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On Thursday evening, as rumors swirled about the Brown University gunman, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins took to social media, highlighting the uncertainty and directing people to her channel's 9pm newscast.

Although it is by no means a perfect news source, her message resonated to many. It is one of the outlets where there exists grounded and generally dependable reporting – especially during breaking news situations like the one developing in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.

A Vulnerable State Amid a Business Struggle

But CNN, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a uncertain position as two massive media empires battle over ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.

Whatever the outcome, the future of CNN has become part of a high-stakes game of corporate ownership, not as a question of what benefits the news-consuming public.

“This represents another instance of the fundamental flaws with roots in decades of policy decisions,” said Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the University of Pennsylvania.

The conjecture about which company will control 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 business story with influential figures as the main characters, but there is hardly any discussion of the common good,” Pickard added.

The Complicating Layer: Political Influence

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

Remember the cries of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his administration’s punitive withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in official meetings.

Trump now claims that the network requires new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will insulate him from negative coverage and examination. That is part of why he seems to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.

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

The company, owner of CBS News, also recently placed the conservative Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that historic news network.

An Outcome of Continued Instability

Significantly, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a separate entity. Such a move could be a relief to many at the network, but it’s far from a safe harbor. That setup could pave the way for CNN for another sale. It never ends.

In the view of Timothy Wu, much of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance stated that competition laws should prohibit both deals.

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

The Fundamental Issue and a Path Forward

Regardless of the resolution with this particular battle, the larger issue persists.

“The present media landscape is a profoundly structure that undermines democracy, but we shouldn’t give in to the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard noted. Policy decisions – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this profit-obsessed monster, and new policy decisions can fix it.

Is this likely in an era where the top communications regulator will not confirm that the agency is independent? Reform is highly improbable now, but that doesn’t mean it will never happen.

Measures that bolster independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, fund public media, and outlaw the accumulation of media power in too few hands are achievable – they are vital for a robust democracy.

In the world of media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations including CNN cannot be tools in the newest acquisition battle.