＂CNN's Party Is OVER!＂ - Execs FLEE CNN As Network SLASHES Jobs & Talent Contracts
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
188.10474
Summary
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
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two cnn executives both struggling network as anxiety source over cost cutting after spin off
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okay man if we were in a different place and and we would we would go go pick that brand up
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and just flip it easily right now we wouldn't flip it we would flip it on its head and drive it
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okay it's two cnn laura uh baron uh baron bernardini vice president of domestic news
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and jack smith vice president of digital video are leaving cnn with bernardini having served 28 years
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and smith 17 years for oliver darcy status newsletter cnn plans to tighten uh uh expense
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accounts starting july 1st requiring receipts for travel and source meetings amid anxiety over
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corporate spinoff from warner brothers discovery wbd and global networks led by wbd cfo gunner
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uh white and false who told staffers in a memo i'm a deep admirer of cnn and consumer its content
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around the clock cnn staffers expressed unease after the spinoff of one telling darcy everyone
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is wary and tired and there's so much change that we don't understand what direction the company is
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going in and another noting there are people who think cnn won't exist at some point hard to believe
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what will happen but there are people who feel that way tom thoughts on this how bad is it it's it's
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very bad and this is just the tip of the iceberg and these are just people that are reacting to the
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spinoff because the spinoff has said one word profitability we have to operate profitable so we're
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being spinoff with a lot of the cable uh assets into a tracking stock that stock will act like its own
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little company and that's what uh zaz who's the ultimate ceo of warner brothers discovery is calling
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the shot here has decided he's going to take the streaming and the big stuff he's going to continue
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to be cfo and the cfo is going to run the other side of it and what's going on right now everybody is
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freaking out because all eyes are on cnn why because even the people that run cnn um and even the people
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see that with cnn can and should be more profitable so guess what they've been cutting contracts they've
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been cutting people and they've been making changes for a year now coming up to this and now it's really
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happening and you got people that were there 28 years and 17 years the party is over they know the
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party's over they don't have automatic positions automatic and these people were upset they actually
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leaked out to oliver darcy and oliver darcy is a very good source of media gossip from inside
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and they leaked oliver darcy oh man it's gonna be bad they're tightening up our expense reports you
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need receipts for everything well guess what there is another part of that two hour lunches and people
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were spending excessive amounts on a company credit card for lunch in other words hey we're cnn we get
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to do everything and the cuts are coming and it's you know what anderson cooper salary is going to get
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closer to caitlin collins not the other way around they're all getting squeezed down because it has to be
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profitable and now you're finding layers of management or self-selecting out and when i see
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things like this where the leadership knows exactly what they're doing pat you ran very large insurance
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organization you knew exactly what an incentive program or controls or maybe it was an incentive
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program with some specific rules of performance you knew who was going to say oh man i'm out before it
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even start and you knew who was in right you absolutely know that as a leader well that's
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what's going on here and i think what they're doing is they're putting on these controls because they
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want some of this dead dinosaur flesh to just leave the organization but cnn you know what these are
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just small what is the mark what rob can you can you type in cnn top line revenue cnn top line revenue
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if it's public info i think it's cloaked within what they used to call yeah i know it is let's just
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cable cable ops 1.6 because i'm seeing a prompt top line revenue based on available data 1.8 billion
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2023 what is it in 2024 can you tap in 2024 it ain't 1.8 anymore no for sure but what is 2024
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cnn top line revenue every year it's been going down the search results indicate that cnn's annual
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revenue 2024 1.8 billion based on financial metrics i don't think it's 1.8 billion and can you can
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well they're not going to show it their ebitda that's that's um i mean the brand is a strong
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brand for the right but it is going to be such a massive massive headache to manage to move forward
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with it but imagine the inventory of video content stuff that they have and the infrastructure but
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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
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talk about the democrats and los angeles and new york it's like i wish i could just address their
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leadership and say do your damn job all these numbers tom all the money everything that it's
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failing is is let them know you're supposed to run a news network not a propaganda mill comma
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profitably profitably but you know what it is people are sick and tired of your bullshit you've been
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exposed trump exposed you with jim mccasa when he said you're fake news and you're not adjusting
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you have to adjust think about the old school people pat bernard shaw larry king ted turner
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walter cronkite they had class they had a message they they were doing something good it's not hard
