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This past Thursday night, while unconfirmed reports spread concerning an incident at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins used social media, highlighting the uncertainty and pointing viewers to her network’s 9pm newscast.

While it is by no means a perfect news source, her statement seemed accurate to many. It remains one of the outlets where there exists fact-based and generally trustworthy reporting – particularly during breaking news situations like the one unfolding near a New Hampshire storage facility.

An Uncertain Position Amid a Corporate Battle

However the news network, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a vulnerable position as two massive media empires compete for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.

Regardless of who wins, the future of CNN has been drawn into a major game of business acquisition, rather than as a question of what helps the information-seeking public.

“Here is one more case of the profound systemic issues with roots in many years of regulatory actions,” noted Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the Penn.

The speculation about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a larger point.

“It is often framed as a business story with key players as the main characters, but there is very little discussion of the public interest,” Pickard said.

The Additional Element: The Former President

The network's predicament is made more complex by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his primary “fake news” adversary.

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 tense exchanges with Collins in White House briefings.

Trump now asserts that the network requires new ownership. Many see this as a desire for ownership that will shield him from negative coverage and examination. That is one reason why he appears to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.

He has grounds to favor 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.

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

An Outcome of Further Uncertainty

Significantly, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a independent unit. Such a move could be a relief to many at the network, but it’s hardly a guarantee of stability. That setup could set up CNN for another sale. It never ends.

According to Timothy Wu, a lot of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that competition laws should block 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

No matter the outcome regarding CNN, the bigger problem remains.

“Our current system is a profoundly anti-democratic system, but we must resist the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard emphasized. Government actions – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this hyper-commercialized monster, and new policy decisions can address it.

Will that happen in an era where the top communications regulator refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Reform is very unlikely now, but that is not to say it will be impossible forever.

Initiatives that support independent news organizations, aid local journalism, finance public media, and prohibit the concentration of media power in very few hands are not only possible – they are necessary for a functioning democracy.

In the world of media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations including CNN shouldn’t be pawns in the latest merger game.