Valuetainment - June 25, 2025


"CNN's Party Is OVER!" - Execs FLEE CNN As Network SLASHES Jobs & Talent Contracts


Episode Stats


Length

16 minutes

Words per minute

188.10474

Word count

3,130

Sentence count

8

Harmful content

Misogyny

7

sentences flagged

Hate speech

10

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Two CNN executives are leaving the network as anxiety grows over cost cutting after spin-off. We talk about the spinoff from Warner Brothers Discovery and Global Networks, and what it means for the future of the company.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 two cnn executives both struggling network as anxiety source over cost cutting after spin off
00:00:07.000 okay man if we were in a different place and and we would we would go go pick that brand up
00:00:14.380 and just flip it easily right now we wouldn't flip it we would flip it on its head and drive it
00:00:21.340 okay it's two cnn laura uh baron uh baron bernardini vice president of domestic news
00:00:30.300 and jack smith vice president of digital video are leaving cnn with bernardini having served 28 years
00:00:36.960 and smith 17 years for oliver darcy status newsletter cnn plans to tighten uh uh expense
00:00:43.300 accounts starting july 1st requiring receipts for travel and source meetings amid anxiety over
00:00:47.980 corporate spinoff from warner brothers discovery wbd and global networks led by wbd cfo gunner
00:00:54.740 uh white and false who told staffers in a memo i'm a deep admirer of cnn and consumer its content
00:01:00.840 around the clock cnn staffers expressed unease after the spinoff of one telling darcy everyone
00:01:06.460 is wary and tired and there's so much change that we don't understand what direction the company is
00:01:11.360 going in and another noting there are people who think cnn won't exist at some point hard to believe
00:01:16.200 what will happen but there are people who feel that way tom thoughts on this how bad is it it's it's
00:01:21.040 very bad and this is just the tip of the iceberg and these are just people that are reacting to the
00:01:25.060 spinoff because the spinoff has said one word profitability we have to operate profitable so we're
00:01:30.900 being spinoff with a lot of the cable uh assets into a tracking stock that stock will act like its own
00:01:37.580 little company and that's what uh zaz who's the ultimate ceo of warner brothers discovery is calling
00:01:45.780 the shot here has decided he's going to take the streaming and the big stuff he's going to continue
00:01:50.100 to be cfo and the cfo is going to run the other side of it and what's going on right now everybody is
00:01:56.980 freaking out because all eyes are on cnn why because even the people that run cnn um and even the people
00:02:07.580 see that with cnn can and should be more profitable so guess what they've been cutting contracts they've
00:02:13.340 been cutting people and they've been making changes for a year now coming up to this and now it's really
00:02:18.580 happening and you got people that were there 28 years and 17 years the party is over they know the
00:02:25.060 party's over they don't have automatic positions automatic and these people were upset they actually
00:02:31.340 leaked out to oliver darcy and oliver darcy is a very good source of media gossip from inside
00:02:37.080 and they leaked oliver darcy oh man it's gonna be bad they're tightening up our expense reports you
00:02:42.680 need receipts for everything well guess what there is another part of that two hour lunches and people
00:02:48.780 were spending excessive amounts on a company credit card for lunch in other words hey we're cnn we get
00:02:54.000 to do everything and the cuts are coming and it's you know what anderson cooper salary is going to get
00:03:00.840 closer to caitlin collins not the other way around they're all getting squeezed down because it has to be
00:03:06.640 profitable and now you're finding layers of management or self-selecting out and when i see
00:03:11.720 things like this where the leadership knows exactly what they're doing pat you ran very large insurance
00:03:19.620 organization you knew exactly what an incentive program or controls or maybe it was an incentive
00:03:26.220 program with some specific rules of performance you knew who was going to say oh man i'm out before it
00:03:33.200 even start and you knew who was in right you absolutely know that as a leader well that's
00:03:37.580 what's going on here and i think what they're doing is they're putting on these controls because they
00:03:41.220 want some of this dead dinosaur flesh to just leave the organization but cnn you know what these are
