Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Welcome to Mamdani's NY where Inmates Run the Asylum plus Inside the Warner Brothers Deal

Transcript

Welcome to Mamdani's NY where Inmates Run the Asylum plus Inside the Warner Brothers Deal · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: When they tell you just how crazy they are, always
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: believe them inmates are running the asylum in New York City.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Is Mandani's new corrections commission actually did time in the
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: same jail he will now oversee. Appointee rejects punishment centered incarceration. Yeah, Mondani,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: you know, the communist, socialist, Marxist mayor of New York
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: City has now tapped literally an ex convict to run
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: the city's correction system. Now with the appointee is set
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: to oversee the same jail where he served time for robbery,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: named Saturday as a commissioner of the city's Department of
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Corrections with Stanley Richards, a former fellon term criminal justice reformer.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: That's what they call themselves now, as the new mayor's
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: administration aims to quote push a rehabilitation focus overhaul instead
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: of you know, like basic law and order, they call
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: it corrections. The sixty four year old Richards will take
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: office in mid February with an annual salary of two
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: hundred and forty three thousand dollars quote. Stanley will make
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: history in his role as the first ever formally incarcerated person.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: To serve as commissioner.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: Mundani said, I will turn to Stanley as we work
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: to build a city where justice is at the heart
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: of our correction system. Doesn't sound like justice, but okay,
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: we'll keep going.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: Now.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: Richards previously worked as president of a nonprofit Fortune Society
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: that provides housing and other services for ex cons. I'
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: let me be clear. I have no problem with someone
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: running and being involved in law and order if they've
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: had a criminal background the past, it wasn't you know,
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: is lent or something horrific. I believe that people can
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: be rehabilitated. What I don't believe in, and this has
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: nothing to do with whether you've been to jail or not,
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: is if you believe that incarcerating people is somehow evil,
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: instead of actually incarcerating people because of the evil that person,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: the crimes that person committed. There is a difference. I
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: want to be very very clear about that. Now, he
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: worked with this nonprofit that they say service X cons.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: That's great, okay, I have no issue with that. I
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: don't hold that against him. If that's how you rehabilitate
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: you come back, that's wonderful. And what the mayor stands
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: for that is actually the threat to society and the
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: people of New York City. Now he's also the city
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: Department of Corrections former Deputy Commissioner of Programs and Operations.
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: So this guy's like knee deep in it all. Right.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: Let me tell you his background so you understand what
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: we're dealing with here. Richards was convicts of robbery in
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: the late nineteen eighties and serve two and a half
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: years on Rikers Island before doing an additional four and
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: a half years in state prison that according to news reports,
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: he was released in ninety one. In his remarks, Richard
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: supported Mandannie's progressive vision of corrections and rejected what he
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: described as a punishment centered approach to incarceration. Okay, so
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: let's be clear what that means, because that's a lot
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: of like new age bs there, and we're just going
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: to break it down what this dude and what Mandanni
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: have said. And this is what we know Mandannia said.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: So it's this again. Come as no surprise. I say
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: it over and over again. When they tell you how
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: crazy they are, believe them. Okay, like just believe them,
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: always believe them when they show their true colors of
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: how insane they actually are. What they believe is that
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: you should not punish someone for the crimes they commit,
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: but instead, in essence, you should give them like a
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: warm hug. You should embrace them and be like, it's okay,
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: little timmy, and treat them like a child. They don't
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: believe that if you commit a Han's crime, that you
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: should be held accountable for.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: That heinous crime.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: That is something they say absolutely not right. Like they
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: believe that that is just straight up wrong, and that
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: holding people in jail is wrong. Holding people in jail
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: is something that they believe is fundamentally evil, no matter
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: really what you've done. That's why they go back to
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: prison reform and jail reform, which is what they are
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: obsessed with. They're obsessed with prison reform, jail reform, and
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: abolishing the police. I want to remind you, Mandonni said
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: he wanted to get rid of all police. Mandonnie thinks
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: that ice officers are the Gestapo, right, that they're the
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: worst people in the world. Mandanni believes that law enforcement
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: or evil and the bad guys are somehow good.
