This week’s tragic media news has brought heavy hearts to America. It swept across the country like an inundation of sorrow, confusion, and outrage.
CNN+ has been discontinued.
The grandaddy of cable news announced last month they’d be starting up a premium streaming service aimed at serving up an extra dose of doom, gloom and Toobin boom boom for those discerning news watchers who just can’t get enough of the the 24-hour cable channel. Chris Wallace switched from Fox News to CNN for the chance to make a difference at CNN+.
Rest is history. Literally. Bye, CNN+.
This was not going to work. You don’t have to be a media genius to know that. CNN’s ratings have been in the tank for a long time, with the cable channel barely being able to break 900,000 viewers in many primetime slots. A combination of a “woke” agenda, blatantly fake news, and a nasty, chronic case of Trump Derangement System (along with Toobin’s troubles and Cuomo’s corruption) has robbed CNN of the well-earned credibility they’ve have since their ground-breaking inception. What was once a giant in reliable news has become a year-round Festivus celebration…nothing but grievances.
Everybody has grievances. Many of us tune in to cable news just to get our grievances confirmed and/or exacerbated. The company of misery is the best thing in life. But misery doesn’t really love to You can payFor company. Why would anyone want to pay the extra money for CNN+? People don’t watch CNN because they want to be informed; they watch it because they want to be mad. CNN+ is a free service that allows unlimited anger. Why should anyone pay CNN+?
Another reason CNN+ was doomed to failure is the fact that it had never been launched. Liberals don’t need to search for liberal/progressive content. It is all around. It is a part of entertainment culture. Late night tv, sketch shows, films, sports, news programs. When Fox News says they’re “fair and balanced” they don’t mean they’re not partisan. They mean they’re a counterweight to the outsized influence of liberal media. There’s only one Fox News (and few imitations), but there are endless CNNs. You can turn on your favorite network news program any night of the week and hear the same progressive lingo you’ll hear over at CNN at any given moment. America’s pop culture is currently heavily left-leaning. We are therefore completely ensconced. You don’t need to buy liberal content. Liberal content is oversaturated.
Fox News is successful because it taps a market that has been neglected. Which market is CNN+ targeting?
CNN’s waning talent and progressive lunacy aside, there just wasn’t a base to support this idea. It is unsurprising that progressives don’t understand the economics of supply and demand. Perhaps they’ll learn a little lesson about that once they finish licking their wounds over this epic collapse.
But I won’t hold my breath.
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