Friends, my latest article is hot off the presses (which exist mainly in my mind, and are VERY hot!). I tackle the issue of Netflix's proposed takeover of Warner Brothers, which I find...appalling. See what you make of my point of view.
A Pox on the House of Netflix!
The recent announcement that Warner Brothers, a Hollywood institution for over a century, will be acquired by Netflix, one of the wokest Big Tech companies around, should set off alarm bells for anyone who cares about the future of America and our popular culture. The Trump Administration simply cannot allow this merger from leftist Hades (much worse than regular Hades) to proceed.
Netflix's catalog of offenses against decency and traditional values is voluminous. Take, for instance, its trumpeting of the trans agenda...to kids, no less! Netflix's constant nods to identity politics, moreover, make much of its programming unwatchable to anyone who didn't ooze “joy” the moment Kamala(!) became the Democratic Party annointee for president... Meanwhile, Netflix's fascination with leftist narratives, from climate change to “undocumented” immigrants, has laid bare its ideological bias. These manifold sins, in combination with the low quality and limited scope of Netflix's offerings, made it an easy decision for me to cut the (digital) cord to Netflix years ago, and I've never looked back.
Warner Brothers, sadly, is proving less discerning. For reasons that beggar belief, it has accepted an inferior offer from Netflix, spurning a much larger bundle of cash from Paramount, the entertainment giant piloted by David Ellison, the son of Larry Ellison, who is, in case you've forgotten, an open and shameless supporter of (gasp!) President Donald Trump. Hmm. Now that seems odd: a mainstream Hollywood studio has chosen to climb into bed with a famously liberal streaming service, and the financial interests of Warner Brothers' shareholders be damned! Nothing fishy there. The fact that Warner Brothers controls CNN, a failed news network that nonetheless manages to irritate Trump and Republicans on a regular basis, might help to explain why the Ellisons and Paramount had to be denied. The last thing some people want is news networks that report the news, as opposed to TDS-inspired fever dreams.
Luckily, there is hope that this freakish union can be thwarted before American popular culture succumbs once and for all to “progressive” degeneracy. For one thing, Pam Bondi's DOJ, and more specifically its antitrust division, will have something to say about whether the proposed Warner Brothers/Netflix merger harms competition in the entertainment industry and/or represents an illegal monopoly. There are ample reasons to think that it does. President Trump has expressed concern on this point.
What's more, Warner Brothers' shareholders, and other interested parties, can pursue legal action to prevent the merger by arguing that it pointedly ignored, or even deliberately violated, the fiduciary obligation of Warner Brothers' executives, if they sell the company, to seek the best possible deal and the highest possible price. Paramount made six separate offers to Warner Brothers, each more generous than the last, but in the end Warner Brothers' CEO, David Zaslav, spurned the Ellisons and inked an agreement with the people who brought us Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp instead. Very logical! Nice stewardship of the Warner Brothers legacy, Dave. And who needs money, anyway? It's highly overrated, from what I hear.
We can only hope that these political, legal, and financial countermeasures to the proposed Warner Brothers/Netflix merger manage to head off this unholy alliance before it's too late. Otherwise, you could find yourself paying more and more for “entertainment” that is worse and worse, and which doesn't even pretend to promote or respect the values you hold dear. As Bugs Bunny (a Warner Brothers property) would say, that's “what's up, Doc”, and the sooner we organize ourselves to avert this calamity, the better!
Dr. Nicholas L. Waddy is a history professor at SUNY Alfred and blogs at: www.waddyisright.com. He appears on the Newsmakers show on WLEA/WYSL.
And here it is at Townhall:
https://townhall.com/columnists/nicholaswaddy/2025/12/13/a-pox-on-the-house-of-netflix-n2667823
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And don't miss out on this week's Newsmakers show, which features none other than me! Brian and I cover U.S./EU tensions, the heartening Republican victory in Tennessee's 7th Congressional district, the resilient Trump economy and the phony "affordability" crisis, the seizure of the oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, the tremendous decline in the number of illegal immigrants in the U.S., the Netflix/Warner Brothers boondoggle, and Time Magazine's homage to the "architects of A.I.", as well as A.I.'s potential impact on the job market.
