This is more of a housekeeping post. Cleaning up, closing the loop. A week ago, we reported on the pending demise of CNN+, the network’s effort to milk the streaming service niche. The only thing that got milked were the people hired to run it. It’s dead.
The New York Times reported that Warners Bros. Discovery, the parent company of the network, decided to shut down CNN+ — which launched Mar. 29 — on April 30.
CNN’s Brian Stelter and Oliver Darcy also reported on Thursday that CNN+ will be shutting down. The two reported, “Hundreds of CNN+ staffers were notified of the decision in a meeting on Thursday afternoon.”
It’s not a total loss. Former Fox news critter Chris Wallace left Fox for a show on CNN+. That’s over, and he’s still off Fox news, so, small victory. But he’s expected to demand a time slot on regular crappy CNN, which he will likely get. Even as a declining quantity on Fox, I believe he had a bigger audience than what passes for talent on the COVID News Network (Formerly the Collusion News Network, Clinton News Network, Communist News Network, etc.).
The Warner Brothers/Discovery Network merger is why.
The new ‘ownership’ has an issue with money pits, and that’s what CNN+ would be, and it’s got me wondering. CNN is not much of a breadwinner in its current declining configuration. Is someone on the Discovery side of that merger going to make changes to how CNN pretends to be a news network?
We can only hope but don’t invest much if any effort. While CNN could do a 180 and compete with Fox or the recently blossoming Newsmax, it will take a lot from the parent company, CNN, and viewers to make it happen or take it seriously.
CNN may be a wreck, but they are a wreck worldwide, and that’s a big culture that doesn’t want to change. CNN+ was just a symptom of the disease, and their cure looks like the COVID vaccines. Neither safe nor effective but one they are prepared to watch you die for.
