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On Thursday evening, as rumors swirled about the Brown University gunman, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins took to social media, noting the confusion and pointing viewers to her network’s 9pm newscast.

Although CNN is certainly not a flawless news source, her words rang true for a lot of people. It remains one of the outlets where there exists reality-based and largely reliable reporting – notably during breaking news situations like the one developing near a New Hampshire storage facility.

A Precarious State During a High-Stakes Battle

However the news network, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a uncertain state as two massive media empires compete for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.

Whatever the outcome, the future of CNN has turned into a high-risk game of mergers and acquisitions, not as a question of what benefits the news-consuming public.

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

The debate about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a more important point.

“It gets presented as a corporate drama with powerful individuals as the main characters, but there is hardly any discussion of the public interest,” Pickard explained.

The Additional Element: Donald Trump

The CNN scenario is made more complex by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his primary “fake news” antagonist.

Recall the cries of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his team's disciplinary revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in press briefings.

Trump now asserts that the network requires new ownership. Many see this as a desire for ownership that will shield him from negative coverage and examination. That is a factor in why he seems to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.

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

The company, parent of CBS News, also recently installed the conservative Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that venerable news network.

A Possibility of Further Instability

It is important to note, if Netflix prevails, 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 hardly a safe harbor. That structure could set up CNN for another sale. The cycle continues.

In the view of Timothy Wu, a lot of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance stated that competition laws should prohibit both deals.

“Each proposed deal would be detrimental to the country, and both should be contested by regulators,” Wu recently wrote.

The Fundamental Problem and a Potential Solution

Whatever happens in this situation, the underlying crisis remains.

“What we have now is a highly structure that undermines democracy, but we must resist learned helplessness,” Pickard emphasized. Government actions – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this hyper-commercialized monster, and different policy decisions can tackle it.

Can reform occur in an era where the top communications regulator won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Reform is highly improbable now, but that is not to say it will not happen in the future.

Initiatives that strengthen independent news organizations, aid local journalism, subsidize public media, and prevent the accumulation of media power in very few hands are within reach – they are vital for a robust democracy.

When it comes to media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations like CNN must not be tools in the most recent merger game.