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This past Thursday night, amid swirling speculation regarding an incident at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins took to social media, noting the confusion and guiding the public to her network’s 9pm newscast.

Although CNN is certainly not a perfect news source, her statement rang true for a lot of people. It stands as one of the outlets where one can locate reality-based and largely reliable reporting – notably during crises such as the one taking place in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.

An Uncertain Situation During a Corporate Tug-of-War

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

Whatever the outcome, the destiny of CNN has been drawn into a high-stakes game of mergers and acquisitions, rather than as a question of what serves the information-seeking public.

“This represents another instance of the profound systemic issues with roots in decades of governmental choices,” said Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a academic specializing in media policy at the Penn.

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

“It gets presented as a financial tale with powerful individuals as the central actors, but there is hardly any discussion of the public interest,” Pickard said.

The Complicating Layer: Donald Trump

This situation is complicated by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his primary “fake news” adversary.

Recall the chants of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his administration's retaliatory withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in White House briefings.

Trump now asserts that the network requires new ownership. Many see this as a desire for ownership that will protect him from criticism and scrutiny. That is part of why he appears to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.

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

The company, parent of CBS News, also recently appointed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that storied news network.

A Possibility of More Uncertainty

Significantly, if Netflix is successful, 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 far from a secure position. That structure could set up CNN for yet another acquisition. The cycle continues.

In the view of Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is against the law, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance recently argued that anti-trust laws should prohibit both deals.

“Both acquisition attempts would be detrimental to the country, and both should be contested by regulators,” Wu recently wrote.

The Bigger Issue and a Potential Solution

Whatever happens regarding CNN, the bigger problem remains.

“Our current system is a very structure that undermines democracy, but we must resist the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard emphasized. Regulatory choices – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this hyper-commercialized monster, and different policy decisions can fix it.

Can reform occur in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Change is very unlikely now, but that should not imply it will never happen.

Initiatives that strengthen independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, subsidize public media, and prevent the consolidation of media power in a handful of hands are within reach – they are necessary for a healthy democracy.

When it comes to media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations including CNN cannot be pawns in the most recent corporate chess match.