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: Quote.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: I'm going to go back to this guy, all right.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: Today we turn the page and we start a new
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: era under Mayor Mandani. Richard said, Richard is taking over
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: jail system in crisis. According to reports, in recent years,
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: the jails have been played with staff misconduct, violence, and
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: drug overdoses. At least seventy six people died in custody
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: between twenty nineteen and twenty twenty five, including fifteen alone
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: last year, according to city data, and a plan to
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: close the facility and replace it with similar borough based
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: facilities has stalled in the face of a rising jail
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: population and political resistance.
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: According to report.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: By Fox News, The appointment comes as New York City
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: jail system remains under heightened federal scrutiny. Earlier this week,
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: federal judge appointed an outside remediation manager to oversee reforms
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: at Rikers Islands after years of violence, staff shortages, and
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: federal court findings that city leadership failed to fix the
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: conditions inside the jail. Rikers by the Way was originally
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: said to be demolished by August of twenty twenty seven
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: by former Mayor Bill Deblasio. Under that Rikers closure, Plantennes
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: would be moved to four other jails under construction, and
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: every borough but Staten Island. All right, So now you
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: understand the background, right, That's how you defund the police.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: This is how you do prison reform and bail reform.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: You say everything that happens is somehow bad and evil
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: and to the people that were actually committing bad and
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: evil crimes, and then you get rid of the punishment
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: for them and you give them a kumbay is let's
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: hug it out plant. That's what the socialists, communists and
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: Marxist wants now nearly seven years later. Here's the other
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: thing about liberals. The one thing they're really good at
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: is spending money costs a balloon. And the jails are
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: not close to being ready, all right. So the corruption
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: in these new jails that they were building to replace
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: Rikers Island and the old jail have skyrocketed and they're
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: not even close to being ready, because that's what happens
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: when you have government corruption involved in mark my word,
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: I'm sure there's plenty of ants, uncles, cousins, best friends,
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: Bubba's sisters that are getting paid on the corruption of
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: these jails that they're building. The mayor says to people
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: are ready to work with the federally appointed manager, saying, quote,
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: my administration has and we look forward to working with
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: the remediation manager on improving conditions in our city's jails,
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: both for those in custody and for corrections officers.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: Mandown, he said in his statement.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: Now, the Department of Corrections employees more than seventy two
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: hundred people, including nearly five thousand uniformed officers organized in
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: the Corrections Officers Benevolent Association known as COBRA. In a
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: statement post on acts, Corrections Officers been evolent, association president
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: said the jails cannot and will not operate as safely
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: as possible if the concerns of our members are brushed aside.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: He says, it's our hope that mister Richards understands the
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: dynamics and he takes on this new role and demonstrates
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: a commitment to putting safety and security before political ideology.
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: Now here's the problem. They're not gonna do that.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: Why they've made it clear what they believe. They believe
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: that jails are bad and we should shut them down
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: and close them. They believe that bad guys shouldn't go
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: to jail. They believe that the police are the bad guys.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: They believe that federal law enforcement are literally the Nazis.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: So if you think they're gonna fix this. You're insane
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: For the next sixty seconds, can you hit pause on
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: your life and just think about this?
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: In communities around the world, millions of.
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: Children like Lucy faced the crushing weight of poverty, hunger, illness,
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: and a lack of opportunity dim their bright futures. But
• 8:51
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• 8:57
  Speaker 1: receives nourishing food, vital medical care, and the chance to
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: go to school. She learns life skills, develops God given talents,
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: and builds a loving relationship with Jesus. It's a journey
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: from vulnerability to empowerment, and it's sparked literally by your love.
• 9:16
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• 9:21
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• 9:24
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• 9:28
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• 9:34
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• 9:38
  Speaker 1: learn more. Let me just take a bigger step back
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: and go back to what Mundanni believes right like the
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: question that all of you should be asking, It's the
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: same question that I ask, What does Mundanni believe? And
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: what has he said in his past about jails, police
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: law enforcement. That's the question. Well, when you put a
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: guy that's next Cohn in charge of your jails, and
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: you know that guy's on the record saying that he
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: doesn't believe that you should use jails as a form
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: of punishment, then you understand what they want to do.
