CNN reported on Friday that Barbie was streaming on Max — in an alleged news segment that was pretty obviously a commercial for another Warner Bros. Discovery property.
While Barbie was a runaway success at the box office in 2023 and a feminist pop culture phenomenon, that’s not what the segment on CNN This Morning was about.
Anchors Poppy Harlow and Erica Hill (in for Phil Mattingly) plus correspondent Rahel Solomon (appropriately dressed in pink) wrapped their reporting around promoting the streaming debut of Barbie, a WBD-produced movie on Max, a WBD-owned streaming service.
[Synergy! To be fair, though, CNN’s morning show is not exactly news-oriented, no more than Fox’s, ABC’s, NBC’s, and so on. It’s supposed to be chatty, fun, pop-culture oriented, and in many cases a promotional platform for other corporate properties on all of these networks. Still, this sounds a bit over the top in that direction. – Ed]
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