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On Thursday evening, while unconfirmed reports spread about a shooting at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins took to social media, highlighting the uncertainty and guiding the public to her channel's 9pm newscast.

Even though it is by no means a perfect news source, her words seemed accurate to many. It remains one of the broadcasters where you can find reality-based and mostly reliable reporting – especially during fast-moving events like the one developing close to a New Hampshire storage facility.

A Vulnerable State Amid a Business Struggle

Yet the news network, now middle-aged, finds itself in a vulnerable situation as two huge media empires battle over ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.

Regardless of who wins, the fate of CNN has been drawn into a major game of business acquisition, rather than as a question of what helps the information-seeking public.

“Here is one more case of the fundamental flaws with origins in decades of governmental choices,” stated Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the University of Pennsylvania.

The debate about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a larger point.

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

A Further Factor: Political Influence

The CNN scenario is further muddied by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his main “fake news” adversary.

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

Trump now claims that the network requires new ownership. Many see this as a desire for ownership that will insulate him from negative coverage and examination. That is a factor in why he seems to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.

He has grounds to prefer that suitor 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, parent of CBS News, also recently appointed the conservative Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that venerable news network.

An Outcome of Continued Turmoil

Significantly, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a standalone company. Such a move could be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s far from a guarantee of stability. That structure could position CNN for another sale. There is no finish line.

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

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

The Bigger Challenge and a Way Ahead

Whatever happens with this particular battle, the larger issue remains.

“The present media landscape is a highly anti-democratic system, but we ought not succumb to learned helplessness,” Pickard said. Policy decisions – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this hyper-commercialized monster, and different policy decisions can tackle it.

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

Measures that support independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, subsidize public media, and prevent the concentration of media power in too few hands are achievable – they are necessary for a functioning democracy.

Regarding media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations like CNN cannot be pieces in the latest acquisition battle.