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: They want to let the crazies out. Right.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: That's just the truth of it, right, that's what Mundanni believes.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: Mundanni is a guy that I think clearly hates law enforcement.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: I think that's pretty darn clear. And he's made it
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: clear he doesn't trust them, he doesn't like them, he
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: doesn't respect them, and he wants to get rid of them.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: I don't have to guess that is what he has
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: actually said. That he believes when they tell you what
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: they believe, when they tell you what their values are,
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: believe them. They will tell you. Mundanni has made it
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: clear what he believes. Not only is he the man
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: in charge of New York City now, but he's putting
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: people in office that do what socialists do. Early on,
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: all right, during his political rise, he was extremely critical
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: in this I'm going back to an article and I'm
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: going to read this to you. He was a critic
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: of policing and incarceration early in his political career. Man
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: Donnie urged that increasing policing and incarceration does little to
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: prevent harm, and that social investments, jobs, stability services do
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: more to keep people safe. So don't lock up murders
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: and rapists. No, no, no, no, Instead you give them free stuff, right,
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: that's what socialists believe. He also criticized publicly the New
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: York Police Department in twenty twenty. In a tweet, he
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: referred to the NYPD as racist, anti queer, and a
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: major threat to public safety and called to quote unquote
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: defund the New York Police Department.
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: Let me just go over that again.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: Twenty twenty, he put on a tweet that the New
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: York Police Department was a major threat to safety.
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: So not when these.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: Guys are out there risking their lives to get bad,
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: horrible people off the streets.
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: Mundani says, no, no, they are a threat to society.
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: This is how you literally turn people against police. You
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: say things just like this, which is I mean, I
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: just had it for you there. It's very clear when
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: they tell you they hate police and they want to
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: abolish them and that they're a threat to the society.
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: Believe them.
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: Then he called and again put the money where your
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: mouth is to defund the police department. In an interview
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: from his earlier run for office, Mandonny questioned the purpose
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: of prisons and asked rhetorically whether they truly quote unquote
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: serve communities, suggesting the need for a justice system focus
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: more on repair, as he described it, than punishment. As
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: a campaigned for mayor, some of his views evolved, of course, right,
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: he moved from away from defund the police rhetoric, but
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: in twenty twenty five because like, all right, well that
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: may be too radical, but it's what I believe, but
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: I'll downplay it a little bit, right, I'll tone it down.
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: He then said this in twenty twenty five, he would
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: work with police in core public safety roles while advocating
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: for more community based solutions to underlying causes of crime.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: So he still believes what he believed before, but he
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: knew he couldn't just straight up say it in twenty
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: twenty five, even though he's said in twenty twenty, twenty
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: twenty one, twenty twenty two, but now he's running for office,
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: I go, I gotta change that a little bit right
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: doesn't poll well.
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: He also.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: Advocates for what he says is community centered public safety.
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: What does that even mean? Quote?
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: His public safety plan focused on addressing mental health, homelessness, poverty,
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: and inequality as part of preventing violence, rather than just
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: increasing police enforcement. All right, so let's talk about that
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: for a second. Do you want to know what happened
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: over the last week in New York City when they
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: had a deep freeze. Mandani changed the rule they used
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: to go round up people that had mental health issues
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: in the streets when they knew they were gonna likely
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: they would freeze to death when it's seven degrees outside.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: That is a normal, insane rule, especially for people that
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: are having a hard time dealing with public health issues.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: It's the right thing to do, right, someone's in the
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: public health issues. That doesn't mean they deserve to die,
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: doesn't mean they deserve to freeze literally to death.
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: What did Mandani do? No, no, no, I'm a socialist.
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: There's crazy people out there in the streets, and we
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: can get rid of them through freezing to death. And sure,
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: why not? That was his mentality, folks. And then a
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: bunch of people died, and when that happens, you would
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: think that people would be.
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: Angry over it.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: No, Mandani, No, no, no, like people froze to death
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: because of your policy, because I guess homeless people don't
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: actually count as people in the world of Mendanni.
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: That is who he is.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: I was asked about this on TV, and I want
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: you to hear what I'd say on Newsmax about this
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: the other night when the news broke of how many
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: people had frozen to death, literally all because they may
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: or decided to change a policy that he knew was
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: going to cost people their lives. This is the same
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: area that does have compassion and said this week we're
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: going to have universal childcare for illegal immigrants that he's
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: going to force the people to pay for in New
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: York City.
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: So that's his priority.
