AMAC Exclusive – By Shane Harris
In news that sent shockwaves through the media world, it was announced last Thursday that CNN’s $300 million streaming platform, CNN+, will cease all operations and stop broadcasting at the end of this week, just one month after its launch. But while the CNN+ flop is the most high-profile failure for mainstream news outlets recently, it’s hardly the only one, raising questions about just how fragile the liberal media ecosystem has become in a country that has grown increasingly skeptical of the lies and deceptions emanating from our screens.
After a highly publicized unveiling at the end of March, CNN+ was on air just over three weeks before CNN parent company Warner Bros. Discovery (formed after a merger between Discovery and WarnerMedia, CNN’s longtime owner) announced they were pulling the plug on the nascent project. Executives at CNN immediately tried to spin the fiasco as being due solely to a lack of support from Discovery leadership, but according to internal figures, the platform had just 150,000 subscribers, and fewer than 10,000 viewers were watching at any given time – far below viewership numbers for even moderately popular podcasts or YouTube livestreamers.
The failure of CNN+ is also another embarrassing chapter for a network that has been mired in chaos for most of the past year. First came the downfall of CNN’s top-rated anchor, Chris Cuomo, after revelations that he had used his position as a media personality to help his brother, disgraced New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, fight sexual harassment allegations. Then CNN president Jeff Zucker was forced to resign after embarrassing details emerged about a decades-long undisclosed romantic affair with a subordinate at the company. To top it all off, CNN has been bleeding viewers at an alarming rate, as the network’s top show for the first quarter of 2022 ranked just 22nd among cable news programs.
But it’s not just CNN that’s struggling. Over at MSNBC, ratings for the first few months of 2022 were only slightly better. Elsewhere in the streaming world, hosts of previously popular cable shows are struggling to catch on with audiences. “The Problem with Jon Stewart,” for example, which launched on Apple TV+ in September, saw its viewership drop to just 40,000 by its fifth episode.
So what’s going on? Mainstream media apologists have been quick to cite declining viewership for cable TV, in general, to explain falling ratings for left-wing news channels, while several outlets were quick to tie reports that Netflix lost 200,000 subscribers in the first three months of 2022 to the news of CNN+’s collapse, implying that it’s simply fierce competition among streaming services that led to the latter’s failure.
But both of those narratives are misleading at best and blatantly false at worst. While it is true that cable news viewership overall has been declining for some time, channels like Fox News actually saw increased viewership in the first quarter of 2022, with the network being the only cable news channel to post year-over-year gains.
Fox News has also seen continued growth of its own streaming service, Fox Nation, since the launch of the platform back in 2018. Other conservative outlets like the Daily Wire have also seen exponential growth amid sharp readership declines for left-leaning publications. News articles from the Daily Wire routinely outperform pieces from the Washington Post and the New York Times on Facebook, and popular Daily Wire podcast hosts like Ben Shapiro and Matt Walsh draw more viewers to their shows than nearly every host on CNN and MSNBC. Likewise, a recent speech by Donald Trump at a Heritage Foundation event drew over 800,000 viewers on Rumble alone—as one internet commenter noted, significantly more than CNN is drawing.
The pattern that begins to emerge is that those outlets pushing left-wing narratives on everything from foreign policy to education are struggling, while those outlets countering the liberal groupthink are thriving.
This in part helps explain why Netflix has been struggling as well, further undercutting the argument that it’s just a tough environment for streaming platforms generally that led to the downfall of CNN+. Since Netflix began shifting away from old TV shows and movies and more toward original content, the platform has become an incubator of left-wing ideology. As one example among many, Netflix’s newest original series follows the fictional story of a “cisgender man” who becomes pregnant. The site also now has an entire section dedicated to “LGBTQ Stories for Families.”
While the company claims that its content is not political, many conservatives have also noted that Netflix has plenty of films and documentaries bashing conservative viewpoints and Republican political figures, but few similarly critical flicks about liberals and Democrats.
While executives at Netflix have blamed everything from inflation to Vladimir Putin for their subscriber loss, the simpler explanation appears to be the same one that CNN, MSNBC, and nearly every other mainstream outlet refuses to accept: people just aren’t that interested in what they have to say. The complete abandonment of all appearance of neutrality in favor of pushing a woke agenda has now alienated a huge swath of America – Republicans, Democrats, and Independents alike.
Once this vital bond of trust between the public and a news source is broken, it is difficult to repair. And as the purveyors of left-wing propaganda implode, so too will the broader left-wing narrative, which has always been sustained only by a coordinated effort to suppress the truth. That’s all good news for conservatives, and for everyone in this country who values honesty and integrity from their information brokers.
