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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, noting the confusion and directing people to her network’s 9pm newscast.

While CNN is certainly not a flawless news source, her statement seemed accurate to many. It stands as one of the organizations where one can locate grounded and generally dependable reporting – notably during crises such as the one developing near a New Hampshire storage facility.

An Uncertain Situation Amid a High-Stakes Struggle

Yet the news network, now middle-aged, finds itself in a precarious situation as two giant media corporations vie for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.

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

“This is yet another example of the deep structural problems with origins in decades of policy decisions,” said Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a academic specializing in media policy at the Pennsylvania University.

The conjecture about who will own 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 key players as the main characters, but there is hardly any discussion of the common good,” Pickard said.

The Complicating Layer: Political Influence

The CNN scenario is further muddied by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his main “fake news” foe.

Recall the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his administration's retaliatory revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in press briefings.

Trump now claims that the network requires new ownership. Many see this as a desire for ownership that will protect him from journalistic oversight. That is part of why he appears to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.

He has grounds to like 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.

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

An Outcome of Further Turmoil

Notably, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a separate entity. Such a move could be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a secure position. That structure could set up CNN for yet another acquisition. It never ends.

If you ask Timothy Wu, much of this is illegal, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that competition laws should block both deals.

“Both acquisition attempts would be harmful to the country, and both should be opposed by the government,” Wu argued.

The Core Problem and a Path Forward

No matter the outcome in this situation, the larger issue persists.

“What we have now is a highly system hostile to democracy, but we shouldn’t give in to a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard said. Policy decisions – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this overly commercial monster, and revised policy decisions can address it.

Is this likely in an era where the top communications regulator won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Change is highly improbable now, but that is not to say it will not happen in the future.

Measures that bolster independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, subsidize public media, and prohibit the consolidation of media power in very few hands are within reach – they are vital for a healthy democracy.

In the world of media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations including CNN shouldn’t be tools in the most recent merger game.