Holy moly! Is there anything we didn't cover? Hardly seems so!
https://wysl.podbean.com/e/newsmakers-12-13-25/
In other news, Republican efforts to redistrict their way to an enhanced, or at least stable, majority in the House of Representatives have been dealt a major setback, as Indiana state senators, including a majority of Republicans (!), voted against a plan that would have, or could have, added two more seats to the GOP tally. Why would Republicans balk? Apparently they felt "bullied", the poor dears, and they find the idea of mid-cycle redistricting icky and impolite. Well, Democrats have been gerrymandering their brains out for decades...so much so that they have precious little left to gerrymander, so why can't Republicans see the writing on the wall? Midwestern pride? Homespun self-satisfaction? Maybe even a touch of closet TDS? I don't know the answer, but I hope cooler heads prevail and Indiana revisits this issue soon.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: At least though this possible merger takes place in a time when America has been much aroused by the Trump administration's denunciation of wokeism (even by name ) and inspired by the action it has taken against the depravity the woke unapologetically foist on America, even the kids! For a long time the woke have had their way, often by levelling the traditional far left threat of public inquisition and consequent political, social and even legal immolation for daring to express, or worse, enact, any measure of heretical doubt. But now America knows it has a common sense President who continues to demonstrate his determination to defeat this shameless aberration.
ReplyDeleteYou cite some encouraging possibilities for enmiring this transaction in justified legal attack. If they don't prevent it , then boycott may be a remedy.
It was very disturbing to see beloved Disney accede to far left imposition. I wonder if Disney has experienced a business downturn for this regretable turn. I think their Snow White remake fluffed(?). Warner has not been as cherished as Disney was and may, therefore face less outrage.
Debauched entertainment is probably to be found in most cultures but in ones where decency still reigns , such shows are restricted to nether regions on the cultural margin. The cultural and moral relativity which shame our country before much of the world manifest abominations like sexually explicit presentations unforgiveably meant for the "edification" of our children. They exemplify the dearth of common sense encouraged and viciously defended by an "American" far left which vehemently protests its unlimited "right" to free speech(a principle for which they have only withering contempt and which they would in power tyrannically suppress).
Let's hope that America makes a lasting issue of this ; perhaps thereby a reckoning, with far reaching unfavorable consequences for those would casually reduce all America to their level of voluptuary presumption and sybaritic public degeneracy , can be brought about !
Dr. Waddy from Jack: It appears to me that the setback in Indiana is the result of the well intended devotion of some still unconvinced GOP" not to sink to THEIR level". The amoral far left /Dems eat that for breakfast as you noted in reference to their demonstrated unapologetic gerrymandering.
ReplyDeleteTo take the high road when you are being amorally and expeditiously undermined is simply to increase the altitude from which you will fall! Our hombre President knows this full well and we only delay and perhaps thereby prevent his planned reckoning with these antiAmericans when we shrink from supporting him.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: Re the latest Newsmaker dialogue: You've expressed a truth which may be of stupendous, incalculable importance to human civilization: as I understand it you observed that AI has or is close to, exceeding human intellectual capacity.
ReplyDeleteI would guess that the most perceptive philosophers of history would recognize in the reasoning which produced our most advanced technology some of their thought. Aristotle would have seen logic, Voltaire the spectrum of Enlightenment elevation of inductive thinking before it was perverted by Rousseau and 19th century German thought, and the doors opened by Einstein to previously counterintuitive concepts - yet all of them were limited by the human intellect as thought so by such as John Locke, who saw the human mind limited by perceived experience.
But AI, being inhuman, may be able to discern and use systems of reasoning now inconceivable to the most advanced human thinkers. And what possibilities that may manifest may be beyond human imagination or perception
We have seen in most civilizations recognition of realities beyond our ken: eternity, divinity, omniscience, omnipotence! Scientifically obtained knowledge of the universe, may be as sublime as to be incomprehensible to even the most brilliant of human minds. They may be as arithmetic to AI.
RAY TO DR. WADDY
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of Warner Brothers, I recall a book I saw years ago but never read, and probably should have. Anyway, the title is "An Empire of Their Own: How The Jews Invented Hollywood" by Neal Gabler. He discusses how Jack Warner and others built the American film industry. Gabler is Jewish.
Dr. Waddy from Jack:Re the Newsmaker broadcast: I don't know who said it but I think it manifests the common sense and realism of the change to Dep't of War: " the nation which sweats most in peace bleeds least in war". Sure ,the prospect of war is onerous but a responsible great power must painfully countenance it and avoid the use of euphemism.
