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Late Thursday, amid swirling speculation about the Brown University gunman, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins took to social media, highlighting the uncertainty and guiding the public to her channel's 9pm newscast.

While the network is hardly a flawless news source, her statement seemed accurate for a lot of people. It remains one of the broadcasters where you can find grounded and largely dependable reporting – especially during breaking news situations like the one unfolding close to a New Hampshire storage facility.

An Uncertain State During a Corporate Tug-of-War

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

No matter the result, the destiny of CNN has been drawn into a high-risk game of mergers and acquisitions, rather than as a question of what serves the news-consuming public.

“This is yet another example of the fundamental flaws with origins in many years of policy decisions,” said Victor Pickard, writer 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 – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a larger point.

“It gets presented as a financial tale with influential figures as the protagonists, but there is very little discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard explained.

A Further Factor: The Former President

The CNN scenario is further muddied by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his primary “fake news” foe.

Think back to the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his team's disciplinary suspension of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his sparring with Collins in press briefings.

Trump now asserts that CNN needs new ownership. Many see this as a desire for ownership that will shield him from criticism and scrutiny. That is one reason why he seems to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.

He has grounds to like that suitor more. For one thing, it is led by David Ellison, son of the Trump-friendly 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 historic news network.

A Possibility of More Turmoil

It is important to note, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a standalone company. This might be a relief to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a safe harbor. That setup could pave the way for CNN for yet another acquisition. The cycle continues.

If you ask Timothy Wu, a lot of this is against the law, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance stated that anti-trust laws should disallow both deals.

“Both acquisition attempts would be bad for the country, and both should be challenged by the government,” Wu recently wrote.

The Core Issue and a Way Ahead

Whatever happens regarding CNN, the underlying crisis endures.

“The present media landscape is a very anti-democratic system, but we must resist a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard said. Regulatory choices – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this hyper-commercialized monster, and revised policy decisions can fix it.

Will that happen in an era where the head of the FCC won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Change is very unlikely now, but that is not to say it will never happen.

Policies that bolster independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, finance public media, and outlaw the accumulation of media power in too few hands are not only possible – they are vital for a robust democracy.

Regarding media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations such as CNN cannot be pawns in the latest corporate chess match.