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On Thursday evening, amid swirling speculation regarding an incident at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins took to social media, pointing out the conflicting information and directing people to her channel's 9pm newscast.

While the network is hardly a flawless news source, her message seemed accurate to many. It remains one of the organizations where you can find fact-based and mostly reliable reporting – especially during breaking news situations like the one developing in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.

An Uncertain Position During a Business Struggle

Yet CNN, now middle-aged, finds itself in a vulnerable situation as two huge media empires battle over ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.

No matter the result, the fate of CNN has become part of a major game of corporate ownership, rather than as a question of what benefits the news-consuming public.

“Here is one more case of the fundamental flaws with roots in many years of regulatory actions,” stated Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Penn.

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

“It gets presented as a financial tale with influential figures as the central actors, but there is scant discussion of the public interest,” Pickard said.

A Further Layer: Political Influence

The network's predicament is complicated by Donald Trump’s opinions 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 administration’s punitive suspension of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in press briefings.

Trump now asserts that CNN needs new ownership. Many see this as a desire for ownership that will protect him from criticism and scrutiny. That is one reason why he seems to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.

He has grounds to favor 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, owner of CBS News, also recently appointed the conservative Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that historic news network.

A Future of Continued Turmoil

Significantly, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a standalone company. Such a move could be a relief to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a secure position. That structure could pave the way for CNN for another sale. It never ends.

In the view of Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance stated that anti-trust laws should prohibit both deals.

“Either merger would be detrimental to the country, and both should be contested by regulators,” Wu argued.

The Bigger Problem and a Potential Solution

Regardless of the resolution with this particular battle, the underlying crisis endures.

“What we have now is a highly structure that undermines democracy, but we shouldn’t give in to learned helplessness,” Pickard said. Regulatory choices – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this hyper-commercialized monster, and revised policy decisions can tackle it.

Can reform occur in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Reform is a distant prospect now, but that should not imply it will never happen.

Policies that support independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, finance public media, and outlaw the concentration of media power in a handful of hands are not only possible – they are necessary for a functioning democracy.

In the world of media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations including CNN must not be pawns in the newest corporate chess match.