Shane Harris is a writer and consultant from Southwest Ohio. You can follow him on Twitter @Shane_Harris_
I came to the conclusion several years ago, that “objective journalism” is an oxymoron. The “media”
only gives you the information to support their agenda, and that is never the whole truth. Most of the so called “journalists” are more interested in sensationalism than reporting fact. Especially when the facts don’t support their point.
“The people have A RIGHTTO KNOW!” “News media keep the politicians honest!” “The news media is the conscience of America!” These are just a few of the lies I have been told in 70 years of watching the news or reading newspapers. Man, I REALLY miss a good newspaper…
More rational, liberal minded folks realize how badly they are being manipulated and the negative results of those manipulations. As such, more liberal minded folk who are not hateful Progressives are looking for more truthful sources.
When you can’t trust anything that the socialist liberals say, why is this surprising? The evil from the left will continue to be exposed and blatantly show their intentions. It’s so refreshing to see so many platforms being created to show the truth. But make no mistake, the evil left isn’t done yet!
It seems the Left has not figured out the book “1984” was written as an Allegory of a Despotic, Dictatorial and Authoritarian Government that seeks to control every aspect of the citizenry’s lives. Orwell was warning us to never let it become the government model for America.
CNN SUCKS so do the rest of the lamestream media covering for themselves and Joe the Big Guy.
Fox and Newsmax are where commonsense people find out what is really going on!
Apparently the democrat media didn’t get the memo but I’ll remind them anyway: here goes: When you (“mainstream” media) repeatedly lie to your viewers and get caught, your credibility (what there is of it, which isn’t much) goes out the window. As a result, you lose viewers (or readers if you’re a newspaper or news magazine) and your ratings go down the tubes because NOONE BELIEVES OR TRUSTS YOU TO GIVE THEM HONEST NEWS! as a result, people go elsewhere to get their news.
But like the DEMOCRATS they serve, they just keep doubling down on the same old BS… like Hitler in his bunker still planning “great military campaigns” while the bombs fall.
From one Buckeye to another, nice article Shane.
Will they learn that lying to the public and trying to brainwash the mass’s is not a good business model. No way. They are liberals.
GOOD! Here’s to watching it come crashing down like the Hindenburg.
I am so sick and disgusted with ALL this LGBTQ nonsense which should really stand for “Liberal Garbage But Thoroughly Queer”! . . . If something is NOT NORMAL it is DEFINITELY QUEER or ABNORMAL!
Wonderful…….Do ya think maybe they will all change their stripes or will they just go down, down, down…..hopefully the latter.
Troublesome times. Definitely not time to gloat. Rejoice, yes. Gloat—pride goes before a fall. Truth does triumph though!
Best news I have heard ALL DAY!! That which they have sown– THEY now REAP!!
CNN gave disinformation party…and nobody came. Ha Ha Ha Ha!
No problem. The NSA is setting up the KGB I’m sorry the DGB – disinformation governance board, otherwise known as The Ministry of Truth (1984) to make sure that the only messages you hear are those of the approved Democrat propaganda. So conservatives don’t think that you will be allowed to fill any void left by CNN or any other pre-approved Democrat propaganda machine in collapse. We are living in a 1984 dystopia brought to you by the Democrats.
Oh what a tangle web you weave,
when first you practice to deceive! The left, and in particular the far left, have reaped what they have sewed.
Americans were never going to accept their ideology as main steam!
As the old adage reads, you can fool some of the people, all the time, but you can’t fool all the people, all the time!
In the end, the truth will always prevail!
Well it starting to look like the American people are finely getting tired of all the lies and propaganda it’s just about time
Superb analysis/Reality Check of “The Narrative” Pushers long-overdue decline… Well Done!
If this election fraud will take hold and one State start the decertification process others will follow so perhaps the rightful President can be put back in office.
Love it, love it, left wing news getting what it deserves! People are tired of the lies, misleading news, and getting left wing view points rammed down their throat!
AMEN thank God
Guess I cannot copy/paste links watch 2000 Mules by Dinesh D’Souza it’s about proof of election fraud, use DuckDuckGo
Watch the new movie coming out by Dinesh D’zouza 2,000 Mules
Proof of the election fraud need to share and get it out
breitbart.com/politics/2022/04/23/trump-reveals-trailer-of-explosive-2000-mules-ballot-harvesting-documentary-at-ohio-rally/
This is a beginning, but it isn’t happening fast enough. I am hoping that Nov is a blood bath for the Libs, and we can right the ship. I am skeptical and trust no one in government or the media to tell the truth. When we are told the truth about the vaccines and the plandemic on all media outlets, then I will begin to believe we are on the right track.