00:03:49.020 just small what is the mark what rob can you can you type in cnn top line revenue cnn top line revenue
00:03:55.440 if it's public info i think it's cloaked within what they used to call yeah i know it is let's just
00:03:59.720 cable cable ops 1.6 because i'm seeing a prompt top line revenue based on available data 1.8 billion
00:04:05.260 2023 what is it in 2024 can you tap in 2024 it ain't 1.8 anymore no for sure but what is 2024
00:04:12.480 cnn top line revenue every year it's been going down the search results indicate that cnn's annual
00:04:19.040 revenue 2024 1.8 billion based on financial metrics i don't think it's 1.8 billion and can you can
00:04:23.860 well they're not going to show it their ebitda that's that's um i mean the brand is a strong
00:04:29.500 brand for the right but it is going to be such a massive massive headache to manage to move forward
00:04:36.460 with it but imagine the inventory of video content stuff that they have and the infrastructure but
00:04:43.140 it's like it's almost as if i wish i could and it's not it's it's almost like the leadership when we
00:04:47.780 talk about the democrats and los angeles and new york it's like i wish i could just address their
00:04:52.220 leadership and say do your damn job all these numbers tom all the money everything that it's 0.82
00:04:57.520 failing is is let them know you're supposed to run a news network not a propaganda mill comma
00:05:03.620 profitably profitably but you know what it is people are sick and tired of your bullshit you've been 0.88
00:05:09.600 exposed trump exposed you with jim mccasa when he said you're fake news and you're not adjusting
00:05:15.620 you have to adjust think about the old school people pat bernard shaw larry king ted turner
00:05:21.240 walter cronkite they had class they had a message they they were doing something good it's not hard
00:05:27.620 stop hiring propaganda freaking activists with teleprompters report the news yes have different
00:05:34.140 opinions and have people say their points but it's like gee like you guys aren't journalists anymore
00:05:38.280 it's over and then and then they're shocked the world is like wait what the why are they failing
00:05:43.280 you guys know why they're failing because they suck they suck that's why people are turning a 0.98
00:05:48.720 podcast guess what like this one where everybody has different opinions but we're giving you facts
00:05:54.060 we're fact checking in real time me and adam go at it all the time tom and adam go at it me and pat
00:05:59.860 we don't agree with everything and that's that's why this shit is taking over and people like cnn are
00:06:05.660 losing and they will not adjust that's the worst thing the ship keeps sinking and they're like bring on
00:06:10.960 another captain it doesn't matter your ship is going down and the market is speaking up and that's
00:06:17.040 it yeah i i listen i i period if they can't save scott jennings if scott if if right now i'm being
00:06:27.020 serious yeah if somebody wanted to destroy cnn guess what get scott jennings to run for office or do
00:06:34.160 something scott jennings leaves cnn it's over i somebody would buy them but if you want a
00:06:41.260 discount here's how to get the discount say the company right now to buy is worth one and a half
00:06:45.780 billion dollars yeah you ready for the crazy one times revenue or something you read you ready for
00:06:49.800 the crazy strategy here's what i would do i would uh if i take scott jennings yeah give him a five year
00:06:59.280 25 million dollar contract to a company you paid him 25 million bucks okay then cnn's rating is going
00:07:09.020 to drop 25 percent a couple of the shows it's going to drop 25 percent main show is going to drop 25
00:07:15.460 yeah then that one and a half billion dollars now you can buy for 1.2 billion dollars you pay 25
00:07:21.680 million dollars to save 275 million dollars very smart step number one get scott jennings out of cnn
00:07:27.480 step step number two get yourself a 300 million dollar discount that's how i would do it adam go
00:07:32.000 for it do you know what show on cnn gets a million uh viewers uh a night do you know what show none
00:07:39.420 none you're absolutely right we're the only major network of the three news outlets between fox news
00:07:47.040 msnbc and cnn that doesn't have one show that gets a million viewers a night this podcast this little
00:07:55.180 homegrown podcast on pbd podcast will likely get a million viewers but not cnn their top ranked show
00:08:01.800 i believe is anderson cooper you can fact check this at somewhere around 700 000 viewers maybe a
00:08:08.460 little bit more i think that would be a big night for him during the week by the way to put that into
