Only CNN and the woke media echo chamber could have thought that Americans would spend $5.99 for a little extra Don Lemon in their lives. Here's why CNN+ was a predictable $300m disaster, writes MEGHAN MCCAIN

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On Thursday, a small earthquake shook the media world.

Hopefully, its shockwaves are felt far and wide.

CNN announced that its much-hyped streaming service CNN+ was shutting down on April 30th, less than one month after its launch, completely wasting $300 million that was already spent on developing the service.

You read that right, more than a quarter of a billion dollars blown.

There were rumors since its launch and last week it came out that the service had possibly drawn less than 100,000 subscribers (and as many at 150,000), who were willing to pay $5.99 for a little extra Don Lemon in their lives.

100,000 subscribers is so low it's almost unfathomable when you consider that even CNN's struggling morning show managed to attract a weekly average of 446,000 viewers in April.

Fox News' FOX & Friends was watched by an average of 1.4 million viewers.

100,000 subscribers is so bizarrely meager that you can understand why the new management at CNN (Warner Bros. Discovery) thought there was no better way to end this modern media Hindenburg than to simply cut ties and let it float, burning uncontrollably, away into oblivion.

Now, before the pearl-clutching starts and fainting couches are needed for the media critics reading this… No, I am not happy that people are out of their jobs.

Of course not.

CNN+ had 300 staffers. There are a lot of producers, camera operators, sound engineers, etc. who are unjustifiably caught up in the wake of this and that is very sad.

Last week it came out that the service had possibly drawn less than 100,000 subscribers (and as many at 150,000), who were willing to pay $5.99 for a little extra Don Lemon in their lives.

Though I can assure you that some of the on-air talent at CNN would be more than happy to rub their competitors' faces in it if the situation were reversed.

Keep in mind, these are also the same people who told coal miners who lost their jobs to go back to college and 'learn to code.'

I hope the anchors, hosts, and management at CNN help these folks find new placements because they deserve it.

But our sympathy for these hard-working people doesn't mean that we shouldn't analyze why CNN+ was such a predictable disaster.

Why would anyone at CNN believe that the American public would pay extra for content from a brand that is already struggling to bring in audiences?

Nielsen, the service that tracks TV ratings, found that CNN's total audience in February 2022 declined by nearly 70% from a year earlier.

If someone pitched this idea to me, I would have said that they had been spending too much time in the Hamptons with Chris Cuomo and not enough time in the real world where Tik Tok stars, Joe Rogan, and Fox News primetime are the dominating media forces.

And CNN+ isn't the only recent example.

It was revealed this week that Netflix recently lost 200,000 subscribers. It's first-time losing subscribers in 10 years and their shares dipped a whopping 25%.

Nielsen, the service that tracks TV ratings, found that CNN's total audience in February 2022 declined by nearly 70% from a year earlier. (Above) Ken Jautz, Andrew Morse, Kasie Hunt, Chris Wallace, Rex Chapman, Anderson Cooper, Amy Entelis, and Michael Bass attend the CNN+ Launch Event on March 28, 2022 in New York City

Elon Musk of all people blamed 'the woke mind virus' for making Netflix 'unwatchable.'

He isn't wrong.

The content they have been producing is clearly geared towards a Silicon Valley progressive liberal who prefers virtue-signaling over entertainment.

You don't believe me?

Watch any clip from Colin Kaepernick's 'In Black and White', the climate change satire 'Don't Look Up,' or the pedophile dream movie 'Cuties' and get back to me on what parts of this are actually entertaining and not talking down to the middle of the country.

Yet another example of the media carnage is the recent revelation that Jon Stewart's new show 'The Problem with Jon Stewart' on Apple TV+ pulled in less than 40,000 viewers per episode.

I am a child of the 90's, I love Jon Stewart, but judging from the clips that make it onto Twitter, it is hard to watch.

The show has been a weird apology tour for being male, white, and wealthy.

A decade ago, Stewart was the king of comedy and speaking truth to power on his Comedy Central hit 'The Daily Show.'

Now he is bringing in the equivalent of a low-level makeup tutorial on YouTube.

Above all else, like CNN+ and the woke brigade at Netflix, none of this is entertaining, funny, or most importantly, an escape from the insanity of the times we are living in.

Wanna know what's not failing?

Paramount's 'Yellowstone' whose season 4 finale drew a record-breaking 9.3 million viewers.

A decade ago, Stewart was the king of comedy and speaking truth to power on his Comedy Central hit 'The Daily Show.' Now he is bringing in the equivalent of a low-level makeup tutorial on YouTube.

It's one of the most non-woke shows out there, whose main character John Dutton, played by Kevin Costner declares, 'I am the opposite of progress. I am the wall that it bashes against it, and I will not be the one who breaks.'

I could go on but you get the idea.

They aren't talking down to people who make less than $100,000 dollars a year or virtue-signaling about racism.

I am exhausted by the content produced by this woke media echo chamber.

These are the people who spend their time taking helicopters to 'Sag' (the elites' nickname for Long Island's Sag Harbor) and the Hamptons and are not impacted by inflation.

The people who spent their pandemics on private planes and permanent vacations and think the best time in all of American history was during the Obama years.

The people who treat all conservatives like the guy with the Viking helmet who stormed the Capitol on January 6th.

It is absolutely insufferable and yes, I am glad the free market is finally pushing back.

It turns out that there actually are bottom lines that are important to corporations.

And for those who have skated by creating content for themselves and their friends, it looks like the chickens have finally come home to roost.