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On Thursday evening, amid swirling speculation about an incident at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins used social media, noting the confusion and pointing viewers to her channel's 9pm newscast.

Although CNN is certainly not a impeccable news source, her message seemed accurate for a lot of people. It remains one of the organizations where you can find fact-based and mostly reliable reporting – particularly during crises such as the one unfolding near a New Hampshire storage facility.

An Uncertain Position Amid a Corporate Struggle

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

No matter the result, the destiny of CNN has turned into a high-stakes game of business acquisition, instead of as a question of what serves the news-consuming public.

“Here is one more case of the profound systemic issues with roots in decades of governmental choices,” noted Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Penn.

The conjecture about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – overlooks a more important point.

“It gets presented as a financial tale with powerful individuals as the protagonists, but there is hardly any discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard explained.

A Further Factor: Donald Trump

This situation is complicated by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his main “fake news” antagonist.

Remember 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. You can read that as ownership that will insulate him from criticism and scrutiny. That is a factor in why he appears to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.

There is a basis to favor that bidder more. For one thing, it is led 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 placed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that storied news network.

An Outcome of Further Uncertainty

Significantly, if Netflix is successful, 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 safe harbor. That setup could position CNN for yet another acquisition. It never ends.

If you ask Timothy Wu, a lot of this is illegal, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance stated that anti-trust laws should prohibit both deals.

“Either merger would be detrimental to the country, and both should be opposed by regulators,” Wu stated.

The Bigger Problem and a Path Forward

Whatever happens regarding CNN, the bigger problem persists.

“The present media landscape is a highly structure that undermines democracy, but we must resist learned helplessness,” Pickard emphasized. Policy decisions – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this hyper-commercialized monster, and revised policy decisions can tackle it.

Will that happen in an era where the top communications regulator will not confirm that the agency is independent? Overhaul is a distant prospect now, but that is not to say it will be impossible forever.

Initiatives that support independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, finance public media, and outlaw the concentration of media power in very few hands are achievable – they are vital for a robust democracy.

Regarding media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations including CNN must not be pawns in the latest acquisition battle.