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Late Thursday, while unconfirmed reports spread about the Brown University gunman, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins took to social media, noting the confusion and guiding the public to her channel's 9pm newscast.

While CNN is certainly not a impeccable news source, her words seemed accurate to many. It stands as one of the outlets where you can find reality-based and mostly trustworthy reporting – especially during fast-moving events like the one developing near a New Hampshire storage facility.

A Vulnerable State Amid a High-Stakes Tug-of-War

But the news network, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a precarious position as two massive media corporations compete for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.

No matter the result, the fate of CNN has become part of a major game of corporate ownership, rather than as a question of what benefits the news-consuming public.

“This represents another instance of the deep structural problems with roots in decades of policy decisions,” noted Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a academic specializing in media policy at the Pennsylvania University.

The speculation about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – overlooks a larger point.

“It is often framed as a business story with influential figures as the main characters, but there is very little discussion of the public interest,” Pickard explained.

The Additional Layer: Donald Trump

The CNN scenario is made more complex by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his chief “fake news” foe.

Think back to the cries of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his administration’s punitive 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 shield him from negative coverage and examination. That is part of why he appears to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.

Trump has reason to prefer that company more. For one thing, it is led 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 conservative Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that historic news network.

A Future of Further Instability

Significantly, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a independent unit. That would be a relief to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a safe harbor. That structure could pave the way for CNN for yet another acquisition. It never ends.

If you ask Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is illegal, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that anti-trust laws should disallow both deals.

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

The Core Issue and a Path Forward

Whatever happens with this particular battle, the underlying crisis persists.

“What we have now is a highly structure that undermines democracy, but we shouldn’t give in to learned helplessness,” Pickard noted. Government actions – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this hyper-commercialized monster, and revised policy decisions can fix it.

Will that happen in an era where the head of the FCC will not confirm that the agency is independent? Change is a distant prospect now, but that should not imply it will be impossible forever.

Measures that support independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, fund public media, and prohibit the consolidation of media power in very few hands are within reach – they are vital for a robust democracy.

In the world of media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations including CNN shouldn’t be tools in the newest corporate chess match.