Lol too freaking funny!! Anyone deserves it it’s this lying evil media next is fakebook I pray … the left loons are the evil that’s invaded our country
Amen.
Socialist Communist television has failed because the the Democrats were all wrong on the WOK, diversity issue. Americans are tuning it out. The open boarder was the last grasp for power and relevance. In-spite of title 42 has been keeping the wave of illegal immigrants a ‘bit lower’, lifting title 42 will increase the wave of immigrants a lot. But most illegals are not wok, but conservative. If they are given amnesty and allowed to vote and are not threatened someway, they will vote for freedom[ their reason to immigrate]. The cartel or other power players will try to coursed the illegals into voting Democrat. Hopefully they can read English. I’m not sure the ballots printed in Spanish? The Dems are shooting themselves with open boarders and WOK.
RED= REMOVE EVERY DEMOCRAT
Do you mean the “81 million” Biden voters didn’t watch CNN+? Hmmmmmmm
I guess dead people don’t watch TV.
We need to use Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals” tactics to fight them. We need to learn how the liberals use them and fight fire with fire.
I think Trump was using those tactics and that is what drove them crazy. This go along to get along stuff is not working!
Here is what I want to know. Why are you AMAC and your writers not more aggressive and outright, no-holds-barred non-polite about what is going on in our country? Stop being nice about the filth that is being shown on in our country, the corruption of our politics (there are people in politics and their advisors that should be arrested, tried for treason and put in jail), television screens (I no longer watch antenna T.V.) I watch old movies on the Roku cable network and am increasingly unhappy with what I see on that channel.
I don’t believe this “Red Wave” will happen in November, as much as I hope it will.
Why?
Because NOTHING has been done to ensure a fair and honest election. No one in the government has so much as whine about it, let alone advance any legislation or means to enforce existing safeguards.
From where I am standing, I see no way to vote ourselves out of the govjacking that has taken place.
That WHOLE Liberal crowd should wake up and DROP THAT PILE OF WOKE BULLSH*T POISON which is ruining America… Better yet, the LIBS should be DROPPED IN THEIR ENTIRETY!!! Vote CONSERVATIVE in November and in 2024..!!!
The movement back to Sanity is picking up speed by the day. The Liberal Party is over, the candles burned out and the guests long gone home. It’s OUR turn Conservatives, let’s do it right.
Good! There might be hope of saving America if the Left Commie crap implodes quickly enough.
“While executives at Netflix have blamed everything from inflation to Vladimir Putin for their subscriber loss, the simpler explanation appears to be the same one that CNN, MSNBC, and nearly every other mainstream outlet refuses to accept: people just aren’t that interested in what they have to say. The complete abandonment of all appearance of neutrality in favor of pushing a woke agenda has now alienated a huge swath of America – Republicans, Democrats, and Independents alike.
Once this vital bond of trust between the public and a news source is broken, it is difficult to repair. And as the purveyors of left-wing propaganda implode, so too will the broader left-wing narrative, which has always been sustained only by a coordinated effort to suppress the truth. That’s all good news for conservatives, and for everyone in this country who values honesty and integrity from their information brokers.”
What blows my mind about this paragraph is that even though the article is accurate – they used the tamest language to describe the fall-out – look at the programming content they just outlined – a pregnant – cis gender man- WHATEVER IN GOD’S GREEN EARTH THE HELL THAT MEANS, and a family homosexual option – what world are we living in when such outright hellish satanic abominations from the deepest part of the underworld are met with such tame reporting – when all of a society should have been in an uproar breaking down the doors fo netflix and screaming/rioting for its complete destruction – instead this “stupid” writer is trying to play nice when he describes the unthinkable abomination and perversion of God’s order of a man getting pregnant, and homosexual storylines even broadcast at all but more so – TO FAMILIES AND CHILDREN. AMAC if you report in such a namby pamby, neutral, gutless way – YOU ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM. PEOPLE ARE JUST NOT THAT INTERESTED IN WHAT THEY HAVE TO SAY ISN’T THE PROBLEM – THEIR GOD OF SATAN IS.
It’s been fantasy land for the major networks for years now because they have gotten away with siding with the leftists. But what you see on their news broadcasts many times only tells a fraction of what is really going on. Maybe they have finally run out of credibility and folks want to learn all the fact and decide for themselves.
