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This past Thursday night, while unconfirmed reports spread concerning the Brown University gunman, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins took to social media, highlighting the uncertainty and pointing viewers to her network’s 9pm newscast.

Even though the network is hardly a flawless news source, her message seemed accurate for a lot of people. It is one of the organizations where one can locate grounded and largely reliable reporting – notably during breaking news situations such as the one developing close to a New Hampshire storage facility.

A Vulnerable Situation Amid a Corporate Struggle

However the news network, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a precarious position as two huge media empires compete for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.

Whatever the outcome, the destiny of CNN has been drawn into a major game of corporate ownership, not as a question of what benefits the news-consuming public.

“Here is one more case of the fundamental flaws with origins in decades of policy decisions,” stated Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the Penn.

The debate about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – overlooks a broader point.

“It gets presented as a corporate drama with key players as the protagonists, but there is very little discussion of the common good,” Pickard explained.

The Additional Factor: Political Influence

The CNN scenario is further muddied by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his main “fake news” antagonist.

Think back to the cries of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his team's disciplinary withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in press briefings.

Trump now asserts that CNN needs new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will shield him from journalistic oversight. That is part of why he appears to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.

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

Paramount, parent of CBS News, also recently installed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that historic news network.

An Outcome of Further Turmoil

Significantly, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a separate entity. Such a move could be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s hardly a secure position. That setup could position CNN for a future sale. It never ends.

If you ask Timothy Wu, a lot of this is illegal, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance recently argued that competition laws should disallow both deals.

“Each proposed deal would be harmful to the country, and both should be challenged by the government,” Wu argued.

The Fundamental Issue and a Path Forward

Whatever happens with this particular battle, the bigger problem persists.

“The present media landscape is a highly structure that undermines democracy, but we shouldn’t give in to the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard said. Regulatory choices – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this overly commercial monster, and different policy decisions can tackle it.

Can reform occur in an era where the top communications regulator refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Reform is highly improbable now, but that is not to say it will not happen in the future.

Initiatives that strengthen independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, finance public media, and prohibit the accumulation of media power in very few hands are within reach – they are vital for a robust democracy.

In the world of media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations such as CNN must not be tools in the latest acquisition battle.