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

Even though CNN is certainly not a perfect news source, her message seemed accurate for numerous observers. It is one of the outlets where one can locate fact-based and generally dependable reporting – notably during breaking news situations such as the one taking place in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.

A Precarious Situation Amid a Corporate Battle

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

Regardless of who wins, the fate of CNN has been drawn into a high-risk game of corporate ownership, not as a question of what helps the information-seeking public.

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

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

“It gets presented as a business story with influential figures as the main characters, but there is very little discussion of the public interest,” Pickard added.

A Further Factor: The Former President

The network's predicament is made more complex by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his main “fake news” foe.

Think back to the cries of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his administration's retaliatory revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in White House briefings.

Trump now claims that CNN needs new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will insulate him from journalistic oversight. That is part of why he seems to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.

Trump has reason to like that bidder more. For one thing, it is controlled by David Ellison, son of the pro-Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.

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

An Outcome of More Turmoil

Notably, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a independent unit. Such a move could be a relief to many at the network, but it’s far from a guarantee of stability. That structure could set up CNN for another sale. It never ends.

According to Timothy Wu, a lot of this is against the law, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that competition laws should disallow both deals.

“Either merger would be harmful to the country, and both should be opposed by regulators,” Wu stated.

The Bigger Issue and a Path Forward

No matter the outcome in this situation, the underlying crisis remains.

“What we have now is a highly system hostile to democracy, but we must resist a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard said. Government actions – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this overly commercial monster, and new policy decisions can fix it.

Will that happen in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Reform is very unlikely now, but that is not to say it will never happen.

Policies that strengthen independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, subsidize public media, and outlaw the consolidation of media power in a handful of hands are not only possible – they are necessary for a healthy democracy.

In the world of media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations like CNN cannot be pieces in the latest corporate chess match.