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On Thursday evening, while unconfirmed reports spread about the Brown University gunman, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins used social media, highlighting the uncertainty and directing people to her channel's 9pm newscast.

Although the network is hardly a flawless news source, her words resonated to many. It remains one of the outlets where one can locate grounded and largely reliable reporting – notably during fast-moving events such as the one developing near a New Hampshire storage facility.

A Precarious Position Amid a High-Stakes Struggle

But the news network, now 45 years old, finds itself in a precarious position as two massive media empires vie for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.

No matter the result, the future of CNN has turned into a major game of mergers and acquisitions, not as a question of what serves the information-seeking public.

“This represents another instance of the fundamental flaws with roots in decades of regulatory actions,” said Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

The debate about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a more important point.

“It is often framed as a corporate drama with key players as the main characters, but there is scant discussion of the common good,” Pickard added.

The Additional Layer: Donald Trump

This situation is made more complex by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his main “fake news” adversary.

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

Trump now asserts that the network requires new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will insulate him from criticism and scrutiny. That is part of why he appears to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.

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

Paramount, 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.

An Outcome of Continued Instability

Notably, if Netflix wins, 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 guarantee of stability. That structure could pave the way for CNN for yet another acquisition. It never ends.

In the view of Timothy Wu, a lot of this is illegal, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that competition laws should block both deals.

“Either merger would be detrimental to the country, and both should be contested by anti-trust authorities,” Wu argued.

The Bigger Issue and a Way Ahead

Regardless of the resolution with this particular battle, the bigger problem remains.

“What we have now is a very anti-democratic system, but we must resist learned helplessness,” Pickard said. Government actions – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this overly commercial monster, and new policy decisions can tackle it.

Is this likely in an era where the head of the FCC will not confirm that the agency is independent? Overhaul is a distant prospect now, but that should not imply it will be impossible forever.

Measures that support independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, subsidize public media, and outlaw the concentration of media power in too few hands are achievable – they are essential for a healthy 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.