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On Thursday evening, as rumors swirled regarding the Brown University gunman, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins used social media, pointing out the conflicting information and directing people 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 outlets where one can locate fact-based and mostly dependable reporting – notably during crises like the one taking place in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.

An Uncertain Situation Amid a High-Stakes Battle

Yet the news network, now 45 years old, finds itself in a precarious position as two huge media corporations vie for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.

No matter the result, the future of CNN has become part of a high-risk game of mergers and acquisitions, not as a question of what benefits the information-seeking public.

“This is yet another example of the fundamental flaws with origins in many years of policy decisions,” said Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a academic specializing in media policy at the Penn.

The debate about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a broader point.

“It gets presented as a financial tale with powerful individuals as the main characters, but there is hardly any discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard said.

The Complicating Element: Donald Trump

The network's predicament is further muddied by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his chief “fake news” foe.

Think back to the cries of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his administration's retaliatory revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in press 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 appears to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.

He has grounds to prefer that company more. For one thing, it is run by David Ellison, son of the pro-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 top editor of that historic news network.

An Outcome of Continued Instability

Significantly, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a standalone company. Such a move could be a relief to many at the network, but it’s hardly a secure position. That structure could position CNN for a future sale. It never ends.

In the view of Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is illegal, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance recently argued that competition laws should disallow both deals.

“Each proposed deal would be detrimental to the country, and both should be opposed by the government,” Wu stated.

The Core Challenge and a Path Forward

Regardless of the resolution regarding CNN, the bigger problem persists.

“What we have now is a very anti-democratic system, but we must resist learned helplessness,” Pickard said. Policy decisions – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this hyper-commercialized monster, and new policy decisions can address it.

Is this likely in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Reform is very unlikely now, but that doesn’t mean it will never happen.

Policies that support independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, fund public media, and outlaw the accumulation of media power in too few hands are achievable – they are essential for a functioning democracy.

When it comes to media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations such as CNN shouldn’t be pieces in the most recent acquisition battle.