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Late Thursday, while unconfirmed reports spread concerning a shooting at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, pointing out the conflicting information and pointing viewers to her network’s 9pm newscast.

While CNN is certainly not a perfect news source, her statement seemed accurate for a lot of people. It remains one of the organizations where there exists grounded and mostly dependable reporting – especially during crises such as the one developing near a New Hampshire storage facility.

A Vulnerable Position Amid a Corporate Tug-of-War

Yet CNN, now 45 years old, finds itself in a vulnerable state as two massive media corporations vie for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.

No matter the result, the future of CNN has been drawn into a high-risk game of business acquisition, instead of as a question of what helps the information-seeking public.

“This is yet another example of the deep structural problems with origins in decades of regulatory actions,” noted Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a academic specializing in media policy at the Pennsylvania University.

The debate about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a broader point.

“The narrative is crafted as a corporate drama with powerful individuals as the central actors, but there is hardly any discussion of the public interest,” Pickard added.

The Additional Factor: Donald Trump

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

Remember the chants of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his administration’s punitive revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in press briefings.

Trump now says that the network requires new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will shield him from journalistic oversight. That is part of why he appears to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.

There is a basis to favor 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 installed the right-leaning 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 prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a independent unit. Such a move could be a relief to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a safe harbor. That arrangement could pave the way for CNN for a future sale. The cycle continues.

According to Timothy Wu, much of this is against the law, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that anti-trust laws should prohibit both deals.

“Each proposed deal would be bad for the country, and both should be contested by anti-trust authorities,” Wu stated.

The Bigger Challenge and a Potential Solution

No matter the outcome in this situation, the larger issue remains.

“What we have now is a profoundly structure that undermines democracy, but we ought not succumb to learned helplessness,” Pickard emphasized. Government actions – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this overly commercial monster, and different policy decisions can address it.

Is this likely in an era where the top communications regulator won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Change is a distant prospect now, but that doesn’t mean it will be impossible forever.

Initiatives that strengthen independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, finance public media, and prohibit the concentration of media power in too few hands are within reach – they are essential for a healthy democracy.

In the world of media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations such as CNN cannot be pawns in the most recent corporate chess match.