CNN, More ads than news?

It all started when one student brought in an article about the Trayvon Martin case, published by CNN. As part of the journalism class (which I would highly recommend) we bring in and analyze articles. I had recently deleted the CNN app, instead opting for subscriptions to The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the NPR app. I made this decision after noticing a trend with CNN where they would either not report on the whole story or only report on stories that benefited progressive/liberal causes. After some more research with The Media Bias Chart and the website Media Bias/Fact Check, I realized I was not alone in that belief. After reading the article on CNN’s website, we barely even discussed the actual topic they were writing about, even though it was very intense and heavy. Instead of being aghast with the disgustingness of a man selling the gun he shot a child with, the thing most of us were shocked about was the amount of ads on CNN’s website and just how invasive they were. Immediately upon opening the webpage, I was greeted by a massive popup ad suggesting I check the mortgage of my home to see if it has changed in the Trump administration. In the same pop-up window, two CNN articles are suggested, along with two “sponsored” webpages (clickable ads) without any distinction between them except for a tiny CNN logo in the corner of the articles. When I tested the link the next day to write this article, instead of a popup, I was greeted by an ad at the top of the page that took up more of the screen than anything else, as seen here:

As I read the article, I found it hard to focus as once I began to scroll, an ad on the side, taking up about one-quarter of the screen, scrolled with me. By the time that ad stopped, I was quickly met with an even worse sight: a series of ads disguised to look like more articles, as seen here:

Not to belabor the point, but, once the article ended, the page was not even halfway done. I was intrigued, so I scrolled down. This is where the most shocking discovery took place… more than half of the webpage was made up of a mix of disguised ads and real CNN articles without much to distinguish between them.

This goes on for an extremely long time, and by the time you have made it to the end of the page, something surely has caught your interest, but who knows if it is just a “Sponsored link.” or an actual news article.