Valuetainment - “Netflix Is Playing With FIRE” - Hawley GOES NUCLEAR On Netflix CEO Over Trans Content For Kids

00:00:00.820 I'm Kelly Kennedy. I've been called a hope dealer for leaders and with over 300 episodes of the Business Development Podcast, we'll guide you and we'll always be in your corner.

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00:00:19.700 So Netflix, Warner, defend proposed deal in Senate hearing. This is a Wall Street Journal story. It got nasty very quick. Rob, if you want to go to the Josh Hawley clip before we go to the Ted Cruz one.

00:00:39.040 Kosi or Ted Sarandas defended the streaming company's planned $72 billion acquisition of Warner Brothers and HBO Max at a Senate hearing Tuesday that occasionally grew contentious.

00:00:50.460 The best part of this that I want you to watch is here with Josh Hawley.

00:00:55.760 Josh Hawley pushes both of these guys and they couldn't answer a couple of the questions he asked. Go ahead, Rob.

00:01:02.520 That so much of Netflix content for children promotes a transgender ideology. Almost half of your content for children. I'm talking about minor children now. I'm not talking about teenagers. 0.99

00:01:15.780 Minor children promotes a transgender ideology agenda. I was just looking at the data here from your various series. 0.92

00:01:24.780 And what concerns me is just two days ago, a jury in New York awarded a former transitioner $2 million because she said that her psychologists and others pressured her into, they pushed on her an ideology that proved to be extremely detrimental.

00:01:43.420 I'm sure you know that in the U.K., the National Health Service in the U.K. has said that they're not going to perform transgender surgeries or any longer so-called gender-affirming care for minors, including in counseling, because it is so incredibly detrimental.

00:01:58.640 Our own HHS has come forward with similar findings this past year, yet if you turn on Netflix, you'll find that an enormous amount, and I say this as a parent with three young children,

00:02:07.300 an enormous amount of your children's programming has this ideology and agenda in it, is this an advocacy position for Netflix?

00:02:17.440 Is this an ideological commitment you have? I mean, why is this?

00:02:21.520 Generally, Netflix has no political agenda of any kind.

00:02:24.800 I would tell you that we have-

00:02:25.320 Well, then why is your children's program so full of this highly sexualized, highly controversial, highly controversial agenda?

00:02:34.740 I don't understand it. It seems strange to me.

00:02:38.100 Respectfully, sir, it's because it's inaccurate. We have millions of hours of children's programming.

00:02:42.940 You're saying it's not there. You don't have trans, you don't feature trans characters, trans storylines, trans themes.

00:02:49.000 I'm saying we-

00:02:49.520 It's not in your programming.

00:02:50.640 I'm saying we feature a wide variety of stories and programs to meet a wide variety of people's tastes.

00:02:55.780 Why does almost half of it, why does almost half of your children's program feature this highly controversial, highly sexualized material?

00:03:02.880 That just seems strange to me. It can't possibly be a reflection of the population.

00:03:08.420 Senator Halle, I don't have any idea where that number would come from or what that would be.

00:03:12.220 I don't believe that's been your personal experience, but I can't speak to that.

00:03:16.760 Well, what do you mean you don't think it's been my personal experience?

00:03:18.260 I don't think-

00:03:18.520 You don't think that I monitor what my children watch on your-

00:03:20.780 Here's what I tell you what my personal experience is since you bring it up.

00:03:22.880 Rob, can you pause it real quick?

00:03:23.720 My personal experience-

00:03:24.300 Pause it right there.

00:03:25.300 Can you go a little bit to the end where the HBO Max guy responds?

00:03:29.160 Look at his blink rate.

00:03:30.100 Keep going, keep going, keep going.

00:03:31.440 Yeah, he does not look comfortable.

00:03:32.500 No, he doesn't look comfortable.

00:03:33.660 Do me a favor.

00:03:34.060 Go back to the Ted Cruz one if you could, because what Josh Hawley continues to say is,

00:03:39.460 we're watching movies, we're watching all this stuff.

00:03:42.080 We don't let our kids watch movies before we watch them ourselves.

00:03:45.240 This part, he talks about what Billy Eilish said, we live on stolen land.

00:03:51.620 I want you to go on the second half of this interview.

00:03:54.960 If you go right around there, go back a little bit, like 30 seconds before he starts talking.

00:04:00.840 Go right there.

00:04:02.000 That's good.

00:04:02.420 From right there.

00:04:03.200 Are people at home, how should they feel even remotely confident that if this merger happens,

00:04:09.040 the combined entity would not simply be a propaganda outlet pushing one particular political view

00:04:15.900 with much greater market power than you have now?

00:04:19.860 Well, sir, we would fail.

00:04:21.440 We would fail pushing a political view or propaganda.

00:04:24.900 We deliver entertainment to consumers.

00:04:28.060 Our consumers see our business pretty much the way they see America.

00:04:31.980 About 40 percent conservative, about 40 percent liberal, about 20 percent don't know.

00:04:35.820 But when they turn on TV, they're tuned in to be entertained.

00:04:40.640 And if we fail to entertain them by trying to promote propaganda or anything other than entertainment, we fail.

00:04:47.920 Mr. Campbell, same question to you.

00:04:50.380 We see the world very similar.

00:04:54.900 Did we lose it or did he lose it?

00:04:56.740 We have a very broad range of content across not only HBO Max but all of our platforms that we need to appeal to all audiences.

00:05:08.680 Our content ranges from Hard Knocks from the NFL to shows like Deadliest Catch and Gold Rush.

00:05:14.740 It's a very broad collection of programming that represents broad interests across America.

