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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, noting the confusion and directing people to her channel's 9pm newscast.

While the network is hardly a impeccable news source, her statement resonated for a lot of people. It is one of the broadcasters where one can locate grounded and generally reliable reporting – especially during crises such as the one unfolding close to a New Hampshire storage facility.

A Precarious Situation During a Corporate Struggle

However CNN, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a vulnerable state as two giant media corporations vie for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.

No matter the result, the future of CNN has turned into a high-stakes game of mergers and acquisitions, not as a question of what serves the information-seeking public.

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

The debate about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a larger point.

“It gets presented as a financial tale with key players as the protagonists, but there is hardly any discussion of the common good,” Pickard explained.

The Additional Element: Political Influence

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

Recall the cries of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his team's disciplinary suspension of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his sparring with Collins in press briefings.

Trump now says that the network requires new ownership. Many see this as a desire for ownership that will protect him from negative coverage and examination. That is one reason why he seems to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.

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

The company, owner of CBS News, also recently placed the conservative Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that venerable news network.

A Possibility of Further Instability

Significantly, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a standalone company. Such a move could be a relief to many at the network, but it’s hardly a secure position. That arrangement could set up CNN for another sale. There is no finish line.

In the view of Timothy Wu, a lot of this is illegal, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that anti-trust laws should block both deals.

“Either merger would be bad for the country, and both should be contested by anti-trust authorities,” Wu recently wrote.

The Fundamental Problem and a Way Ahead

Whatever happens regarding CNN, the bigger problem persists.

“Our current system is a highly anti-democratic system, but we must resist a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard said. Policy decisions – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this profit-obsessed monster, and revised policy decisions can tackle it.

Is this likely in an era where the head of the FCC refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Overhaul is highly improbable now, but that should not imply it will not happen in the future.

Measures that support independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, subsidize public media, and prevent the consolidation of media power in too few hands are within reach – they are vital for a healthy democracy.

When it comes to media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations such as CNN shouldn’t be pieces in the latest corporate chess match.