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: Now, if you're deal with mental health issues and you're
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: outside in seven degrees, I don't have time for you.
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: You're not a top priority of mine.
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: In fact, he deliberately chose to change a policy that
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: if you talk to any homeless expert, anybody that deals
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: with this issue, they would tell you immediately you have
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: a lot of people. They are homeless to deal with
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: mental health issues, schizophrenia, and the list.
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: Goes on and on.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: If you have compassion for them, they would have told
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: the mayor, these people will die if you don't remove
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: them from the streets. They could go back in history
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: and talk about how many beds are needed and how
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: many homeless people are taking off the streets when there
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: is a deep freeze like this. They have all that data.
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: But from Mundani that he didn't care about who was
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: going to die. It's an ideological viewpoint perspective he's obsessed with,
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: which is I have compassion by not dealing with things
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: because I don't want to disrupt people, and if they
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: want to die, we let them die. This is no
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: different than assistant suicide. In essence, you knew people were
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: going to die. If you put any person outside at
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: seven degrees, there's a very good chance they're going to die.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: And he deliberately made that decision. But hey, at least
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: we have universal childcare for legal immigrants today, so we
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: got that. You listen to the facts on this and
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: go back to what Mandanni believes. He proposed a Department
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: of Community Safety rather than having police handle all crisises
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: Mundanni propose a new civilian led department that would take
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: over things like mental health, crisis responses and social outreach,
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: leaving violent crime enforcement.
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: He says to the police, Okay, so let's go back
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: to this.
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: Some do gooder who's not a police officer, not law enforcement,
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: walks up to a homeless person dealing with real mental
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: health issues to get them to not freeze to death.
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: You think that's going to go overwell. And then when
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: they don't respond to that person doesn't have any authority
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: to arrest them or to take them because they're going
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: to save their life. We're supposed to applaud that. We're
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: supposed to applaud that. That's how sick the Left has become.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: When they tell you how crazy they are, believe them.
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: Congress is going to hold a Senate antitrust hearing on
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: Tuesday focused on the proposed acquisition of Warner Brothers Discovery
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: by Netflix. Now it's a blockbuster media deal, and that's
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: why there's a lot of attention around it, and it's
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: roughly seventy plus billion, all right. Lawmakers want to examine
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: whether the deal could reduce competition in the entertainment and
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: streaming markets. And if there could be quote harm to consumers.
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: Now you may be saying, wait, what, how is this
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: all happening?
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: What's this? Why is this happening?
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: The world that we are and now has changed drastically
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: because of streaming and how we consume things. So you're
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: gonna have the Netflix at co CEO. He's scheduled to
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee, an anti trust subcommittee,
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: and answer lawmakers questions about the merger.
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: Then you're gonna have Warner.
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: Brother executives who are also expected to participate and explain
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: their perspective on the deal. And what lawmakers are focused
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: on is antitrust and competition. So to break some of
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: this down, I decided I'd call a man that deals
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: with this every day. Rich Greenfeld is a partner and
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: TMT analysts at light Shed Partners, the GP, Light Shed Ventures,
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: Media Futurists and co hos so the light Shed podcast
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: and grab it wherever you get your podcasts, And I
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: decided we'd have him on to talk about what this
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: means for the average American. So let's just start with
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: the overall bigger picture here, Rich, and I appreciate you
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: coming on the way that we consume things has changed drastically.
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: YouTube is a great example of that. It is an
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: entertainment marketplace. It's evolving right now into literally TV and streaming.
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: You've got social media platforms that are also vying for
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: all of our attention with reels and stories and shows
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: that are up there as well. So you look at
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: the current landscape, why is this relevant in context of
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: the acquisition with Warner Brothers Discovery by Netflix, and what
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: question should consumers be asking?
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: Well, love that, I think, first all, thank you for
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: having me. It's a fascinating time in media landscape. I'm
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: sure as all of your listeners around the country are realizing.
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: The way we consume entertainment has changed pretty dramatically. I
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: mean the fact that the single largest platform, you know,
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: when you look at what people are watching on a
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: TV screen, so like this is actually on the big
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: screen TV in your living room the number one place
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: or piece of content and people are turning to on
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: that big screen television in twenty twenty sixes YouTube. That's
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: pretty crazy, Ben, because I think if we were to
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: go back twenty years ago, obviously that was zero, you know,
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: ten years ago, that was tiny. And the fact that
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: it is literally exploded really over the last five or
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: six years to become the dominant place. You know, there's
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: more times watching New to the TV than editing together ABC, ESPN,
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: Disney Plus, FULUS, the entire Disney Armada YouTube is bigger.
