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On Thursday evening, while unconfirmed reports spread concerning an incident at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, noting the confusion and directing people to her network’s 9pm newscast.

Although the network is hardly a perfect news source, her words resonated for numerous observers. It remains one of the outlets where one can locate grounded and largely trustworthy reporting – especially during breaking news situations such as the one taking place close to a New Hampshire storage facility.

An Uncertain Position During a Corporate Tug-of-War

However the news network, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a vulnerable state as two huge media conglomerates vie for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.

Regardless of who wins, the destiny of CNN has become part of a high-risk game of corporate ownership, not as a question of what serves the information-seeking public.

“This represents another instance of the deep structural problems with roots in many years of governmental choices,” noted Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Pennsylvania University.

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

“The narrative is crafted as a corporate drama with influential figures as the protagonists, but there is hardly any discussion of the public interest,” Pickard explained.

A Further Factor: Donald Trump

The network's predicament is complicated by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his primary “fake news” adversary.

Think back to the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his administration’s punitive suspension of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in White House briefings.

Trump now says that the network requires new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will insulate him from journalistic oversight. That is a factor in why he appears to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.

He has grounds to favor 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 placed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that storied news network.

An Outcome of More Instability

Significantly, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a independent unit. That would be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a guarantee of stability. That structure could position CNN for a future sale. It never ends.

If you ask Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is against the law, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that competition laws should disallow both deals.

“Either merger would be harmful to the country, and both should be opposed by regulators,” Wu argued.

The Bigger Problem and a Path Forward

Whatever happens in this situation, the larger issue endures.

“What we have now is a profoundly anti-democratic system, but we must resist a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard emphasized. Policy decisions – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this hyper-commercialized monster, and different policy decisions can fix it.

Can reform occur in an era where the top communications regulator refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Overhaul is a distant prospect now, but that should not imply it will be impossible forever.

Initiatives that bolster independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, fund public media, and outlaw the concentration of media power in a handful of hands are not only possible – they are necessary for a robust democracy.

In the world of media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations like CNN must not be tools in the most recent corporate chess match.