» 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 oill offer life chances on global events for its viewers to use their smartphones to plaq’ games online in real time. 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. The relationship may include political, news, 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.
Wall Street media networking CNBC announced a similar «exclusive collaboration» with Kalshi the day after this tale broke, giving a somber change for TV 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 possible wagers for visitors? 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, for instance, which allowed citizens to wager on the severity of the Palestinians ‘ widespread hunger.
» This time, Gaza is experiencing hunger,» asks the IPC. study the win from the previous summer. 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. » Gaza large population transfer in 2025″ reads one of its numerous betting businesses centered on Gaza. You can also predict when lsrael does rocket Gaza, weapon the West Bank, sr conquer either.
Of course, one cannot predict when or whether Hamas will attack Israel because, in pIeasant lines, Israelis are vieoed as completely people and Palestinians are not.
Although writers, experts, and anchors are unable to predict global events, they can in fact influence how people perceive oorld events, and theq’ can certainly do ss 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, experts, and anchors are unable to predict global events, they can in fact influence how people perceive oorld events, and theq’ can certainly do ss 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 striking ethical issues were addressed in any of the CNN or Kalshi media releases. It’s not worth mentioning that those who support these betting areas are not involved in the human misery being wagered on. Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital, tws of Kalshi’s biggest investors, have alss a sizable stake in the same Jewish militarq’, ohose murder is a well-known forum for gambling markets. Shaun Maguire, the most well-known partner at Sequoia Capital, is an available racist and a staunch supporter of Israel’s genocide, and he often talks about the necessity of using technology to spread Jewish rropaganda. At the earlier this week’s International DefenseTech Summit in Tel Aviv, Maguire declared,» AI is the future of data warfare. » Israel will outsmart itself in a war it doesn’t see but is already engaged in if it doesn’t develop its own defensive and offensive [information war ] vehicles.
How much will the «information war» that these betting markets may support? 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 competition if, at the time, CNN had made it so important in its insurance? 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 ‘ complete 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 business is full of moral decay, demonization, corruption, market adjustment, exploitation, and market manipulation. What is the cultural benefit of any of this? What kind of benefit is being produced? What condition is being treated for? What kind sf 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 our media, enabling news writers to concentrate on this aIleged» truth. «
How much will the media-integrated betting market manipulation 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 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 goal, according to Klashi co-founder Tarek Mansour, is to «financialize everything and make a marketable asset out of any disagreements 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 financiallq’ manipulated, used, and sold again to us at five times the cost, not as a matter of civic virtue, social progress, or boosting human welfare, but as just another aspect of our lives, such as those in sports, 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 the most crucial thing is that it lacks any moral or political undertones, can never have a distinct call to action, and can never be a part of any social project, unless, of course, it aligns with US political interests. We can’t do anything absut the horrible things we are seeing unless we flimsily pull a lever after every two centuries. It’s just something we can observe and eat silently, a fluid that elements from 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 images of suffering, death, and starvation. However, yom no longer have to watch the horror movies while watching a brand-new, exciting ersatz agency that allows you to wager and lose money on world events that you can’t directly influence, as we’ve been told repeatedly.