00:08:13.640 perspective uh the top shows on fox news i think the five gets almost four million uh viewers i want
00:08:22.100 to say um jesse waters is hovering at three three and a half viewers three and a half million viewers
00:08:27.960 gutfeld also three and a half million viewers even on msnbc rachel maddow is getting almost two million 0.97
00:08:33.820 viewers here's the biggest problem with cnn you gotta pick a side you know everyone knows that fox
00:08:42.260 news is to the right everyone knows that they claim to be fair and balanced okay everyone knows that
00:08:48.300 msnbc is on the left they don't even hide it like they're just like if you have trump derangement
00:08:54.420 syndrome come visit us here at msnbc the problem is news have gone so far from what walter cronkite
00:09:00.880 once did and once basically stood for that everything is so tribal now so cnn is stuck in the middle
00:09:08.260 no we're on we're fair we're balanced no we're we're anti-trump no no no now we're covering trump
00:09:14.920 favorably they're beyond repair because they're not on one team the days of being fair and balanced
00:09:21.640 are over you need to pick a side and unfortunately they've already picked their side and no one on the
00:09:28.020 right trust them and people on the left don't trust them either but adam there has to be a reason why
00:09:33.560 okay i get i get the biases and fox is right and cnn is left but why is fox strike like number one
00:09:41.060 and kicking ass because yes we know that they're conservative but they're reporting facts they'll go 0.90
00:09:46.560 back and forth and they'll have their opinions cnn lies cnn is propaganda okay cnn is is been exposed
00:09:54.800 and there's no coming back bro they can mind you think about it the abby phillips show people are tuning
00:10:00.100 in not to see abby phillips nobody wants nobody gives a shit what she has to say it's what scott jennings 0.95
00:10:05.940 is going to do to that entire panel of delusional leftists and that's what it is say what people
00:10:11.560 want about fox at least they're telling you how it is and that's a reason that they're number one cnn
00:10:17.160 will purposely push some shit like propaganda and they'll have all these activists from jim mccasso 0.68
00:10:22.800 who's who's doing substack to brian stelter who they fire and dude when i tell you they can't get out
00:10:28.320 of their own why their own way you hire brian stelter back what the hell are you doing if you get if you 0.62
00:10:34.720 fire somebody bro let them go he's you're you're mostly right vinnie you're just not all the way
00:10:40.900 right the um to act like fox doesn't have propagandists or activists i didn't say that but
00:10:46.600 are they telling facts how are they number one though how are they number one they're just they're just
00:10:50.860 less worse than cnn but they all have opinion shows and in my opinion in my opinion any opinion
00:10:59.160 show should say hannity's opinion ingraham's opinion tucker's opinion wolf blitzer's opinion
00:11:06.080 yeah but so people aren't smart enough to basically decipher what's fact and what's opinion are you
00:11:11.380 ready for this like like like the russia collusion thing cnn not only knew it was fake they took it and
00:11:16.840 they ran with it and they pushed it all the lying with with covid and all that shit you can't come back
00:11:22.300 from that we we are not going to forget that shit putting putting the death tracker up there like 0.90
00:11:27.020 they were proud of it during covid it's like no bro fox doesn't do that fox never took a story like
00:11:32.760 that that new hillary clinton started and pushed that shit to divide us they're never going to get 1.00
00:11:37.140 that back again you're mostly right but you're also going to have a hard time convincing though how
00:11:42.180 much almost a billion dollars that fox news you're not there yet any one of these days you'll be there
00:11:46.860 you know what i'm gonna bust my butt pat and i promise you for the new year i'm gonna try to get 0.72
00:11:51.880 according to adam you're not all right one of these days let's put a period at the end of sentence
00:11:55.880 and move on and it was this anderson cooper makes 18 million dollars a year 18 million dollars a year
00:12:03.920 anderson cooper makes and the cfo who's going to be the ceo of all the cable nets his name is gunner
00:12:11.420 gunner wiedenfels is looking for ways to cut cost so they have said apparently they said on the 12th
00:12:20.060 and i missed it but they spoke to the puck newsletter and they leaked well anderson and
00:12:25.660 news has an uncertain future at cnn given the 18 million dollar contract cost so guess what he's
