Republican Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake mocked the extremely short-lived CNN+ streaming service in an encounter with a CNN journalist earlier today, calling the media outlet “propaganda.”
Lake, who is the current favourite in the Republican primary for Arizona governor, bumped into CNN’s Kyung Lah outside of an event. Lake’s team described the encounter as an “ambush” by Lah and CNN, but quickly turned it around, evidenced by a video posted to Twitter on Thursday.
“You don’t have a mask on anymore,” Lake asked Lah, with the last time they encountered in October 2021, Lah was masked up. “What’s going on?” she quizzed light-heartedly. Lah told Lake that she didn’t need to wear a mask outside.
After asking whether Lake had a “minute to chat,” she responded by agreeing to an interview, “as long as it airs on CNN+,” the defunct streaming service created by the news site that was pulled off the market almost immediately after failing to reach 10,000 viewers in its first month. “Does that still exist? I didn’t think so, because the people don’t like what you guys are peddling, which is propaganda, so thank you,” Lake added.
WATCH what happens when @CNN ambushes @KariLake outside of an event 😂
“I’ll do an interview with you… as long as it airs on CNN+, does that still exist?”
Help fuel our Movement! ⤵️
Visit: https://t.co/2OpN9naeZ6 pic.twitter.com/kDZr8TgHG0— Kari Lake for AZ Governor (@KariLake) June 23, 2022
CNN+ was launched as a major streaming project earlier this year, but shut down after only one month. The streaming site, that was predicted by executives to become more profitable than CNN itself within a decade, picked up under 10,000 daily users, according to reports, and was canned during a merger of CNN’s parent company, Warner Media, with Discovery.
Axois revealed that CNN poured “around $300 million” into the project, pulling in high profile talent from other cable networks, including former Fox News’ Chris Wallace, and NBC News’ Katie Hunt.
SCOOP: CNN+ execs projected that within the next decade, CNN+ would be more profitable than the company's cable arm today, according to data from a March '22 pitch deck. https://t.co/vv2QAHLDfL pic.twitter.com/b9TWsLFYHI
— Axios (@axios) April 26, 2022
New CNN network head Chris Licht, is apparently “ready to boot on-air personalities who have destroyed the brand by becoming irredeemable partisan hacks,” Breitbart News reported. The firings may include Brian Stelter, the head of the “Reliable Sources” Sunday flagship show, whose times is down to “weeks, if not days,” according to News Cycle Media President John Nicosia.
Valiant News reported earlier this month that Stelter, along with senior Joe Biden advisor Gene Sperling, admitted that they do not feel the same “pain” of paying high gas prices that have spiked under the Biden administration, as ordinary Americans do.
