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Late Thursday, amid swirling speculation about the Brown University gunman, the network's Kaitlan Collins posted on 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 rang true for a lot of people. It remains one of the organizations where there exists fact-based and largely trustworthy reporting – especially during breaking news situations such as the one unfolding close to a New Hampshire storage facility.

An Uncertain State Amid a Corporate Tug-of-War

However CNN, now 45 years old, finds itself in a precarious state as two massive media corporations battle over ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.

Whatever the outcome, the destiny of CNN has become part of a major game of corporate ownership, rather than as a question of what serves the news-consuming public.

“This represents another instance of the profound systemic issues with origins in decades of policy decisions,” said Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Penn.

The debate about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – overlooks a larger 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 Complicating Layer: Political Influence

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

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

Trump now claims that the network requires new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will protect him from negative coverage and examination. That is part of why he appears to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.

Trump has reason to favor that company 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 installed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that storied news network.

A Future of Further Instability

Notably, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a independent unit. That would be a relief to many at the network, but it’s far from a secure position. That setup could set up CNN for yet another acquisition. It never ends.

According to Timothy Wu, much of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance recently argued that anti-trust laws should disallow both deals.

“Either merger would be harmful to the country, and both should be contested by regulators,” Wu recently wrote.

The Fundamental Problem and a Path Forward

Whatever happens with this particular battle, the underlying crisis remains.

“What we have now is a highly structure that undermines democracy, but we shouldn’t give in to the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard emphasized. Policy decisions – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this hyper-commercialized monster, and new policy decisions can tackle it.

Is this likely in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Change is a distant prospect now, but that doesn’t mean it will be impossible forever.

Policies that support independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, fund public media, and outlaw the concentration of media power in very few hands are achievable – they are vital for a healthy democracy.

Regarding media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations like CNN cannot be tools in the latest merger game.