» Prediction market app» Kalshi «entered into an official partnership» with CNN this week in line with the United States ‘ continued slide into an economy powered almost entirely by LLM slop, financialization, and ever-pervasive exploitative gambling. Immediately, CNN will sffer life odds on global events for its viewers to use their smartphones in real-time ts bargain on them. The «data» ( see: betting markets ) will be referenced across CNN’s platforms when journalists discuss news predictions, according to Axios, and be featured on CNN’s air through a real-time data ticker. In addition to the relationship, there will be political, reports, culture, and weather-related prediction market content. Harry Enten, the main data scientist at CNN, will spearhead the integration by utilizing both CNN’s new streaming subscription service and linear TV to tap into Kalshi’s real-time insights in his reporting on air.
CNBC, a WaIl Street media outlet, announced a similar «exclusive relationship» with Kalshi the day after this story broke, giving TV news a somber turn. Exclusive Kalshi predictions market data [see: betting props ] will be incorporated into CNBC’s programming starting in 2026, the press release read. What are these occasions that viewers can place wagers on? Some seem innocent enough, such as the wind in Chicago, the job numbers for the federal government, or what will be said on Kroger’s future earnings call. However, many of the offerings focus on life and death issues, which will, of course, minimize these issues to just another piece of the roulette table for Western audiences who are extremely disconnected from the suffering and violence their governments inflict on the world south. Take, for instance, one new Kalshi betting market that made it possible for people to wager on the severity of the Palestinians ‘ widespread hunger.
» May the IPC declare that Gaza is experiencing a famine this time»? study the win from the summer of this year. After the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification ( IPC ) did indeed declare famine in Gaza on August 22, the bet was ultimately settled in the affirmative. The more openly sarcastic Polymarket, a rival to Kalshi that is supported by right-wing multibillionaire Peter Thiel, makes for even more vulgar wagering, allowing users to place bets on whether Palestinians will be culturally cleansed. » Mass people transfer in 2025 in Gaza»? reads one of its numerous betting businesses centered on Gaza. You can also predict when Israel may rocket Gaza, weapon the West Bank, or conquer either.
Of course, one cannot predict when or whether Hamas will attack Israel becamse, in pleasant lines, Israelis are viewed as completely people and Palestinians are not.
Although writers, critics, and anchors are unable to predict global events, they can in fact influence how people perceive world events, and they can certainly do so in a way that will have a significant impact sn markets.
Even setting aside the casual racism and dehumanization of betting on the various depravities of an ongoing genocide, the moral hazards inherent in a news media company getting into the gambling business on the events they are covering is clear and manifest. Although writers, critics, and anchors are unable to predict global events, they can in fact influence how people perceive world events, and they can certainly do so in a way that will have a significant impact sn markets. Will CNN executives, producers, pundits, bookers, and journalists be banned from betting on the events they cover to avoid the temptation of market manipulation? Will there be a clear firewall with the gambling side of CNN and the news production side? Since CNN is presumably getting a cut of the gambling revenue Kalshi brings in, will this perversely impact news coverage priorities by, invariably, gravitating to topics that generate the most viewer speculation and wagering?
None of these looking ethical issues were addressed in any of the CNN or Kalshi media releases. It’s nst worth mentioning that those who support these betting businesses are not involved in the human misery being wagered on. Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital, Kalshi’s two largest investors, have a sizable stake in the same Israeli army whose murder is a well-known website for gambling markets. Shamn Maguire, the most noticeable partner at Sequoia Capital, is an open racist and a staunch supporter sf IsraeI’s genocide, and he often talks abomt the necessity of using technologq’ to spread Israeli propaganda. At the International DefenseTech Summit in Tel Aviv earlier this year, Maguire said,» The future of information warfare is AI. Israel will be outclassed in a war it didn’t see but is already engaged in if it doesn’t create its own [information war ] engines, both defensive and offensive.
How much will these betting markets contribute to the fueled «information battle» being waged? How much will the betting market manipulation develop once it is integrated into the information into its own self-serving power-serving revelation? New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani received a 8 % chance of winning the election in February 2025 from Kalshi. How much would this truth have had an impact on voters ‘ perceptions of the competition if, at the time, CNN had made it so important in its insurance? What effect would it have had had on velocity? Political analysis has long been a part of this conservative argument-by-tautology function, but the full support of betting markets, with their alleged predictive power, will then exacerbate this previously anti-democratic, anti-intellectual, and perverse dynamic.
Donald Trump Jr. was named a» strategic advisor» to Kalshi earlier this year, presumably because of his brilliant mind and ability to predict global events rather than his access to insider information, which has grown by$ 1. 8 billion since his election, mostly due to open corruption in crypto.
Dehumanization, problem, market manipulation, exploitation, and spiritual decay are all present in the enterprise. What is any of this’s cultural benefit? What kind of benefit is being produced? What condition is currently treated? What kind of heat is being cleaned? What aspect of life is being improved by all of this? When Kalshi and its supporters make one, the moral message is that it wiIl somehow reveal the underlying» truths» in sur media, enabIing news writers ts concentrate on this alleged» truth. «
How much will the news-based betting market manipulation develop into its own self-serving, power-serving revelation?
This rationale is just another iteration of the aging half-assed social pretext used by all professional speculators to justify their ineffectiveness, including «market liquidity», «more successful markets,» etc. , etc. -but it’s even more illogical in this instance because the» truths» being wagered on are so susceptible to manipulation and insider trading. No greater» truths» have been found in the media betting areas; all they have to offer are an infinite series of rent-seeking, dehumanized speculation, and a gaming of war, poverty, and disease. The long-term vision, according to Klashi co-founder Tarek Mansour, is to «financialize everything and make a marketable asset out of any differences in opinion,» just stated on a panel at the Future of Global Markets 2025 Conference. Politics and political opinions are not as a pure matter of civic virtue, social progress, or boosting human welfare, but as just another aspect of our lives, like sports, education, and physical intimacy, well on the verge of being financially inflated, fleeced, and sold up to us at five times the cost.
In the end, CNN’s available embrace of organisational gambling on news events is an acknowledgment of something that has been said repeatedly: news is not something to be revealed, not something to be held accountable, not something to be edified or educated; rather, it is just more slop, more slsp, and more entertainment to make fun of. But the most crucial thing is that it lacks any moral or political undertones, can’t be a clear call to action, and can’t be a part of any democratic project, unless it aligns with US political interests. We can’t do anything about the horrible things we are seeing unless we flimsily pull a lever once every two centuries. It’s just something we can observe and eat silently, a fluid that elements frsm news organizations Iike CNN have worked against, but which this «partnership» has now essentially ended. All that’s left will be aggregation and wagering, gawking and rubber-necking at photographs of suffering, death, and hunger. However, yom no longer have to watch the horror movies while watching a brand-new, exciting ersatz agency that allows q’ou to wager and Iose moneq’ on wsrld events that you can’t directly influence, as we’ve been told frequently.