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On Thursday evening, as rumors swirled about the Brown University gunman, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins used social media, pointing out the conflicting information and guiding the public to her network’s 9pm newscast.

Although CNN is certainly not a flawless news source, her statement resonated for a lot of people. It is one of the outlets where one can locate fact-based and largely dependable reporting – especially during crises such as the one unfolding in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.

An Uncertain Position Amid a Corporate Tug-of-War

But CNN, now middle-aged, finds itself in a precarious position as two giant media corporations compete for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.

Whatever the outcome, the future of CNN has become part of a high-risk game of corporate ownership, not as a question of what helps the information-seeking public.

“This represents another instance of the profound systemic issues with roots in many years of policy decisions,” noted Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the University of Pennsylvania.

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

“It is often framed as a business story with key players as the protagonists, but there is scant discussion of the public interest,” Pickard explained.

The Additional Element: The Former President

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

Think back to the chants of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his administration’s punitive suspension of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in press briefings.

Trump now asserts that the network requires new ownership. You can read that as 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 hostile bid.

There is a basis to prefer that company 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 installed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that venerable news network.

A Possibility of Continued Instability

Significantly, if Netflix wins, 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 not exactly a secure position. That arrangement could set up CNN for yet another acquisition. There is no finish line.

According to Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance stated that anti-trust laws should disallow both deals.

“Each proposed deal would be bad for the country, and both should be challenged by regulators,” Wu recently wrote.

The Core Challenge and a Way Ahead

No matter the outcome in this situation, the larger issue endures.

“What we have now is a very system hostile to democracy, but we ought not succumb to a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard noted. Policy decisions – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this hyper-commercialized monster, and revised 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? Overhaul is very unlikely now, but that should not imply it will not happen in the future.

Initiatives that bolster independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, finance public media, and outlaw the concentration of media power in a handful of hands are not only possible – they are essential for a healthy democracy.

When it comes to media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations like CNN must not be pieces in the latest merger game.