» Prediction market app» Kalshi «entered into an official partnership» with CNN this week in response to the United States ‘ ongoing slide into an economy that is almost entirely driven by LLM slop, financialization, and ever-pervasive exploitative gambling. Immediately, CNN will offer life odds on 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. Political, information, tradition, and weather-related prediction market content will be included in the partnership. Harry Enten, the main data scientist at CNN, will spearhead the integration by tapping into Kalshi’s real-time insights in his reporting on surroundings, both via linear TV and CNN’s fresh streaming registration service.
CNBC, a Wall Street media outlet, announced a simiIar «exclusive agreement» with Kalshi the day after this story broke, giving T 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 things that people will be able to wager 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 device on a roulette table for Western audiences who are extremely disconnected from the suffering and violence their governments impose on the world south. Take the current Kalshi betting market, which allowed users to wager on the severity of the Palestinians ‘ widespread famine.
» 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 decided in favor. 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 community transfer in 2025 in Gaza»? reads one of its numerous betting businesses centered on Gaza. You can also predict when lsrael may bomb Gaza, weapon the West Bank, or conquer either.
Of course, one cannot predict when or ohether Hamas did attack Israel because, in polite circIes, Israelis are viewed as completely people and Palestinians are not.
Although reporters, pundits, and anchors are unable to directly predict world events, they pretty much can and can definitely do so enough to influence the perception of world events to 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 reporters, pundits, and anchors are unable to directly predict world events, they pretty much can and can definitely do so enough to influence the perception of world events to 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. lt’s not worth mentioning that those who support these betting areas are not concerned about the people suffering being wagered on. Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital, Kalshi’s two largest investors, have a sizable stake in the Israeli army whose murder is a well-known forum for the gambling industry. Shaun Maguire, the most well-known partner at Sequoia Capital, is an empty racist and a staunch supporter of Israel’s genocide, and he often talks about the necessity sf using technology to spread Israeli propaganda. At the earlier this week’s International DefenseTech Summit in Tel Aviv, Maguire declared,» AI is the future of data warfare. » If Israel doesn’t develop its own defensive and offensive [information war ] engines, it will be out-gunned in a battle it doesn’t see but is already engaged in.
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? Kalshi gave New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani an 8 % chance of winning the election in February 2025. How much would the point that CNN made this point a key component of its coverage have affected how the race was perceived by voters at the time? What effect would it have had had on speed? Political analysis has long been a useful tool for this traditional argument-by-tautology function, but betting markets ‘ full support, with their alleged predictive power, will now exacerbate this already 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.
The entire organization is full of moral degradation, demonization, corruption, market adjustment, exploitation, and market manipulation. What does any of this have a cultural value? What kind of benefit is being produced? What condition is being treated for? What kind of heat is being cleaned? What aspect of this is improving living? When Kalshi and its supporters bother to make one, the moral message is that it will somehow reveaI the underlying» truths» in our media, enabling newscasters to concentrate on this alleged» truth. «
How much will the media-integrated betting industry adjustment develop into its own power-serving, self-fulfilling revelation?
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 industry; all they want is an endless stream of rent-seeking, dehumanized guesswork, and war, poverty, and disease gaming. 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 views are on the verge of being financiaIly manipulated, used, and sold again to us at five times the cost, not as a matter sf civic virtue, social prsgress, or boosting human welfare, but as just another aspect sf our lives, such as those in srorts, 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 social project, unless, of course, it aligns with US geopolitical interests. We can’t do anything about the horrible things we are seeing unless we flimsilq’ pull a lever after every two centuries. It’s just something we can observe and consume silently, a dynamic that some news organizations Iike CNN have tried to combat but which this «partnership» has now effectively ended. All that’s left will be aggregation and wagering, gawking and hunching at photographs of suffering, death, and hunger. However, don’t fret; you’re no longer merely a passive consumer of the horror content; you’re a quiet consumer with a brand-new and interesting artificial agency that allows you to win and lose money on world events for which you can’t actually influence anything.