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stop hiring propaganda freaking activists with teleprompters report the news yes have different
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opinions and have people say their points but it's like gee like you guys aren't journalists anymore
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it's over and then and then they're shocked the world is like wait what the why are they failing
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you guys know why they're failing because they suck they suck that's why people are turning a
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podcast guess what like this one where everybody has different opinions but we're giving you facts
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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
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we don't agree with everything and that's that's why this shit is taking over and people like cnn are
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losing and they will not adjust that's the worst thing the ship keeps sinking and they're like bring on
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another captain it doesn't matter your ship is going down and the market is speaking up and that's
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it yeah i i listen i i period if they can't save scott jennings if scott if if right now i'm being
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serious yeah if somebody wanted to destroy cnn guess what get scott jennings to run for office or do
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something scott jennings leaves cnn it's over i somebody would buy them but if you want a
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discount here's how to get the discount say the company right now to buy is worth one and a half
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billion dollars yeah you ready for the crazy one times revenue or something you read you ready for
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the crazy strategy here's what i would do i would uh if i take scott jennings yeah give him a five year
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25 million dollar contract to a company you paid him 25 million bucks okay then cnn's rating is going
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to drop 25 percent a couple of the shows it's going to drop 25 percent main show is going to drop 25
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yeah then that one and a half billion dollars now you can buy for 1.2 billion dollars you pay 25
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million dollars to save 275 million dollars very smart step number one get scott jennings out of cnn
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step step number two get yourself a 300 million dollar discount that's how i would do it adam go
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for it do you know what show on cnn gets a million uh viewers uh a night do you know what show none
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none you're absolutely right we're the only major network of the three news outlets between fox news
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msnbc and cnn that doesn't have one show that gets a million viewers a night this podcast this little
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homegrown podcast on pbd podcast will likely get a million viewers but not cnn their top ranked show
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i believe is anderson cooper you can fact check this at somewhere around 700 000 viewers maybe a
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little bit more i think that would be a big night for him during the week by the way to put that into
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perspective uh the top shows on fox news i think the five gets almost four million uh viewers i want
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to say um jesse waters is hovering at three three and a half viewers three and a half million viewers
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gutfeld also three and a half million viewers even on msnbc rachel maddow is getting almost two million
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viewers here's the biggest problem with cnn you gotta pick a side you know everyone knows that fox
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news is to the right everyone knows that they claim to be fair and balanced okay everyone knows that
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msnbc is on the left they don't even hide it like they're just like if you have trump derangement
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syndrome come visit us here at msnbc the problem is news have gone so far from what walter cronkite
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once did and once basically stood for that everything is so tribal now so cnn is stuck in the middle
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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
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favorably they're beyond repair because they're not on one team the days of being fair and balanced
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are over you need to pick a side and unfortunately they've already picked their side and no one on the
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right trust them and people on the left don't trust them either but adam there has to be a reason why
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okay i get i get the biases and fox is right and cnn is left but why is fox strike like number one
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and kicking ass because yes we know that they're conservative but they're reporting facts they'll go
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back and forth and they'll have their opinions cnn lies cnn is propaganda okay cnn is is been exposed
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and there's no coming back bro they can mind you think about it the abby phillips show people are tuning
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in not to see abby phillips nobody wants nobody gives a shit what she has to say it's what scott jennings
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is going to do to that entire panel of delusional leftists and that's what it is say what people
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want about fox at least they're telling you how it is and that's a reason that they're number one cnn
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will purposely push some shit like propaganda and they'll have all these activists from jim mccasso
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who's who's doing substack to brian stelter who they fire and dude when i tell you they can't get out
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of their own why their own way you hire brian stelter back what the hell are you doing if you get if you
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fire somebody bro let them go he's you're you're mostly right vinnie you're just not all the way
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right the um to act like fox doesn't have propagandists or activists i didn't say that but
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are they telling facts how are they number one though how are they number one they're just they're just
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less worse than cnn but they all have opinion shows and in my opinion in my opinion any opinion
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show should say hannity's opinion ingraham's opinion tucker's opinion wolf blitzer's opinion
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yeah but so people aren't smart enough to basically decipher what's fact and what's opinion are you
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ready for this like like like the russia collusion thing cnn not only knew it was fake they took it and
