the one taking place close to a New Hampshire storage facility.

A Vulnerable Situation During a Business Struggle

Yet the news network, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a uncertain situation as two massive media empires compete for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.

No matter the result, the future of CNN has become part of a major game of business acquisition, instead of as a question of what serves the information-seeking public.

“This is yet another example of the profound systemic issues with origins in decades of governmental choices,” said Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the Pennsylvania University.

The debate about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a larger point.

“The narrative is crafted as a corporate drama with key players as the main characters, but there is hardly any discussion of the public interest,” Pickard said.

The Complicating Element: Donald Trump

This situation is complicated by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his primary “fake news” adversary.

Think back to the cries of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his administration’s punitive revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his sparring with Collins in White House briefings.

Trump now says that the network requires new ownership. Many see this as a desire for ownership that will shield him from journalistic oversight. That is one reason why he seems to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.

There is a basis 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.

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

A Future of More Uncertainty

Significantly, if Netflix wins, 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 hardly a secure position. That arrangement could pave the way for CNN for yet another acquisition. The cycle continues.

According to Timothy Wu, much of this is against the law, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that competition laws should block both deals.

“Both acquisition attempts would be harmful to the country, and both should be opposed by regulators,” Wu argued.

The Fundamental Issue and a Potential Solution

Regardless of the resolution regarding CNN, the bigger problem persists.

“The present media landscape is a profoundly anti-democratic system, but we must resist learned helplessness,” Pickard emphasized. Regulatory choices – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this overly commercial monster, and revised policy decisions can fix it.

Will that happen in an era where the head of the FCC won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Change is highly improbable now, but that should not imply it will not happen in the future.

Initiatives that support independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, fund public media, and prohibit the concentration of media power in too few hands are not only possible – they are vital for a functioning democracy.

In the world of media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations like CNN cannot be pawns in the newest merger game.