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Late Thursday, amid swirling speculation regarding the Brown University gunman, the network's Kaitlan Collins took to 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 resonated to many. It remains one of the organizations where one can locate fact-based and generally trustworthy reporting – especially during breaking news situations such as the one developing close to a New Hampshire storage facility.

A Precarious State During a Business Battle

However the news network, now 45 years old, finds itself in a uncertain situation as two massive media empires vie for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.

Whatever the outcome, the fate of CNN has been drawn into a high-risk game of business acquisition, not as a question of what serves the news-consuming public.

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

The speculation about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a more important point.

“The narrative is crafted as a corporate drama with powerful individuals as the central actors, but there is hardly any discussion of the public interest,” Pickard said.

The Additional Element: Donald Trump

This situation is made more complex by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his main “fake news” antagonist.

Recall the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his administration’s punitive withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in White House briefings.

Trump now asserts that the network requires new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will protect him from journalistic oversight. That is one reason why he seems to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.

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

The company, owner of CBS News, also recently installed the conservative Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that historic news network.

A Possibility of More Instability

It is important to note, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a independent unit. Such a move could be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s far from a secure position. That structure could pave the way for CNN for yet another acquisition. It never ends.

In the view of Timothy Wu, a lot of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance stated that competition laws should block both deals.

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

The Fundamental Challenge and a Path Forward

Whatever happens with this particular battle, the larger issue persists.

“Our current system is a very structure that undermines democracy, but we must resist learned helplessness,” Pickard emphasized. Government actions – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this hyper-commercialized monster, and new policy decisions can address it.

Will that happen in an era where the head of the FCC won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Reform is highly improbable now, but that is not to say it will be impossible forever.

Initiatives that strengthen independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, fund public media, and prohibit the concentration of media power in a handful of hands are not only possible – they are vital for a functioning democracy.

In the world of media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations including CNN cannot be pawns in the latest acquisition battle.