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Late Thursday, as rumors swirled regarding a shooting at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins took to social media, noting the confusion and directing people to her channel's 9pm newscast.

While it is by no means a impeccable news source, her words seemed accurate for a lot of people. It is one of the outlets where there exists grounded and largely dependable reporting – particularly during crises such as the one taking place near a New Hampshire storage facility.

A Precarious Position Amid a Business Struggle

However CNN, now 45 years old, finds itself in a vulnerable situation as two huge media empires battle over ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.

Whatever the outcome, the destiny of CNN has been drawn into a high-risk game of business acquisition, not as a question of what serves the news-consuming public.

“Here is one more case of the deep structural problems with roots in many years of regulatory actions,” said Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the University of Pennsylvania.

The debate about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – overlooks a more important point.

“It gets presented as a financial tale with key players as the protagonists, but there is very little discussion of the public interest,” Pickard said.

A Further Factor: Donald Trump

The CNN scenario is complicated by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his primary “fake news” adversary.

Recall the cries of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his administration’s punitive suspension of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his sparring with Collins in press briefings.

Trump now says that the network requires new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will insulate him from criticism and scrutiny. That is a factor in why he seems to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.

There is a basis to like that company more. For one thing, it is led by David Ellison, son of the Trump-friendly Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.

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

An Outcome of Further Instability

Significantly, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a independent unit. This might be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s far from a safe harbor. That structure could set up CNN for another sale. It never ends.

In the view of Timothy Wu, much of this is against the law, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that competition laws should disallow both deals.

“Both acquisition attempts would be harmful to the country, and both should be contested by the government,” Wu stated.

The Core Problem and a Path Forward

Whatever happens in this situation, the underlying crisis persists.

“Our current system is a profoundly system hostile to democracy, but we must resist learned helplessness,” Pickard emphasized. Policy decisions – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this profit-obsessed monster, and revised policy decisions can tackle it.

Can reform occur in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Overhaul is highly improbable now, but that should not imply it will never happen.

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

In the world of media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations such as CNN cannot be tools in the newest corporate chess match.