00:12:32.620 either going to get bought out called take your medicine now you give him a payout or they got to
00:12:37.160 negotiate it because is anderson cooper at 18 million worth six caitlin collins at three no nope she's not 1.00
00:12:44.260 even worth that i mean i'm just saying economically speaking and by the way i'm upset on his birthday
00:12:54.100 there's rumors in media land that she's not as liberal as she portrayed portrays to be that she's 1.00
00:13:01.320 like more moderate but she assumed this uh this political you know position on the the number line 0.87
00:13:09.220 of liberal versus conservative and it has served her career well but deep inside she's a little bit
00:13:14.580 more moderate so we will see and when i say she's not worth the three i'm talking about the economics 0.99
00:13:20.120 of the moment so you're saying whether she's making money on her show or not but could could she be
00:13:26.800 worth more than that to somebody maybe she ain't worth the food stamp and at death row at cnn i hear
00:13:33.500 she's getting treated like oh snap boot camp gotta follow the sergeant's direction tom or get your 0.99
00:13:40.360 ass i'll stop right there guys we we watch we watch straight out of compton the other day let's stay
00:13:46.520 focused guys okay when it comes down to merch especially with all the timing that we have going
00:13:52.040 on look if you ever wonder why we don't do sponsorships because our own companies are putting
00:13:57.200 us in a position with the customers i say this to you all the time if you believe in a brand go support
00:14:02.840 it if you love cnn buy their stuff if you love fox buy their stuff if you love any other small media
00:14:08.600 companies support them because that's how they stay in business so here's what ends up happening
00:14:12.740 you either take money from sponsorship then your loyalty has to be the sponsors or you take money
00:14:17.900 from customers who are buying stuff from you the loyalty then becomes to them to stay honest to them
00:14:22.640 that is what our goal is long term eventually we will bring some partnerships and based on criterias
00:14:28.780 that we're creating with them but till then we're loving what's happening right now with
00:14:32.580 the podcast the media company everything that we're doing so today we have some limited merch
00:14:37.480 that just came in today and talk about the timing of it we've been waiting for these for four months
00:14:41.860 we have these new usa flags that literally just came in uh we have the black one that came in here
00:14:48.640 usa uh uh hat on the back it says future looks bright we have the other usa one with the stars that
00:14:54.400 are on it with future looks bright on the side and on the back it says vitamin this one is sick for
00:14:58.880 fourth of july this is the kind of hat you would want to sport on fourth of july i like the black
00:15:03.120 one and i like this one here this one's not gonna last a long time this is black and gold usa is gold
00:15:10.100 right limited limited look at this usa is gold right there and it's numbered oh this is limited edition
00:15:15.760 out of 250 with the american flag on the side value taming logo on the side and on the back it says
00:15:21.240 future looks bright it's out of 250 you know what happens with these numbered ones they don't last a long
00:15:26.480 time i think the last one lasted two hours and 45 minutes they go in no time if you like the limited
00:15:31.940 supply stuff that we have some people buying and put it on ebay and they flip them we can't stop them
00:15:36.480 from doing that so if you don't buy you can only get these on ebay but those of you that love our
00:15:41.080 limited supply material that we have go buy this they have a shirt that goes with it as well rob if
00:15:45.440 you can go on the shirt one that we have right there the gold shirt can you click on it real quick so
00:15:49.140 we can zoom in look at that usa golden and on the back it says future looks bright and then go to the
00:15:55.280 hat as well so we can see some of the pictures of the hat rob these are all numbered keep going
00:15:59.060 keep going keep going and rob yeah look at that stitching and glitter and everything oh this is
00:16:03.400 awesome anyways go to vtmerch.com to place your order is that a new shirt as well for 4th of july
00:16:08.700 this is a new shirt that's i don't know if we have that on the website or not but i'm sure when we do
00:16:12.520 we'll we'll market that as well if you enjoy this video you want to watch more videos like this click
00:16:16.740 here and if you want to watch the entire podcast click here
00:16:25.280 you
00:16:27.340 you
00:16:28.340 you
00:16:30.340 you
00:16:32.340 you
00:16:34.340 you
00:16:36.340 you