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Late Thursday, as rumors swirled concerning an incident at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins used social media, pointing out the conflicting information and guiding the public to her channel's 9pm newscast.

Although CNN is certainly not a perfect news source, her words seemed accurate for numerous observers. It stands as one of the organizations where you can find fact-based and mostly reliable reporting – especially during breaking news situations like the one developing close to a New Hampshire storage facility.

A Precarious State Amid a Corporate Struggle

Yet CNN, now 45 years old, finds itself in a vulnerable state as two giant media empires vie for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.

Whatever the outcome, the destiny of CNN has become part of a high-risk game of mergers and acquisitions, instead of as a question of what serves the news-consuming public.

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

The conjecture about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – overlooks a more important point.

“It gets presented as a business story with powerful individuals as the main characters, but there is very little discussion of the public interest,” Pickard added.

A Further Factor: The Former President

This situation is complicated by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his main “fake news” foe.

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

Trump now claims that CNN needs new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will protect him from negative coverage and examination. That is one reason why he seems to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.

He has grounds to prefer that company more. For one thing, it is led by David Ellison, son of the Trump-friendly Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.

Paramount, owner of CBS News, also recently appointed the conservative Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that venerable news network.

A Future of Continued Instability

It is important to note, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a separate entity. This might 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 yet another acquisition. The cycle continues.

According to Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is illegal, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that competition laws should disallow both deals.

“Either merger would be detrimental to the country, and both should be contested by the government,” Wu argued.

The Fundamental Problem and a Way Ahead

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

“Our current system is a highly structure that undermines democracy, but we ought not succumb to learned helplessness,” Pickard emphasized. Government actions – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this overly commercial monster, and new policy decisions can address it.

Is this likely in an era where the head of the FCC will not confirm that the agency is independent? Overhaul is very unlikely now, but that is not to say it will not happen in the future.

Measures that bolster independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, finance public media, and outlaw the concentration of media power in too few hands are within reach – they are vital for a healthy democracy.

In the world of media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations including CNN must not be pawns in the most recent acquisition battle.