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Late Thursday, as rumors swirled about the Brown University gunman, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins used social media, pointing out the conflicting information and directing people to her channel's 9pm newscast.

Although the network is hardly a impeccable news source, her statement resonated to many. It is one of the organizations where there exists fact-based and largely dependable reporting – notably during breaking news situations such as the one unfolding in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.

A Precarious State Amid a Business Struggle

However CNN, now 45 years old, finds itself in a uncertain position as two massive media corporations compete for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.

Regardless of who wins, the future of CNN has turned into a major game of mergers and acquisitions, rather than as a question of what helps the news-consuming public.

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

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

“It is often framed as a business story with powerful individuals as the main characters, but there is hardly any discussion of the common good,” Pickard added.

The Complicating Element: 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 chief “fake news” foe.

Remember the cries of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his administration’s punitive withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his sparring with Collins in White House briefings.

Trump now asserts that the network requires new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will shield him from criticism and scrutiny. That is a factor in why he seems to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.

There is a basis to prefer that suitor more. For one thing, it is run by David Ellison, son of the ally of Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.

The company, parent of CBS News, also recently installed the conservative Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that storied news network.

A Possibility of More Uncertainty

Significantly, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a independent unit. That would be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s far from a guarantee of stability. That arrangement could set up 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 disallow both deals.

“Both acquisition attempts would be bad for the country, and both should be challenged by the government,” Wu recently wrote.

The Fundamental Problem and a Path Forward

No matter the outcome in this situation, the larger issue persists.

“What we have now is a profoundly structure that undermines democracy, but we must resist a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard noted. Policy decisions – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this profit-obsessed monster, and revised policy decisions can tackle it.

Can reform occur in an era where the head of the FCC refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Change is highly improbable now, but that should not imply it will not happen in the future.

Policies that strengthen independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, fund public media, and prevent the consolidation of media power in too few hands are within reach – they are essential for a healthy democracy.

In the world of media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations like CNN shouldn’t be pieces in the latest merger game.