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

Although CNN is certainly not a perfect news source, her words rang true to many. It remains one of the broadcasters where you can find fact-based and mostly reliable reporting – notably during fast-moving events such as the one unfolding in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.

An Uncertain State Amid a Business Struggle

But the news network, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a uncertain state as two giant media empires vie for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.

Regardless of who wins, the destiny of CNN has been drawn into a high-risk game of corporate ownership, rather than as a question of what benefits the information-seeking public.

“This represents another instance of the profound systemic issues with roots in decades of governmental choices,” noted Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

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

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

A Further Layer: The Former President

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

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

Trump now says that CNN needs new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will protect him from negative coverage and examination. That is part of why he seems to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.

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

A Possibility of Further Turmoil

Significantly, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a independent unit. Such a move could be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a guarantee of stability. That structure could pave the way for CNN for another sale. It never ends.

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

“Each proposed deal would be bad for the country, and both should be contested by the government,” Wu recently wrote.

The Core Problem and a Path Forward

No matter the outcome in this situation, the bigger problem endures.

“Our current system is a highly anti-democratic system, but we shouldn’t give in to learned helplessness,” Pickard noted. Policy decisions – originating in 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 Federal Communications Commission chair 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.

Measures that support independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, fund public media, and prevent the consolidation of media power in very few hands are achievable – they are vital for a functioning democracy.

When it comes to media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations such as CNN cannot be tools in the newest acquisition battle.