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This past Thursday night, as rumors swirled about an incident at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, pointing out the conflicting information and directing people to her channel's 9pm newscast.

Even though the network is hardly a perfect news source, her message rang true for a lot of people. It stands as one of the broadcasters where you can find fact-based and largely dependable reporting – especially during fast-moving events like the one developing near a New Hampshire storage facility.

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

However CNN, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a precarious position as two giant media conglomerates compete for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.

Whatever the outcome, the fate of CNN has turned into a major game of mergers and acquisitions, rather than as a question of what benefits the information-seeking public.

“Here is one more case of the deep structural problems with roots in many years of regulatory actions,” stated Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Penn.

The conjecture 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 business story with influential figures as the protagonists, but there is very little discussion of the public interest,” Pickard added.

The Additional Layer: Political Influence

The network's predicament is made more complex by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his main “fake news” adversary.

Recall the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his administration’s punitive revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in official meetings.

Trump now says that the network requires new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will protect him from negative coverage and examination. That is one reason why he seems to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.

There is a basis to prefer that bidder more. For one thing, it is led by David Ellison, son of the pro-Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.

Paramount, owner of CBS News, also recently appointed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that storied news network.

A Future of Further Turmoil

It is important to note, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a standalone company. This might be a relief to many at the network, but it’s far from a safe harbor. That structure could set up CNN for another sale. There is no finish line.

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

“Either merger would be harmful to the country, and both should be challenged by anti-trust authorities,” Wu recently wrote.

The Core Issue and a Path Forward

No matter the outcome in this situation, the underlying crisis remains.

“Our current system is a profoundly anti-democratic system, but we must resist a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard emphasized. Regulatory choices – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this hyper-commercialized monster, and different policy decisions can tackle it.

Can reform occur in an era where the head of the FCC won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Overhaul is a distant prospect now, but that doesn’t mean it will not happen in the future.

Initiatives that support independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, finance public media, and prohibit the accumulation of media power in a handful of hands are within reach – they are necessary for a robust democracy.

When it comes to media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations like CNN must not be pawns in the newest merger game.