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On Thursday evening, while unconfirmed reports spread concerning a shooting at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, highlighting the uncertainty and guiding the public to her network’s 9pm newscast.

While CNN is certainly not a perfect news source, her message resonated for a lot of people. It stands as one of the organizations where one can locate reality-based and mostly trustworthy reporting – particularly during fast-moving events such as the one taking place in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.

A Precarious Situation Amid a Corporate Battle

But the news network, now 45 years old, finds itself in a uncertain state as two giant media empires vie for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.

Regardless of who wins, the destiny of CNN has been drawn into a high-risk game of business acquisition, not as a question of what benefits the news-consuming public.

“This represents another instance of the deep structural problems with roots in decades of policy decisions,” stated Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

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

“It is often framed as a corporate drama with influential figures as the protagonists, but there is hardly any discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard said.

The Additional Element: The Former President

The network's predicament is complicated by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his primary “fake news” foe.

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

Trump now asserts that CNN needs new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will shield him from criticism and scrutiny. That is one reason why he seems to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.

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

Paramount, owner of CBS News, also recently placed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that venerable news network.

A Future of Continued Turmoil

Significantly, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a independent unit. Such a move could be a relief to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a safe harbor. That arrangement could position CNN for yet another acquisition. The cycle continues.

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

“Both acquisition attempts would be harmful to the country, and both should be contested by anti-trust authorities,” Wu recently wrote.

The Core Issue and a Potential Solution

No matter the outcome regarding CNN, the underlying crisis remains.

“Our current system is a profoundly system hostile to democracy, but we ought not succumb to learned helplessness,” Pickard said. Policy decisions – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this profit-obsessed monster, and different policy decisions can tackle it.

Is this likely in an era where the head of the FCC will not confirm that the agency is independent? Overhaul is highly improbable now, but that should not imply it will never happen.

Policies that strengthen independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, subsidize public media, and outlaw the accumulation of media power in very few hands are achievable – they are necessary for a healthy democracy.

When it comes to media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations including CNN cannot be pieces in the most recent merger game.