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On Thursday evening, amid swirling speculation regarding a shooting at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, pointing out the conflicting information and guiding the public to her channel's 9pm newscast.

Although CNN is certainly not a impeccable news source, her statement rang true for a lot of people. It stands as one of the outlets where one can locate grounded and mostly dependable reporting – especially during fast-moving events such as the one unfolding close to a New Hampshire storage facility.

An Uncertain Situation Amid a High-Stakes Battle

But CNN, now middle-aged, finds itself in a vulnerable situation as two huge media corporations vie for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.

Regardless of who wins, the future of CNN has turned into a major game of mergers and acquisitions, instead of as a question of what benefits the news-consuming public.

“This is yet another example of the profound systemic issues with origins in many years of policy decisions,” noted Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the University of Pennsylvania.

The conjecture about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a more important point.

“It gets presented as a financial tale with powerful individuals as the central actors, but there is very little discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard explained.

The Additional Layer: The Former President

This situation is made more complex by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his primary “fake news” antagonist.

Remember the cries of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his administration’s punitive withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in press briefings.

Trump now claims that CNN needs new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will insulate him from journalistic oversight. 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 like that bidder more. For one thing, it is controlled by David Ellison, son of the pro-Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.

The company, owner of CBS News, also recently installed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that historic news network.

A Possibility of Continued Turmoil

It is important to note, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a standalone company. This might be a relief to many at the network, but it’s far from a safe harbor. That structure could pave the way for CNN for another sale. It never ends.

If you ask Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is illegal, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance recently argued that anti-trust laws should block both deals.

“Both acquisition attempts would be detrimental to the country, and both should be opposed by anti-trust authorities,” Wu recently wrote.

The Core Issue and a Path Forward

No matter the outcome in this situation, the underlying crisis endures.

“Our current system is a profoundly structure that undermines democracy, but we ought not succumb to the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard emphasized. Policy decisions – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this overly commercial monster, and revised policy decisions can address it.

Is this likely in an era where the head of the FCC won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Overhaul is very unlikely now, but that is not to say it will not happen in the future.

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

In the world of media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations like CNN cannot be pawns in the latest corporate chess match.