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Late Thursday, amid swirling speculation regarding a shooting at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, highlighting the uncertainty and guiding the public to her network’s 9pm newscast.

While CNN is certainly not a flawless news source, her words resonated for a lot of people. It stands as one of the organizations where one can locate reality-based and generally reliable reporting – especially during crises like the one unfolding in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.

A Precarious Position Amid a Business Tug-of-War

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

No matter the result, the future of CNN has been drawn into a high-stakes game of corporate ownership, instead of as a question of what helps the information-seeking public.

“This represents another instance of the deep structural problems with origins in decades of regulatory actions,” said Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Penn.

The debate about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a larger point.

“The narrative is crafted as a business story with powerful individuals as the main characters, but there is hardly any discussion of the common good,” Pickard said.

The Additional Layer: Donald Trump

The network's predicament is further muddied by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his chief “fake news” antagonist.

Think back to the cries of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his team's disciplinary revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his sparring with Collins in official meetings.

Trump now asserts that the network requires new ownership. Many see this as a desire for ownership that will insulate him from criticism and scrutiny. That is one reason why he appears to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.

Trump has reason to favor that company more. For one thing, it is controlled by David Ellison, son of the Trump-friendly Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.

Paramount, parent of CBS News, also recently appointed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that storied news network.

A Possibility of Further Instability

Significantly, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a standalone company. That would be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s hardly a secure position. That setup could pave the way for CNN for another sale. It never ends.

According to Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is against the law, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance stated that anti-trust laws should disallow both deals.

“Both acquisition attempts would be harmful to the country, and both should be contested by regulators,” Wu argued.

The Core Issue and a Path Forward

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

“Our current system is a profoundly anti-democratic system, but we shouldn’t give in to the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard emphasized. Government actions – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this overly commercial monster, and revised policy decisions can fix it.

Will that happen in an era where the top communications regulator will not confirm that the agency is independent? Reform is highly improbable now, but that should not imply it will not happen in the future.

Policies that strengthen independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, fund public media, and prevent the consolidation of media power in a handful of hands are achievable – they are necessary for a robust democracy.

When it comes to media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations such as CNN must not be pawns in the most recent corporate chess match.