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they ran with it and they pushed it all the lying with with covid and all that shit you can't come back
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from that we we are not going to forget that shit putting putting the death tracker up there like
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they were proud of it during covid it's like no bro fox doesn't do that fox never took a story like
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that that new hillary clinton started and pushed that shit to divide us they're never going to get
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that back again you're mostly right but you're also going to have a hard time convincing though how
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much almost a billion dollars that fox news you're not there yet any one of these days you'll be there
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you know what i'm gonna bust my butt pat and i promise you for the new year i'm gonna try to get
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according to adam you're not all right one of these days let's put a period at the end of sentence
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and move on and it was this anderson cooper makes 18 million dollars a year 18 million dollars a year
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anderson cooper makes and the cfo who's going to be the ceo of all the cable nets his name is gunner
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gunner wiedenfels is looking for ways to cut cost so they have said apparently they said on the 12th
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and i missed it but they spoke to the puck newsletter and they leaked well anderson and
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news has an uncertain future at cnn given the 18 million dollar contract cost so guess what he's
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either going to get bought out called take your medicine now you give him a payout or they got to
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negotiate it because is anderson cooper at 18 million worth six caitlin collins at three no nope she's not
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even worth that i mean i'm just saying economically speaking and by the way i'm upset on his birthday
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there's rumors in media land that she's not as liberal as she portrayed portrays to be that she's
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like more moderate but she assumed this uh this political you know position on the the number line
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of liberal versus conservative and it has served her career well but deep inside she's a little bit
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more moderate so we will see and when i say she's not worth the three i'm talking about the economics
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of the moment so you're saying whether she's making money on her show or not but could could she be
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worth more than that to somebody maybe she ain't worth the food stamp and at death row at cnn i hear
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she's getting treated like oh snap boot camp gotta follow the sergeant's direction tom or get your
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ass i'll stop right there guys we we watch we watch straight out of compton the other day let's stay
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focused guys okay when it comes down to merch especially with all the timing that we have going
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on look if you ever wonder why we don't do sponsorships because our own companies are putting
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us in a position with the customers i say this to you all the time if you believe in a brand go support
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it if you love cnn buy their stuff if you love fox buy their stuff if you love any other small media
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companies support them because that's how they stay in business so here's what ends up happening
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you either take money from sponsorship then your loyalty has to be the sponsors or you take money
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from customers who are buying stuff from you the loyalty then becomes to them to stay honest to them
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that is what our goal is long term eventually we will bring some partnerships and based on criterias
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that we're creating with them but till then we're loving what's happening right now with
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the podcast the media company everything that we're doing so today we have some limited merch
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that just came in today and talk about the timing of it we've been waiting for these for four months
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we have these new usa flags that literally just came in uh we have the black one that came in here
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usa uh uh hat on the back it says future looks bright we have the other usa one with the stars that
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are on it with future looks bright on the side and on the back it says vitamin this one is sick for
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fourth of july this is the kind of hat you would want to sport on fourth of july i like the black
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one and i like this one here this one's not gonna last a long time this is black and gold usa is gold
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right limited limited look at this usa is gold right there and it's numbered oh this is limited edition
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out of 250 with the american flag on the side value taming logo on the side and on the back it says
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future looks bright it's out of 250 you know what happens with these numbered ones they don't last a long
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time i think the last one lasted two hours and 45 minutes they go in no time if you like the limited
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supply stuff that we have some people buying and put it on ebay and they flip them we can't stop them
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from doing that so if you don't buy you can only get these on ebay but those of you that love our
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limited supply material that we have go buy this they have a shirt that goes with it as well rob if
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you can go on the shirt one that we have right there the gold shirt can you click on it real quick so
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we can zoom in look at that usa golden and on the back it says future looks bright and then go to the
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hat as well so we can see some of the pictures of the hat rob these are all numbered keep going
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keep going keep going and rob yeah look at that stitching and glitter and everything oh this is
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awesome anyways go to vtmerch.com to place your order is that a new shirt as well for 4th of july
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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
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we'll we'll market that as well if you enjoy this video you want to watch more videos like this click
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here and if you want to watch the entire podcast click here