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On Thursday evening, as rumors swirled regarding a shooting at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins used social media, pointing out the conflicting information and pointing viewers to her network’s 9pm newscast.

While CNN is certainly not a perfect news source, her statement seemed accurate for a lot of people. It remains one of the organizations where you can find reality-based and largely trustworthy reporting – especially during fast-moving events such as the one developing near a New Hampshire storage facility.

A Vulnerable State During a Business Struggle

But CNN, now 45 years old, finds itself in a precarious state as two huge media empires compete for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.

Regardless of who wins, the destiny of CNN has turned into a high-stakes game of mergers and acquisitions, not as a question of what serves the news-consuming public.

“This is yet another example of the profound systemic issues with origins in decades of policy decisions,” stated Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a academic specializing in media policy at the University of Pennsylvania.

The speculation about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – overlooks a more important point.

“It gets presented as a business story with key players as the main characters, but there is scant discussion of the public interest,” Pickard said.

The Additional Element: Donald Trump

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

Remember the cries of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his team's disciplinary revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his sparring with Collins in press briefings.

Trump now asserts that the network requires new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will protect him from journalistic oversight. That is part of why he seems to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.

Trump has reason 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 installed the conservative Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that historic news network.

A Future of More Turmoil

Significantly, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a independent unit. Such a move could be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s hardly a secure position. That setup could set up CNN for another sale. It never ends.

According to Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance recently argued that anti-trust laws should prohibit both deals.

“Both acquisition attempts would be bad for the country, and both should be opposed by anti-trust authorities,” Wu recently wrote.

The Core Problem and a Path Forward

Regardless of the resolution regarding CNN, the bigger problem endures.

“What we have now is a highly system hostile to democracy, but we must resist the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard said. Regulatory choices – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this profit-obsessed monster, and revised policy decisions can tackle it.

Is this likely in an era where the head of the FCC won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Change is a distant prospect now, but that doesn’t mean it will never happen.

Policies that support independent news organizations, aid local journalism, subsidize public media, and prohibit the concentration of media power in a handful of hands are within reach – they are vital for a robust democracy.

When it comes to media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations such as CNN shouldn’t be tools in the newest corporate chess match.