The embattled left-leaning news network CNN was recently skewered online after an announcement suggesting it is desperate to generate revenue. Over the past few years, CNN has struggled with ratings and other corporate issues, leading to rounds of layoffs, leadership changes, and continual restructuring to bolster performance.
CNN Chief Media Analyst Brian Stelter recently took to X, sharing that CNN would introduce a paywall for users on its website. Big news about CNN today: CNN’s website, one of the most popular news sites in the world, is starting to ask some users to pay $3.99 a month for access — laying the first bricks in a paywall that should, over time, help foot the bill for CNN’s journalism,” Stelter wrote.
Alex MacCallum, CNN’s executive vice president of digital products and services, provided additional details about the paywall. “Starting today, we are asking users in the United States to pay a small recurring fee for unlimited access to CNN.com’s world-class articles,” MacCallum said.
“Only after users consume a certain number of free articles will they be prompted to subscribe,” MacCallum told employees at the network. “In addition to unlimited access to CNN.com’s articles, subscribers will receive benefits like exclusive election features, original documentaries, a curated daily selection of our most distinctive journalism, and fewer digital ads.”
However, the move from CNN was met with backlash from users on social media, who criticized the paywall and the network’s allegedly biased journalism. “I know you guys need to make money, but instead of this, you could try returning to honest, unbiased coverage. That would attract more viewers. This will be the last nail in your coffin. I don’t care either way because your days as journalists are over…” one person said.
Another person blasted the charge for website access while calling out the network’s supposed stance on the Israel-Hamas conflict. “Jake Tapper Wolf Blitzer and Dana Bash have spent the past 12 months manufacturing consent for a genocide I Gaza. Why would any ethical human being watch CNN let alone give them $3.99? What a toxic and organization. Boycott these genocidal maniacs,” they wrote.
“When @CNN returns to a real news outlet- with bonafide journalists and not political pundits, it will restore its reputation for being a program that delivers the news as fact, not opinion that these days is obviously leaning in the direction of FOX,” another person said. “”Some Users” Let us know the pitch CNN makes, to know Warner Bros. Discovery is in such dire straits to have Stelter expose the reasoning, suggests their is a “Lucy, We got a problem” over at CNN with revenue and the lack of money for “Journalism,” one user added.
“This is a great idea if CNN can come back to the center again and avoid media bias to the left. Increase the quality and length of journalism, avoid partisan angles. I would pay for a non-political CNN, but not for a partisan one that leans left like today. The WSJ, Marketwatch, RCP, and Reuters (mostly) operate in the center. Less Lemon and Cooper, more Zakaria and Stelter. Present the intelligent views of the left and right, point out flaws in the dumb ones,” another user commented.
Watch North Carolina Gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson discuss possible legal action against CNN below:
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