In the end, the cowardly dogs won. Cartoonnetwork.com is the latest victim of David Zaslav and Warner Bros. Discovery’s endless campaign to make everything in the entertainment sector a little bit worse.The trove of beloved animated programming has been quietly scrubbed from the internet, in what was presumably yet another cost-cutting measure for the persistently beleaguered conglomerate. If you visit the site now, you’ll be greeted with the following popup:Looking for episodes of your favorite Cartoon Network shows? Check out what’s available to stream on Max (subscription required). Sign up for Max, where you can also create a Kids Profile with ratings restrictions and additional privacy protections to keep it fun and kid-friendly! Cable subscribers, continue to enjoy your favorite CN programming on your TV and connected apps as well!Clicking a “Stream Now” button at the bottom of the window will take you right back to the Max homepage, as your hard-earned dollars and beloved childhood memories flow through an invisible sewage pipe right into the Big Man’s pockets. It’s hard not to notice the phantom of a “Come on in!” message on the remnants of the now-inaccessible cartoonnetwork.com homepage, just adding to the pathos of it all.Luckily, Max has some of your favorite animated series. Heavy-hitters like The Powerpuff Girls, Adventure Time, Teen Titans, Courage The Cowardly Dog, and Ed, Edd n Eddy are all there, but equally heavy hitter’s like Dexter’s Laboratory, Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends, Johnny Bravo, and many more are nowhere to be found. That’s not to mention the online games and general free-ness of it all that are now both unfortunate relics of a better, bygone era. The scrubbing of Cartoon Network unfortunately follows a long campaign of similar affronts from Warner Bros. and its fellow studios. Earlier this summer, Paramount pulled the exact same move with their Comedy Central archives, to the extreme ire of their Daily Show writers and the general public. In addition to cutting hundreds of jobs, Warner Bros. Discovery also recently killed cartoon streaming service Boomerang, in addition to their generally deplorable treatment of their animated and child-friendly libraries over the years. (Not to mention the infamous shelvings of fully-completed films like Batgirl, Coyote Vs. Acme, and the Scoob! sequel.) Unfortunately for all of us, the company reported a stunning $10 billion net loss in its Q2 earnings on Wednesday, so more content murders are likely imminent.