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: And so that's a tremendous change in how we can
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: I have three kids myself, I look at their media behavior.
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: I look at what they turn on when they get
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: home from school. Like the way that we are consuming
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: content has traumatically changed.
• 21:51
  Speaker 4: And that's part of the challenge.
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: You know, I think what Congress on Tuesday and what
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: regularly looking at this transaction to the Department of Justice
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: and the court system if.
• 22:01
  Speaker 4: It ends up there.
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: The challenge that they all have to think about is.
• 22:05
  Speaker 4: What is the relevant market?
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: Is the market streaming meaning preemium streaming, So a Netflix
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: or a Hulu is the market all of TV, which
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: includes broadcast TV where the Grammys are tonight, where the
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: Oscars are going to be on YouTube eventually? So do
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: you include YouTube? You know, you can watch the NFL
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: now on YouTube. There was a game out of Brazil
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: Sunday ticket is on YouTube. So do you include streaming
• 22:30
  Speaker 3: free television? Do you include broadcast TV? Do you include
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: ESPN and all of cable TV? Do you include things
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: like TikTok, which are not really things you watch on
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: the TV, but are where you consume entertainment. So the
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: challenge for everyone is what is the actual market that
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: we're analyzing, who competes with who? Obviously there's going to
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: be some people in Congress and regulators who want to
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: define this really narrowly, like this is just Netflix versus
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: Hulu or Netflix versus Amazon pime video. That seems like
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: a very primitive way or a very overly simplified way
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: of looking at it, and certainly not the way your
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: listeners think about their choices when they get home from
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: a hard day at work. I think they're literally thinking
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: about YouTube in the same breath that they're thinking about
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: turning on Netflix or CBS. They're all competing for time.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they're all competing for time and eyeballs. Which look,
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: when I looked at this deal in general, my first
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: question was, Okay, are Americans gonna get hurt?
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: And I'm talking about jobs.
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: Are they gonna be lost if one in a big way,
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: if one side gets it or the other. I look
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: at Netflix, I'm like, all right, well that's American. They're
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: gonna do a lot in America. They also are in
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: a studio, but this would make them into one, which
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: would mean I would assume more job creation here. That
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: was obviously a big perk for me. There's also questions
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: that I've asked about, all right, well, where's the money
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: coming from to buy this, because this is a big
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: price tag.
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: Talk to me and break that down a little bit.
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: Well, okay, so John is interesting, right, because you know,
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: if you've looked first of all, we should step back
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: and say, for your listeners, part of the reason we're
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: having this conversation is not there's not just one person
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: that wants to buy Warner Brothers and Netflix. There's another company, Paramount,
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: that's very interested and has made a hostile bid. After
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: their first or after their first several offers were rejected,
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: they are still trying to buy the company. But if
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: we're simply going to look at job creation or even
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: job status flow, you know, Netflix is not in the
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: theatrical business. They are not in the syndication. They don't
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: take TV shows and license them around the world, as
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: you said, while they are building a studio.
• 24:41
  Speaker 4: And they've been building a studio for many years.
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: They don't have a studio the scale and the size
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: of the studio, depth and catalog that.
• 24:49
  Speaker 4: Warner Brothers does.
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: And so I think if you look at this, you
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: can say that Netflix has probably put more money into
• 24:54
  Speaker 3: the entertainment business on an annual basis securely into entertainment
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: in any other company, not just in America.
• 25:00
  Speaker 4: But around the world.
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: And so I think you can very much point to
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: this and say Netflix, from a job standpoint, will be
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: good for the entertainment industry. They are not looking to
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: This is not about cost cutting. I don't think any
• 25:13
  Speaker 3: part of the Netflix acquisition has been built around cost cutting. Now,
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: Paramount is also trying to buy Warner Brothers. They have
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: said they're going to keep both studios running fully independently,
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: but I'll tell you they're also talking about, you know,
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: billions upon billions of dollars of cost savings.
• 25:30
  Speaker 4: And I'll just be honest with you.
