One thing about leftist culture that never ceases to amaze is their ability to take a failure and pretend that it was actually a success. This attitude is perhaps an extension of their penchant for propaganda – They lie so much about everything that they end up falling victim to their own disinformation. They tell their enemies they are winning even when they are losing, and then they actually start to believe it themselves.
It's a bit like the old rule for drug dealers – Everything falls apart when you start smoking the drugs you sell.
For CNN and outlets like them, the problem is that you can't run from reality forever. If no one wants to watch your content then you can't force them to do so. Leftists wish they could use force, but they can't, so instead they try to use gaslighting and shame. This has translated into the typical tactics we see today from the media, which include race baiting and accusations of bigotry, misogyny, homophobia, fascism, etc. These tactics really took center stage from 2016 onward and they haven't worked yet, but the political left continues to beat that dead horse in the hopes that it will one day win the Kentucky Derby.
They NEED regular consumers to watch their content, but they look down their noses at regular consumers and see them as untouchable peasants. So, they don't make content for the peasant, they make content for themselves and their friends. This is not a recipe for a successful media network.
In a recent article on the CNN issue, Vox (a far-left outlet) remarked on Brian Stelter being fired and his show being shut down even though he still had three more years on a six-figure contract. David Zaslav, an executive from Discovery, has taken oversight of Warner Brothers and its properties and has been making extensive cuts to save money and streamline the bloated company. Vox's position really illustrates the deeper problem within leftist media:
“Stelter, who reportedly made close to $1 million a year, was an easy cut: His show, along with his daily media newsletter, was a big deal in media circles...but not a huge draw for normals.”
By using the term “normals” one might conclude that Vox sees themselves and and other journalists as “extraordinary” when compared to the rest of us. Or, maybe they are just “abnormal” – It's hard to say. The statement is possibly a mistaken admission of how leftist journalists truly view the world, and their view is stunted. They see their work as vital to the masses because their PEERS and Twitter buddies see it as vital to the masses. But mainstream journalists are too far detached from the world and reality to make objective judgment calls. They see themselves as the saviors of humanity, but no one else sees them that way.
The audience numbers talk. The money talks. It doesn't matter how important you think you are – You don't own the audience, the audience owns you.
CNN has been a consistent loser in terms of audience numbers and ratings; their ratings have plummeted while their profits continue to slump over the past few years. The CNN+ project was supposed to draw in millions of viewers but only generated 150,000 subscribers, and of those subscribers only 10,000 were regular watchers.
In other words, CNN+ would have been crushed by average YouTuber numbers and their projections for at least 29 million “super fans” were absolutely incompetent. This is why the project was shut down within weeks by David Zaslav – It was an embarrassment from the start, built on inflated delusions of grandeur.
And what is CNN really built on? What has been the company's foundation for years? It's only product has been anti-conservative agit-prop. That's it. That's all they have. This might work financially if the extreme left was as prevalent as they pretend, but if we look at the numbers and the cash flow, they are actually a tiny portion of the population puffed up and screaming as loud as they can to appear big and formidable. CNN is failing because there is an unsustainable audience for their product.
Warner Bros. Discovery board member and media mogul John Malone stated in an interview with CNBC that he “would like to see CNN evolve back to the kind of journalism that it started with, and actually have journalists, which would be unique and refreshing.” CNN was always leftist, but it's true that the social justice cultism was not all that present until the past five years. The problem is, they see the new cultism as integral to their model and more important than making money or keeping an audience, or even being objective.
Brian Stelter wrote in his newsletter about Malone’s potential influence and examined it on his show. He said that Malone’s comments had “stoked fears that Discovery might stifle CNN journalists and steer away from calling out indecency and injustice.” In other words, Stelter believes that CNN's mission is righteous, therefore their inability to bring in audiences and profits should be ignored. But what is “indecency” to Brian Stelter? What is “injustice” to the political left?
Is the truth indecent? Because there have been many times when the leftist media has attacked people for telling the truth (see CNN's treatment of Joe Rogan's position on covid). Do they really want “justice,” or do they want special treatment and extra privileges while pretending to be victims? Do they want to be treated as successful even when they are failures?
A large number of Americans see this type of framework for media as fraudulent and agenda driven, and so we don't watch CNN and platforms like them. In their political zealotry they forgot to take into account the fact that elitism is isolating unless you have force to back it. The only way most people would watch CNN is if there was a gun pointed at their heads, and even then some people would still refuse. This is not the trademark of meaningful journalism, it is the trademark of a heavy-handed propaganda machine.
(Article by Tyler Durden republished from ZeroHedge.com)
