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This past Thursday night, as rumors swirled regarding the Brown University gunman, the network's Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, highlighting the uncertainty and directing people to her network’s 9pm newscast.

While the network is hardly a impeccable news source, her words rang true for numerous observers. It remains one of the outlets where you can find fact-based and largely reliable reporting – especially during breaking news situations such as the one developing close to a New Hampshire storage facility.

A Vulnerable Position During a Business Struggle

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

Regardless of who wins, the destiny of CNN has been drawn into a high-stakes game of mergers and acquisitions, rather than as a question of what helps the news-consuming public.

“This represents another instance of the profound systemic issues with roots in decades of governmental choices,” stated Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a academic specializing in media policy at the Pennsylvania University.

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

“It gets presented as a corporate drama with key players as the central actors, but there is very little discussion of the public interest,” Pickard added.

The Additional Layer: Political Influence

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

Recall the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his administration’s punitive revocation 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 part of why he seems to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.

There is a basis to like that suitor more. For one thing, it is controlled by David Ellison, son of the pro-Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.

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

An Outcome of More Turmoil

Notably, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a separate entity. That would be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s hardly a secure position. That structure could position CNN for another sale. The cycle continues.

If you ask Timothy Wu, a lot of this is illegal, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance stated that competition laws should prohibit both deals.

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

The Core Problem and a Path Forward

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

“Our current system is a very system hostile to democracy, but we must resist a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard said. Government actions – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this overly commercial monster, and different policy decisions can fix it.

Can reform occur in an era where the head of the FCC won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Reform is very unlikely now, but that is not to say it will be impossible forever.

Policies that strengthen independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, subsidize public media, and prevent the concentration of media power in too few hands are achievable – they are necessary for a robust democracy.

Regarding media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations such as CNN shouldn’t be pawns in the newest acquisition battle.