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On Thursday evening, while unconfirmed reports spread regarding an incident at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins used social media, highlighting the uncertainty and guiding the public to her network’s 9pm newscast.

Although the network is hardly a perfect news source, her words seemed accurate to many. It stands as one of the outlets where one can locate grounded and generally trustworthy reporting – particularly during crises like the one developing close to a New Hampshire storage facility.

A Vulnerable State During a Corporate Tug-of-War

But the news network, now 45 years old, finds itself in a precarious situation as two giant media empires compete for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.

Whatever the outcome, the fate of CNN has been drawn into a high-risk game of business acquisition, rather than as a question of what helps the information-seeking public.

“Here is one more case of the fundamental flaws with origins in many years of policy decisions,” noted Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Penn.

The debate about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – overlooks a broader point.

“It gets presented as a business story with powerful individuals as the central actors, but there is very little discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard added.

The Additional Factor: The Former President

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

Think back to the shouts 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 claims that CNN needs new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will insulate him from journalistic oversight. That is one reason why he appears to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.

There is a basis to prefer that bidder more. For one thing, it is controlled by David Ellison, son of the Trump-friendly 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 lead editor of that historic news network.

A Possibility of Continued Uncertainty

Significantly, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a independent unit. This might be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s hardly a guarantee of stability. That structure could set up CNN for another sale. It never ends.

If you ask Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that anti-trust laws should prohibit both deals.

“Each proposed deal would be bad for the country, and both should be opposed by anti-trust authorities,” Wu argued.

The Fundamental Issue and a Path Forward

Regardless of the resolution in this situation, the underlying crisis remains.

“The present media landscape is a very structure that undermines democracy, but we must resist the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard noted. Regulatory choices – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this profit-obsessed monster, and new policy decisions can fix it.

Is this likely in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair will not confirm that the agency is independent? Reform is very unlikely now, but that should not imply it will never happen.

Measures that bolster independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, subsidize public media, and prohibit the concentration of media power in too few hands are achievable – they are necessary for a healthy democracy.

Regarding media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations including CNN must not be pieces in the latest merger game.