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: I remember back when Disney bought Fox and the whole
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: act with you know, this was one during the first
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: Prump administration, if you remember, a big part of that was, oh,
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: we're going to keep Fox fully independent. Well, I'll tell
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: you now, what is It's seven years later. Fox is
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: a shell of itself, and yes it does release some movies,
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: but you've seen dramatically, a dramatic strength and a tremendous
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: amount of the overhead, meaning jobs of the two studios
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: was a eliminated. Like there's a tremendous amount of duplicative
• 26:02
  Speaker 3: jobs between Powamount and Warner Brothers that certainly doesn't exist
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: in Netflix. No, there's a Netflix skeptic out there that said, oh,
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: Netflix won't release movies and movie theaters. They are just
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: saying that to get approval. You know, obviously there's no
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: way to know what Netflix ultimately does. But I will
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: say they seem more committed to being in the theatrical
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: business than I ever expected them to be. If you
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: were to asked me about this transaction on your show
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: six months ago, I would have said, there's no way
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: they're going to do theatrical. They seem pretty committed to
• 26:32
  Speaker 3: getting into the theatrical business, which surprises me. But it
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: is also to your point, good for jobs.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: There is a concern, I'm one of them, about foreign influence,
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: and I want American made movies and entertainment to be
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: made here without outside influence. A great example of some
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: of that outside influence we've witnessed was when Todd Gren
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: Maverick was not even allowed to be shown over in
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: China because of a patch that was on jacket that
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: that was in favor of, you know, supporting Taiwan.
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: Like, I see things like that, and I'm like, all right,
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: I want.
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: To make sure those movies still get made without foreign
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: inf So break that down for me. Where's the money
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: coming from the for for all this to get done?
• 27:15
  Speaker 4: Well?
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: I mean, look, you know, the reality is, you know,
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: when you look at private equity broadly defined, more and
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: more of it has certainly come from overseas. Certainly the
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: Middle East has been the huge driver of major transactions
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: in the US. I mean, Ben, I don't know if
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: you're folks how much you focus on it. But EA,
• 27:36
  Speaker 3: which you know, makes big games, like you know, the
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: ocean games that your listeners play, that is being acquired,
• 27:45
  Speaker 3: you know, by sovereign wealth. You know, it's being acquired
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: by Saudi Arabia's you know, public investment. Fun So if
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: and so Middle East is not just targeting you.
• 27:55
  Speaker 4: Know, Sollywood.
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: They are really looking across the entertainment ecosystem and.
• 28:01
  Speaker 4: Making big acquisitions. Now, you know, we'll.
• 28:03
  Speaker 3: See, obviously from a regulatory standpoint, whether all of these
• 28:07
  Speaker 3: things are quote unquote allowed. You know, I think there
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: are certainly going to be challenges and questions of whether
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: this is good and what's the longer term impact. Obviously,
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: we saw what happened with TikTok and how much the
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: government did not want something that. Forget about even the spying,
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: that there was a fear that China could influence the algorithm,
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: China could manipulate, and whether it was true or not,
• 28:30
  Speaker 3: there was enough fear regulatory wise to force a sale
• 28:34
  Speaker 3: of the algorithm and of the US business.
• 28:37
  Speaker 4: To US investors.
• 28:39
  Speaker 3: And so this is clearly, in the government's mind, a
• 28:42
  Speaker 3: clear and present danger. We'll see whether what happens with TikTok,
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: what happened with EA.
• 28:47
  Speaker 4: And then obviously there's no.
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: Issue with foreign money for the Netflix Warner Brothers transaction
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: because Netflix is obviously a US company. They are funding
• 28:56
  Speaker 3: this transaction entirely themselves. But the the bidder against them paramount.
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: While Larry Nelson is putting up some of the capital
• 29:05
  Speaker 3: from his family's wealth, the majority of the actually of
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: the equity of the transaction is being financed from three
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East, and while they
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: are quote unquote giving up all governance in control, they
• 29:18
  Speaker 3: certainly are investing the single largest dollar amounts in this transaction.
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: And so look at you know, whether there is a
• 29:25
  Speaker 3: siffiust regulatporty concern TVD.
• 29:28
  Speaker 4: They've obviously said there is not.
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: I assume that will take time to actually ascertain if in.
