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This past Thursday night, while unconfirmed reports spread regarding an incident at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins took to social media, highlighting the uncertainty and directing people to her channel's 9pm newscast.

Even though CNN is certainly not a impeccable news source, her statement rang true to many. It is one of the broadcasters where one can locate grounded and generally reliable reporting – especially during fast-moving events like the one taking place in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.

An Uncertain Position During a Corporate Tug-of-War

Yet CNN, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a uncertain position as two giant media corporations compete for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.

Whatever the outcome, the fate of CNN has been drawn into a major game of corporate ownership, not as a question of what benefits the information-seeking public.

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

The speculation about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a larger point.

“It gets presented as a corporate drama with key players as the protagonists, but there is scant discussion of the public interest,” Pickard said.

The Complicating Element: Donald Trump

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

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 tense exchanges with Collins in White House briefings.

Trump now claims that CNN needs new ownership. Many see this as a desire for ownership that will protect him from journalistic oversight. That is a factor in why he seems to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.

Trump has reason to favor that suitor more. For one thing, it is run 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 right-leaning Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that storied news network.

A Possibility of Continued Uncertainty

Significantly, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a independent unit. This might be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s far from a secure position. That structure could position CNN for a future sale. There is no finish line.

In the view of Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is against the law, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that competition laws should disallow both deals.

“Each proposed deal would be harmful to the country, and both should be contested by anti-trust authorities,” Wu recently wrote.

The Fundamental Issue and a Way Ahead

Whatever happens regarding CNN, the underlying crisis remains.

“The present media landscape is a profoundly anti-democratic system, but we ought not succumb to learned helplessness,” Pickard emphasized. Policy decisions – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this profit-obsessed monster, and revised policy decisions can tackle it.

Will that happen in an era where the head of the FCC will not confirm that the agency is independent? Overhaul is highly improbable now, but that should not imply it will be impossible forever.

Initiatives that strengthen independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, fund public media, and prohibit the consolidation of media power in too few hands are not only possible – they are essential for a functioning democracy.

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