Compare CNN's Reason to Subscribe to Recent Headlines and TRY Not to Laugh

Doug P. | 9:55 AM on January 29, 2025

Remember when CNN launched "CNN-Plus"? If you don't it's because the subscription service ended up having a lifespan shorter than the average housefly.

Amid recent shakeups at the cable net, including the exit of intrepid Resistance journo Jim Acosta, CNN's again trying a subscription model:

CNN on Thursday announced major layoffs and a new strategic plan, in a post-election maneuver meant to help transform the cable channel during a challenging time for the media business.
CEO Mark Thompson announced the news to staff Thursday morning, adding that CNN would cut about 6 percent of jobs, or about 200 people. He adds that the company is actively recruiting for hundreds of new roles, with about 100 expected to be filled in the next few months, thanks to a $70 million investment from parent company Warner Bros. Discovery.
[...]
Among the changes are a new streaming service, as CNN plans “to develop a new way for digital subscribers at home and abroad to stream news programming from us on any device they choose,” Thompson wrote. “It’s early days but we’ve already established that there’s immense demand for it not just in America, but across much of the world.”

In a new pitch for their subscription service, CNN's email asked, "does your news source have fact-checkers?"

The Federalist's Mollie Hemingway found that quite ironic and so do I:

CNN just lost and settled a $1 billion defamation suit. pic.twitter.com/axlkwizUZx
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) January 28, 2025

CNN asked if other news sources have fact-checkers when they should have first directed that question at themselves.

JUST NOW: A jury has found CNN liable for defamation against Zachary Young for lying about his efforts to rescue people from Afghanistan. The jury has awarded Zachary Young $5 million in compensatory damages. The jury will next decide how much CNN must pay in punitive damages.
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) January 17, 2025

Remember this one?

"CNN has settled a lawsuit with a Kentucky H.S. student who was at the center of a viral video controversy," avoiding a potentially unpredictable trial, @oliverdarcy reports. Neither side is commenting on the settlement terms. https://t.co/XJVcY0izUp
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) January 7, 2020

Now CNN has the audacity to ask people to pay for that kind of "fact-checking"? This latest subscription effort might sink beneath the waves even faster than the CNN-Plus thing.