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This past Thursday night, while unconfirmed reports spread regarding the Brown University gunman, the network's Kaitlan Collins used social media, pointing out the conflicting information and pointing viewers to her network’s 9pm newscast.

Even though the network is hardly a impeccable news source, her words seemed accurate to many. It remains one of the broadcasters where you can find grounded and generally trustworthy reporting – particularly during crises such as the one developing close to a New Hampshire storage facility.

A Vulnerable Situation During a High-Stakes Tug-of-War

Yet the news network, now middle-aged, finds itself in a precarious state as two huge media empires battle over ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.

No matter the result, the future of CNN has turned into a high-stakes game of mergers and acquisitions, rather than as a question of what benefits the news-consuming public.

“Here is one more case of the deep structural problems with roots in many years of policy decisions,” said Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the University of Pennsylvania.

The debate about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a broader point.

“It gets presented as a corporate drama with influential figures as the central actors, but there is very little discussion of the common good,” Pickard said.

A Further Layer: Donald Trump

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

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

Trump now says that CNN needs new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will protect him from journalistic oversight. That is a factor in why he seems to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.

He has grounds to like that suitor more. For one thing, it is controlled 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 placed the conservative Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that storied news network.

A Possibility of Further Uncertainty

Significantly, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a independent unit. That would be a relief to many at the network, but it’s far from a secure position. That arrangement could pave the way for CNN for yet another acquisition. The cycle continues.

If you ask Timothy Wu, a lot of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance recently argued that anti-trust laws should disallow both deals.

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

The Fundamental Challenge and a Way Ahead

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

“The present media landscape is a highly anti-democratic system, but we must resist a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard emphasized. Regulatory choices – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this hyper-commercialized monster, and revised policy decisions can tackle it.

Will that happen in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Reform is a distant prospect now, but that doesn’t mean it will never happen.

Policies that support independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, subsidize public media, and prohibit the consolidation of media power in a handful of hands are within reach – they are vital for a healthy democracy.

In the world of media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations such as CNN cannot be pieces in the most recent merger game.