ReplyDeleteAlso, when it is a just great power like us frankly stating its willingness to fight if necessary, the prospect of this deters adventure on the part of the wrong doers in this world; it helps prevent war. Our victory in the Cold War was largely attributable to our demonstrated resolve (yes, even in Vietnam) to use our vast power . It was the world's ultimate fortune in the 20th century that it was the U.S. which possessed it and not the inhuman dictatorships we defeated. President Trump demonstrates unapologetically realistic understanding of this much repeated truth.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: That a patient and reserved commentator like you can plausibly suggest that our President's lawful resolve to correct the offense done our rule of Immigration Law may result in a nearly complete reversal of Biden's sycophantic border outrage, is a very encouraging message. I think we are living through an historic Presidency, one which puts his reflexively vicious detractors to shame which will only intensify as his successes "progress".
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: Re: the broadcast: I have a lot of Navy friends from the South .I think the farleft/Dems are making a grave mistake in thinking they can turn the South, which is , along with the Mountain West, our most patriotic region. Their presumptuousness was manifested in this ridiculous candidacy for a Tennessee House seat. She was a charicature of the imperious cultural far left cultural contempt of which is fully aware. And being the South, they won't take it!
ReplyDeleteTHe far left/Dems are not all stupid; maybe they were probing to see what they could get away with in their earnest quest to "fundamentally transform" a region which neither wants nor needs it.
I think Hillary eventually regretted her sneer at Tammy Wynette .I drove through the South in October of 2016 and I saw probably 5 or more Trump signs for every forlorn Hillary message all along the way. I know she said it during her "husband's" campaigns but I don't think the South forgot it when she had the gall to ask for their support.
" . . . imperious far left cultural contempt of which the South is fully aware. " -rather than my word salad above. Jack
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: Re the broadcast: In opposing the MSM and far left/Dem's disingenuous accounts of an ever worsening economy you have continued to make a convincing argument , using on point empirical evidence, that they are deliberately misleading the public. I would guess that countries with truly dysfunctional economies would be happy to approximate ours and the blessed prosperity it affords us.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: I can see where AI puts principled academics in a quandary. Part of their professional obligation is to afford their students preparation for the intellectual challenge so many modern professions present. The world today's students will inherit will be technologically dependent on AI. Practices we now may reasonably see as unethical may become unavoidably routine and sanctioned . I suppose the use of calculators in arithmetic study was disfavored by well intended teachers . I wonder if it still is? Very probably many now intellectually manually performed tasks will be done by AI without our needing to know the steps taken. Maybe even teaching itself, including methods of evaluating by whatever standards may have evolved, the student's necessary grasp of subjects, may be conducted by organs of AI.
ReplyDeleteHaving been in the generation of librarians who moved from card catalogs and weighty reference tomes to computers, I have expected to see our profession subsumed by advanced electronic information storage and dissemination. It hasn't quite happened yet ; we still have a function of helping the public access modern information sources but I expect AI will finish us.
I should add, "finish us except for those librarians who care for rare, antique or highly specialized collections." Jack
ReplyDeleteJack, I would so like to believe that boycotts could snuff out an entertainment company dedicated to degeneracy, but, alas, when has that ever worked? We're wading through hip-deep degeneracy every day, and have been doing so for several generations. The free market may be slowly killing the mainstream media, but woke Hollywood seems to be thriving, as far as I can tell.
ReplyDeleteWell, AI may be super-smart, yes, but we have no reason yet to think of its intelligence as creative rather than instrumental. Remember, we humans are intellects mated with emotions. That gives us drive and purpose -- not always positive drives or good purposes, mind you, but still... AI's "moral imperatives", such as they are, are whatever we want them to be, so what that means is that all that raw digital intelligence will be in put entirely in the service of its programmers and owners. Is this reassuring or...the opposite of reassuring? I don't know.
Ray, the pivotal role played by Jews in the evolution of Hollywood is beyond question...in more ways than one! In any event, no one ever accused the movie industry of theology, so it may all be a moot point.
Jack, Trump's progress in reversing the human tide of illegal immigrants that has washed over these shores over the last 50 years has totally exceeded my expectations. What's more, we were told that mass deportations (and self-deportations) would cause economic collapse. Ha! Quite the contrary, it seems.
Jack, I would say the librarian racket (if I may call it that) is already obsolete, insofar as 99% of its work is now done by search engines. Heck, most of it is done by a single search engine. But the professor racket won't be far behind. The ethical dilemmas are coming thick and fast, yes. You could argue that the one useful thing we could teach youngsters today is how to use AI and how to make themselves vaguely useful to AI (not vice versa). Failing the acquisition of those skills, what future do they have??? Egad!