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Late Thursday, as rumors swirled concerning the Brown University gunman, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins used social media, pointing out the conflicting information and pointing viewers to her network’s 9pm newscast.

While CNN is certainly not a perfect news source, her statement resonated for a lot of people. It is one of the outlets where there exists fact-based and mostly dependable reporting – notably during breaking news situations such as the one developing close to a New Hampshire storage facility.

A Vulnerable Situation Amid a Corporate Tug-of-War

Yet the news network, now 45 years old, finds itself in a uncertain situation as two huge media corporations compete for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.

No matter the result, the fate of CNN has been drawn into a high-risk game of business acquisition, instead of as a question of what benefits the news-consuming public.

“This represents another instance of the fundamental flaws with roots in decades of policy decisions,” stated Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a academic specializing in media policy at the Pennsylvania University.

The debate about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a broader point.

“The narrative is crafted as a financial tale with key players as the protagonists, but there is scant discussion of the common good,” Pickard added.

The Additional Element: Donald Trump

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.

Think back to the cries of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his team's disciplinary revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in White House briefings.

Trump now asserts that CNN needs new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will insulate him from journalistic oversight. That is one reason why he seems to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.

There is a basis to like that suitor 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 placed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that venerable news network.

A Possibility of Continued Instability

Significantly, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a standalone company. Such a move could be a relief to many at the network, but it’s far from a guarantee of stability. That arrangement could position CNN for yet another acquisition. The cycle continues.

In the view of Timothy Wu, a lot of this is illegal, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance recently argued that competition laws should prohibit both deals.

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

The Bigger Issue 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 ought not succumb to the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard noted. Regulatory choices – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this profit-obsessed monster, and revised policy decisions can address it.

Will that happen in an era where the top communications regulator refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Reform is very unlikely now, but that doesn’t mean it will never happen.

Measures that bolster independent news organizations, aid local journalism, fund public media, and outlaw the accumulation of media power in a handful of hands are achievable – they are necessary for a healthy democracy.

Regarding media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations including CNN must not be tools in the most recent acquisition battle.