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Late Thursday, while unconfirmed reports spread regarding an incident at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins took to social media, noting the confusion and pointing viewers to her network’s 9pm newscast.

While it is by no means a impeccable news source, her statement rang true to many. It is one of the organizations where you can find grounded and largely dependable reporting – particularly during breaking news situations such as the one developing near a New Hampshire storage facility.

A Vulnerable Situation During a Corporate Tug-of-War

But the news network, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a uncertain position as two huge media empires battle over ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.

Whatever the outcome, the future of CNN has turned into a high-stakes game of business acquisition, not as a question of what serves the news-consuming public.

“This is yet another example of the fundamental flaws with origins in decades of policy decisions,” stated Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

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

“It gets presented as a business story with influential figures as the central actors, but there is hardly any discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard said.

The Complicating Element: Donald Trump

The CNN scenario is complicated by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his chief “fake news” foe.

Think back to the chants of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his team's disciplinary revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in White House briefings.

Trump now says that the network requires new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will insulate him from negative coverage and examination. That is a factor in why he seems to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.

He has grounds to like 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.

The company, parent 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.

An Outcome of Continued Uncertainty

Significantly, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a standalone company. That would be a relief to many at the network, but it’s hardly a guarantee of stability. That arrangement could set up CNN for a future sale. It never ends.

According to Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is against the law, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance stated that anti-trust laws should disallow both deals.

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

The Core Problem and a Way Ahead

Regardless of the resolution with this particular battle, the underlying crisis persists.

“What we have now is a highly anti-democratic system, but we shouldn’t give in to learned helplessness,” Pickard said. Regulatory choices – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this overly commercial monster, and different policy decisions can fix it.

Will that happen in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair will not confirm that the agency is independent? Overhaul is highly improbable now, but that should not imply it will never happen.

Measures that strengthen independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, subsidize public media, and outlaw the consolidation of media power in very few hands are achievable – they are vital for a robust democracy.

Regarding media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations such as CNN cannot be tools in the newest corporate chess match.