This is an encouraging development. It seemed to me that the Left’s domination of all manner of social media over the years was permanent. My take has always been that these liberal “news” outlets were undeniably biased, showcasing anti-Conservative hatred, lying about our rightful President (Trump) and disparaging all things Christian, decent, traditional and simply all-American. It took a while, but it seems that the vitriol spewed by these Socialist talking heads has finally hit a nerve in the conscious of America… and it’s high-time.
Does comment on left-wing narratives insinuating that any network that pushes right-wing narratives are telling the truth all the time & not trying to get viewer to agree. Amazes me that Fox News viewers have increased 1Q if 2022. Tucker Carlson seems like a troubled/angry young man: & where is he coming from last week on getting naked & zapping lower body with red rays (infrared ??) as he blames increase in crime on decrease in testosterone levels in men. He has been watching too many re-runs of Twilight Zone lately. I do not want that right-wing garbage pushed on me or my family. One thing going for Fox is that Trump seems to still like them & speaks to Hannity. Which is surprising as Trump was livid when FOX declared Biden winner in Arizona on election night. Both parties have a tangled web o deceit & deception to entice the voters. And last thing, do either or neither of the two parties intend to accept future election results??? As that is America’s Future.
… mainstream media propaganda here in America has to be considered the most miserable failure in human history. Our mainstream media couldn’t sell us that it wasn’t a lab leak, that it was an honest election, that Joe Biden’s the most popular guy since Elvis, that ANTIFA looting is the summer of love, much less that burning buildings, people face down dead in our streets, constitutes a “mostly peaceful” protest.
Call CNN+ the Air America of television
As it is said, “Go woke, go broke.” A lot of people are catching on to what is really going on in the world.
Sorry, the alphabet soup legacy media is still the default news source for dems and many independents. As well, most local newspapers are nytimes lite. The average sleepwalker is programmed daily with leftwing ‘news’. It takes effort to access conservative sites, effort that few are willing to make.
well it could not happen to a larger set of manipulative liars.
Add to this that Twitter is suddenly going to be more middle of the road and the leftie left left has a problem
What happens when all those low IQ lefties have to face both sides of the story instead of their echo chamber.
It is going to be fun to watch.
Plus while all of that is going on: Obama, Hilary, pelosi, adam schiff, biden, and nedlar are all under investigation for treason,insurrection, and briber.
Then you include that there have been a bunch of arrests for democrat voter fraud from the 2020 election in the last month.
Oh and the side effect on the left beloved covid shots are starting to be published making vax booster rates down at 13% of the high times for vaxes so the pro vaxxers are all being shown they were wrong. Remember when the pro vaxxers were taking people off transplant lists, refusing non-vaxxed people access and saying non vaxed health insurance shoudl be higher. not it is the vaxxed people who are getting the side effect and should have higher insurance costs.
the whole pile of lies the low IQ left believes in are all sort of falling down around them.
I find it hilarious.
I would love to see these stupid college professors, teachers, arrogant college and high school students explain their completely incompletely thinking now.
Now all the republican and conservatives are on count down to saying ah ah I was right and you were an ass.
oh I just can;t wait: ah ah I was right.
Yes!
What turns me off is how Netflix and other networks insert liberal politics into the most apolitical programming. E.g. Watching “Inventing Anna”, a true story about a woman pretending to be an heiress to defraud the wealthy of NYC and elsewhere on Netflix, the dialogue inserted anti-Trump dialogue into several scenes in which reporters made nasty remarks about the President. Totally unnecessary and not even pertinent to the story line. Shonda Rimes is the creator of that show so I should have known as her Grey’s Anatomy has been political for the past several years, imposing homosexuality, racism and more Leftist dribble into ongoing story lines. Even commercials, which I skip as much as possible, are heavily loaded with leftist lecturing to the rest of us, both blatant and subliminally. Police shows, hospital shows — many so-called “entertainment” dramas and even situation comedies are loaded guns at Conservative thinking now. We have to boycott and take them down, put them in their place as is now happening to the conniver hosts on the alphabet and cable outlets.
CNN has never been real news contributor. While it is seen all over the country in airports, bus stations, Amtrack stations, etc., most people ignore it all together. Their blatant opposition to conservatives and Donald Trump in particular has branded them as far leftist, out of the mainstream propogandists. People can watch CNN for free, although not many people do, so why would they believe that anyone is dumb enough to pay to watch them destroy this country?
In freefall, huh? Hmm… I’ll believe Americans have finally awakened when I see a “bloodbath” in the midterm election results for the Democrats.