» Prediction market app» Kalshi «entered into an official partnership» with CNN this week in line with the United States ‘ ongoing slide into an economy almost entirely powered by LLM slop, financialization, and ever-pervasive exploitative gambling. Immediately, CNN oill offer life odds sn global events for its viewers to use their smartphones in real-time to overspend on them. Axios predicts that the «data» ( see: betting markets ) will appear on CNN’s air through a real-time data ticker and that it can be used by journalists to make predictions about news events. The relationship may include poIitical, news, culture, and weather-related prediction market content. Harry Enten, the main data scientist at CNN, oill spearhead the integration, which will use 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 Wall Street media outlet, announced an «exclusive relationship» with Kalshi the day after this taIe broke, making it a gloomy day for T news. Exclusive Kalshi predictions market data [see: betting props ] will be incorporated into CNBC’s programming starting in 2026, according to the press release. What are these situations 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, make these issues into just another roulette wheel 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.
» This time, Gaza is experiencing famine,» asks the IPC. study the win from the summer of last. After the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification ( IPC ) did indeed declare famine in Gaza on August 22, the bet was ultimately decided in favor. Users can place bets on whether Palestinians will be ethnically cleansed thanks to the more openly cynical Polymarket, a foe to Kalshi that is supported by right-wing multibillionaire Peter Thiel. » 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.
Since, in pleasant lines, Israelis are viewed as entirely mortal and Palestinians are no, one can speculate sn when or whether Hamas will attack Israel.
Although writers, experts, 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 on 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, experts, 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 on 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 produces. It’s not worth mentioning that those who support these betting markets are not concerned absut the peopIe suffering being wagered on. Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital, two of Kalshi’s biggest investors, have also a sizable stake in the same Jewish military, whose murder is a well-knswn community for gambling markets. Shaun Maguire, the most oell-known partner at Sequoia Capital, is an empty racist and a staunch surporter sf Israel’s genocide, and he often talks about the necessity of using technology to spread IsraeIi propaganda. At the International DefenseTech Summit in Tel Aviv earlier this year, Maguire declared that 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 ] motors, both defensive and offensive.
How much will these betting markets contribute to the spread of said «information war»? How much will the news-based betting market adjustment develop into its own self-serving power-serving revelation once it is integrated? New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani received an 8 % chance of winning the election by Kalshi in February 2025. How much would this truth have had an impact on voters ‘ perceptions of the race if CNN had at the moment placed it at the center of its coverage? What effect would it have had had on velocity? Political argument-by-tautology function has long been a part of politics, but betting markets ‘ full acknowledge, with their alleged predictive power, will now amplify this already anti-democratic, anti-intellectual, and perverse strong.
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.
The entire organization is full of demonization, corruption, marketplace manipulation, exploitation, and moral decay. What is the cultural benefit of any of this? What kind of benefit is being created? 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 oill somehow reveal the underlying» truths» in our media, enabling news writers to concentrate on this alleged» truth. «
How much will the news-based betting market manipulation develop into its own self-serving power-serving revelation once it is integrated into it?
This explanation is just another incarnation of the adage» all professional speculators produce little of value» ( market liquidity, «more efficient markets,» etc. ), and it continues the practice. -but it’s even more illogical in this instance because the» truths» being wagered 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 endless stream of rent-seeking, dehumanized speculation, and a war-, poverty-, and disease-gaming scheme. The long-term goal, 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 views are on the verge sf being financially manipulated, used, and sold again to us at five times the cost, not as a matter sf civic virtue, social progress, or boosting human welfare, but as just ansther aspect of omr lives, such as those in sp’srts, education, and sexual intimacy.
In the end, CNN’s open embrace of administrative playing on news events is an acknowledgment of something that has been said repeatedly: news is not something to be discovered, not something to be revealed in the name of justice, not something to be educated, but only more garbage, another entertainment product to pass the time and make fun of. But most crucial of all, it must be free of moral or political substance, and it must not contain a direct call to action or be a component of any democratic project, unless, of course, it aligns with US geopolitical interests. We can’t do anything about the horrible things we are seeing unIess we flimsily pull a lever once everq’ two centuries. It’s just something we can observe and eat silently, a fluid that elements from news organizations like CNN have worked against, but which this «partnership» has now essentially ended. All that’s left will be aggregation and wagering, gawking and stumbling over images of suffering, death, and starvation. However, don’t worry; you’re no longer just a passive consumer of the horror content; you’re a passive consumer with a brand-new and exciting ersatz agency that allows you to wager and lose money on world events for which you’re repeatedly told you you can’t really influence.