• 29:34
  Speaker 4: Fact they end up winning the bidding for this transaction.
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: But look, I think you're actually raising a really important
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: point of forget about whether we're talking about Hollywood and
• 29:42
  Speaker 3: movie or TV broad inness to whether it's video games,
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: things like TikTok social media feeds. Do we want any
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: of these things that have such an impact on culture,
• 29:53
  Speaker 3: especially on young people and the culture they grow up on.
• 29:57
  Speaker 3: How much do they do we want outside foreign influence
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: in the control of these things. And it's it's a
• 30:02
  Speaker 3: great and important question that everyone should be asking.
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's an important one.
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: And you talk about I mean, even with live golf
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: and the PGA Tour, we've seen that battle play out
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: with outside influence.
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: Be like, wait, what do you why? Why?
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: Why are there so many people trying to throw so
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: much money getting into American households, uh and American you know,
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: different products or Europe. I mean, golf's a great example
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: of that. There's been a lot of debate over that one,
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: and it's certainly on this one as well. Let me
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: let me go back to the jobs question and expand
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: on that just a little bit. Paramount, by the way,
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: they're relatively small for a media company, as was by
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: the way, Skydance when it acquired it. So is there
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: a concern should there be a concern about Paramount being
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: able to operate a business that is of Warner Brothers
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: Discovery size, especially when they're already so leveraged.
• 30:50
  Speaker 3: Look, we have a we have We are very excited
• 30:55
  Speaker 3: by David Ellison coming in. Pireamount has been a company
• 30:58
  Speaker 3: I don't know how long you follow sort of the
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: Redstone family struggles and the challenges that this has been
• 31:04
  Speaker 3: a trouble company for a long time.
• 31:06
  Speaker 4: And bringing in someone like.
• 31:07
  Speaker 3: David Ellison, who not just has a tremendous amount of
• 31:11
  Speaker 3: family wealth but also has a love of content, really
• 31:17
  Speaker 3: wants to build and leverage technology.
• 31:20
  Speaker 4: This is a great thing for Paramount.
• 31:22
  Speaker 3: You know, having a fresh start to life. And I
• 31:27
  Speaker 3: think you know you mentioned the word leverage. The beauty
• 31:29
  Speaker 3: of the Paramount Skidace transaction is that leverage was brought down.
• 31:33
  Speaker 3: They actually gave it a point where they could be
• 31:35
  Speaker 3: aggressive investors. I don't know if you watched the UFC
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: either of the last two Saturday nights, but they went
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: out and they spent a billion dollars plus.
• 31:42
  Speaker 4: On the UFC rights.
• 31:43
  Speaker 3: Like they are aggressively investing in their business really for
• 31:47
  Speaker 3: the first time in probably a decade, Like you are
• 31:49
  Speaker 3: seeing Paramount actually in the you know, take control and
• 31:53
  Speaker 3: actually be an aggressive investor.
• 31:55
  Speaker 4: That is great.
• 31:56
  Speaker 3: The challenge with Warner Brothers is that they're then trying
• 31:59
  Speaker 3: to because they are don't have enough cash because they
• 32:01
  Speaker 3: are a smaller company. As you point out, they're levering
• 32:04
  Speaker 3: up aggressively. And that's what worries me is I don't
• 32:07
  Speaker 3: like in a business of TV with so much is changing.
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: We talked about it at the top of the segment,
• 32:14
  Speaker 3: how behavior consumer behavior is shifting. Levering up is not
• 32:19
  Speaker 3: you know, having a tremendous amount of debt is not
• 32:21
  Speaker 3: really where you want to be as a media company.
• 32:23
  Speaker 4: In twenty twenty six, and so.
• 32:25
  Speaker 3: I actually think Paramount would be better off not buying
• 32:28
  Speaker 3: Warner Brothers and simply investing in itself, you know, if
• 32:32
  Speaker 3: it doesn't have more capital from Larry directly. I actually
• 32:35
  Speaker 3: think going to solo Paths would actually be a better
• 32:38
  Speaker 3: outcome for investors than over levering the company. But you know,
• 32:43
  Speaker 3: we'll see, obviously, you know, it all comes down to money,
• 32:46
  Speaker 3: and if they can raise enough money, I am sure
• 32:49
  Speaker 3: there is some price where they could beat Netflix or
• 32:51
  Speaker 3: Warner Brothers, but it's going to take a lot of
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: firepower to convince the board to switch from Netflix over
• 32:58
  Speaker 3: to Paramount.
