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Late Thursday, amid swirling speculation about a shooting at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins used social media, highlighting the uncertainty and directing people to her channel's 9pm newscast.

While it is by no means a perfect news source, her statement seemed accurate for numerous observers. It is one of the organizations where you can find fact-based and largely reliable reporting – especially during breaking news situations such as the one developing near a New Hampshire storage facility.

A Vulnerable State Amid a High-Stakes Battle

However CNN, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a precarious state as two huge media empires battle over ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.

Whatever the outcome, the fate of CNN has become part of a high-stakes game of mergers and acquisitions, rather than as a question of what benefits the information-seeking public.

“Here is one more case of the profound systemic issues with roots in decades of governmental choices,” noted Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Penn.

The speculation about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a more important point.

“The narrative is crafted as a financial tale with powerful individuals as the protagonists, but there is hardly any discussion of the public interest,” Pickard added.

The Additional Layer: The Former President

The network's predicament is complicated by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his primary “fake news” antagonist.

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

Trump now asserts that CNN needs new ownership. Many see this as a desire for ownership that will protect him from journalistic oversight. That is one reason why he seems to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.

Trump has reason to prefer that suitor 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, parent of CBS News, also recently appointed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that venerable news network.

A Possibility of Continued Uncertainty

Notably, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a separate entity. This might be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a safe harbor. That arrangement could set up CNN for another sale. There is no finish line.

If you ask Timothy Wu, a lot of this is illegal, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance recently argued that anti-trust laws should block both deals.

“Both acquisition attempts would be detrimental to the country, and both should be contested by regulators,” Wu recently wrote.

The Core Issue and a Way Ahead

Regardless of the resolution with this particular battle, the larger issue persists.

“Our current system is a very structure that undermines democracy, but we must resist the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard said. Policy decisions – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this profit-obsessed monster, and different policy decisions can tackle it.

Is this likely in an era where the head of the FCC won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Change is highly improbable now, but that should not imply it will be impossible forever.

Initiatives that strengthen independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, subsidize public media, and outlaw the accumulation of media power in too few hands are within reach – they are essential for a functioning democracy.

In the world of media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations such as CNN must not be pieces in the latest merger game.