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This past Thursday night, while unconfirmed reports spread concerning an incident at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins used social media, noting the confusion and guiding the public to her channel's 9pm newscast.

Even though the network is hardly a perfect news source, her words rang true for numerous observers. It remains one of the outlets where you can find reality-based and generally dependable reporting – especially during fast-moving events like the one taking place in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.

An Uncertain State Amid a High-Stakes Battle

Yet CNN, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a vulnerable situation as two huge media empires battle over ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.

Whatever the outcome, the fate of CNN has turned into a high-risk game of mergers and acquisitions, rather than as a question of what helps the information-seeking public.

“This represents another instance of the deep structural problems with origins in decades of policy decisions,” said Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the Pennsylvania University.

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

“The narrative is crafted as a business story with key players as the protagonists, but there is very little discussion of the public interest,” Pickard said.

A Further Layer: The Former President

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

Recall the cries of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his administration’s punitive 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 criticism and scrutiny. That is a factor in why he seems to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.

Trump has reason to favor that suitor more. For one thing, it is run 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 conservative Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that venerable news network.

A Future of Further Instability

Significantly, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a separate entity. That would be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a secure position. That arrangement could pave the way for CNN for yet another acquisition. It never ends.

According to Timothy Wu, much of this is illegal, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance recently argued that competition laws should block both deals.

“Both acquisition attempts would be bad for the country, and both should be challenged by anti-trust authorities,” Wu recently wrote.

The Bigger Problem and a Potential Solution

Regardless of the resolution in this situation, the larger issue endures.

“The present media landscape is a very structure that undermines democracy, but we must resist the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard emphasized. Policy decisions – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this profit-obsessed monster, and new policy decisions can address it.

Can reform occur in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Reform is highly improbable now, but that is not to say it will never happen.

Measures that bolster independent news organizations, aid local journalism, finance public media, and outlaw the accumulation of media power in too few hands are achievable – they are vital for a functioning democracy.

Regarding media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations such as CNN must not be tools in the latest merger game.