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: Final question for you, if you could be at this
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: hearing on Tuesday, what's the number one question you'd want
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: to ask?
• 33:06
  Speaker 4: Well, I mean, I think it's funny.
• 33:09
  Speaker 3: I think I would literally start off by just saying
• 33:12
  Speaker 3: to each senator who's interviewing, I'd love for them to
• 33:15
  Speaker 3: answer the question, what is the number one use in
• 33:21
  Speaker 3: terms of content consumption of television?
• 33:25
  Speaker 4: Like, do they even realize?
• 33:26
  Speaker 3: I'm actually curious how many senators in the hearing actually
• 33:30
  Speaker 3: realize that there's more time spent watching YouTube than everything
• 33:35
  Speaker 3: that the Walt Disney Company creates than everything that Netflix
• 33:39
  Speaker 3: and Amazon create, Like, are they aware of that?
• 33:42
  Speaker 4: I think that would be a big one.
• 33:44
  Speaker 3: And then the second piece bend that I think is
• 33:46
  Speaker 3: important is I do think I would question them on
• 33:49
  Speaker 3: are they aware of what happened.
• 33:50
  Speaker 4: With Disney Plus and Hulu?
• 33:52
  Speaker 3: Because remember Disney butt Fox and by getting Fox, Disney
• 33:55
  Speaker 3: got control of Hulu. And if you look at what's
• 33:59
  Speaker 3: happened with Disney Plus in Hulu. So right now, if
• 34:02
  Speaker 3: your listeners have either Disney Plus or Hulu individually and
• 34:06
  Speaker 3: they kick it with ad so they take the cheapest
• 34:08
  Speaker 3: plan possible for Disney Plus, your listeners are paying eleven
• 34:12
  Speaker 3: ninety nine. For Hulu, your listeners are paying eleven ninety nine,
• 34:16
  Speaker 3: but the bundle of Disney Plus and Hulu is twelve
• 34:20
  Speaker 3: ninety nine.
• 34:21
  Speaker 4: So when you think about the consumer.
• 34:23
  Speaker 3: Value of bundling and how much bundling channels creates really
• 34:29
  Speaker 3: cost savings for consumers. So Hulu Disney Plus a study
• 34:33
  Speaker 3: is a great example of how Netflix plus Hbo would
• 34:38
  Speaker 3: be a great thing for consumers because you may end
• 34:41
  Speaker 3: up with a lot more content for a very slight
• 34:45
  Speaker 3: increase in price relative to what you're paying for for
• 34:48
  Speaker 3: each of these individually.
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: Penys on the dollars.
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: Basically what you're saying, it's like it's almost like a
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: buy one, get a huge. It's a bogo, right, you
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: buy one, you get one at dirt cheap.
• 34:57
  Speaker 3: Per I mean, that's what it is with Disney and Hulu,
• 35:00
  Speaker 3: basically getting If you buy Disney Plus, you get Hulu
• 35:02
  Speaker 3: for a dollar. If you get Hulu, you get Disney
• 35:04
  Speaker 3: Plus for a dollar. That's a pretty tremendous deal for consumers.
• 35:08
  Speaker 3: I don't know that that's what Hbo and Netflix. It
• 35:11
  Speaker 3: would be a good question to ask them to think
• 35:12
  Speaker 3: about how they're thinking about pricing.
• 35:14
  Speaker 4: The combined services.
• 35:16
  Speaker 3: But if you certainly look at Disney Plus and Hulu,
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: the end result has been a tremendous win for consumers.
• 35:23
  Speaker 4: There's no doubt about it.
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: Rich.
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: I appreciate your time, Rich Greenfield. I don't forget Grab
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: the podcast, the Light Shed podcasts. Wherever you get your podcasts,
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: they dive into a lot of this type of stuff.
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: I hope this helped answer a lot of questions. Well,
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: keep following this story. I can promise you that we've
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: got a lot more that's going to happen the days ahead,
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: So make sure you don't forget grab our podcast, the
• 35:43
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• 35:47
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• 35:50
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