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

While CNN is certainly not a perfect news source, her message rang true to many. It is one of the outlets where you can find grounded and largely reliable reporting – notably during breaking news situations like the one unfolding near a New Hampshire storage facility.

A Vulnerable Position Amid a Business Battle

Yet CNN, now middle-aged, finds itself in a uncertain position as two huge media empires battle over ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.

No matter the result, the future of CNN has turned into a high-stakes game of business acquisition, rather than as a question of what serves the information-seeking public.

“This is yet another example of the deep structural problems with roots in many years of governmental choices,” stated Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Pennsylvania University.

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

“It is often framed as a corporate drama with key players as the central actors, but there is hardly any discussion of the common good,” Pickard added.

A Further Layer: Donald Trump

The CNN scenario is made more complex by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his chief “fake news” antagonist.

Think back to the cries of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his administration's retaliatory suspension of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in official meetings.

Trump now asserts that CNN needs new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will protect him from journalistic oversight. That is one reason why he seems to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.

He has grounds to like that company more. For one thing, it is run by David Ellison, son of the Trump-friendly Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.

Paramount, parent of CBS News, also recently installed the conservative Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that venerable news network.

A Possibility of Further Instability

It is important to note, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a separate entity. Such a move could be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a safe harbor. That arrangement could set up CNN for a future sale. There is no finish line.

According to Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is illegal, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance recently argued that competition laws should disallow both deals.

“Either merger would be bad for the country, and both should be contested by anti-trust authorities,” Wu stated.

The Core Problem and a Path Forward

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

“Our current system is a profoundly structure that undermines democracy, but we must resist the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard said. Policy decisions – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this overly commercial monster, and different policy decisions can fix it.

Will that happen in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Change is a distant prospect now, but that should not imply it will be impossible forever.

Policies that strengthen independent news organizations, aid local journalism, subsidize public media, and outlaw the accumulation of media power in a handful of hands are not only possible – they are essential for a functioning democracy.

Regarding media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations like CNN cannot be tools in the newest corporate chess match.