00:05:20.560 You have a wide range of programming on HBO.

00:05:22.700 Name one program that is designed to appeal to conservatives.

00:05:25.160 We don't design our programming to appeal to any...

00:05:28.200 I can think of a lot that are designed to go to liberals.

00:05:30.140 Name one.

00:05:32.280 None of our shows are designed to go to any political group that is designed to appeal to...

00:05:37.920 Really?

00:05:38.100 John Oliver is not designed to appeal to a certain group?

00:05:41.700 It's a program that...

00:05:44.220 For which there's a lot...

00:05:44.940 You just said none of your program is.

00:05:46.460 Look, let me ask you.

00:05:47.960 Do you think CNN is fair and balanced?

00:05:50.340 I do believe CNN is a fair...

00:05:52.200 So when CNN showed riots and fires behind them and you put a chyron, mostly peaceful but fiery protest, was that journalism?

00:06:01.980 Sir, I'm not involved with CNN.

00:06:04.280 And in fact, they're not part of this transaction.

00:06:06.460 But they have an independent editorial board.

00:06:10.140 They have independent news gathering.

00:06:11.660 We don't direct...

00:06:12.440 They have no independence other than hating Donald Trump, which is why their viewership numbers have plummeted, because they don't actually report news.

00:06:20.780 They instead engage in very biased propaganda.

00:06:23.920 And I will say, the truest words you said a minute ago is when you said with respect to Mr. Sarandos, well, he and I see the world in very much the same way.

00:06:32.580 That is exactly the problem, that in the world of journalism, it should not be propaganda.

00:06:39.660 In the world of entertainment, there is a reason why entertainers who are even slightly right of center get blackballed in Hollywood.

00:06:48.380 Writers get blackballed in Hollywood.

00:06:50.400 Actors get blackballed in Hollywood.

00:06:51.780 You can pause it right there.

00:06:52.640 Okay, so Tom, concern with this, because it's getting to the point where, you know, the deal is about to get wrapped up.

00:06:59.520 They're going to get destroyed the next couple weeks with a bunch of these hearings.

00:07:03.380 And then eventually, is anything going to be able to stop this deal from happening?

00:07:07.580 Well, the federal...

00:07:08.220 Yes, the Federal Trade Commission can stop the deal.

00:07:12.240 What they are going to do is they're going to spin out all the cable nets into an independent company.

00:07:17.840 That's CNN and all those things.

00:07:19.420 And they're going to throw that on the stock market.

00:07:20.980 Then they're going to merge the two libraries.

00:07:23.440 That is the plan here.

00:07:24.880 Now, 60% chance of being successful is what people see here.

00:07:29.520 But these numbers can jump around.

00:07:31.200 This is Kalshi.

00:07:32.220 And I don't think the Federal Trade Commission has spoken.

00:07:35.580 These are congressional hearings that are bringing things forward.

00:07:39.320 And the Federal Trade Commission is going to be the one that has the final say.

00:07:43.700 And we saw how the movement was so radical when Warsh was dropping.

00:07:49.940 And then suddenly, one comment from the White House, boom, Warsh was the guy.

00:07:53.880 And so right here, what you see, they are trying to convince Congress that, number one, this will not create too much market power when, in fact, it will create a streaming giant with over 30% market share of total streaming, number one.

00:08:10.120 Number two, you have now price power over the consumers.

00:08:15.660 And Netflix has been incrementally raising price.

00:08:18.040 And the Federal Trade Commission's job is to ensure that there's competition in market so prices can be moderated through competitive offers.

00:08:25.900 So these guys are here to say we're not a monopoly, it's not going to be there.

00:08:30.180 And they just got pulled into the vortex of reality by saying, hey, we don't have advocacy.

00:08:37.220 That's a clever word that they're using.

00:08:39.540 We don't have advocacy.

00:08:40.740 Means we don't have an advocate group that specifically says this.

00:08:44.160 But they have advocacy by default because they know the opinions of the showrunners and the producers that they're funding.

00:08:52.880 And they're simply not funding showrunners and producers that run with core conservative or core family programs.

00:08:58.940 And by the way, while you're talking here, Rob, can you pull up the stats when he was saying half of it is LGBTQ?

00:09:05.820 Is this the article?

00:09:07.160 Is this from Washington Times?

00:09:08.680 Yes, sir.

00:09:09.140 Okay, perfect.

00:09:09.680 If you go a little bit lower to the stats right there, the organization's report LGBTQ messaging pervasive in Netflix children programming showed that both 41% of G-rated programs and 41% of TV Y7 shows include LGBTQ elements, a result that CWA president and CEO Penny Nance called shocking.

00:09:34.220 41%.

00:09:34.740 That's absolutely insane to be thinking about that, especially following a $2 million lawsuit that just came out with a young girl who transitioned.

00:09:42.880 And now she got $1.6 million, I think, and another $400,000 for a total of $2 million.

00:09:49.300 The one plane would fire.

00:09:51.000 Two, parents are not supporting.

00:09:52.860 Ted Sarandes did say, look, Josh, you have the ability to control what your kids get to watch.

00:09:58.420 You get to say you don't get to watch this.

00:10:00.340 It doesn't show up in the search.

00:10:01.960 And then Josh is like, I don't even want to do that.

00:10:03.840 Right?

00:10:04.360 I don't even want to go through it.

00:10:05.400 Jeff, what do you stand with this?

00:10:06.700 Well, I think one of the things that he said was that if we do this, we fail.

00:10:12.520 In many ways, this merger is a failure because if they were succeeding, they would stand alone.

00:10:17.060 They wouldn't need to do the merger. 0.59

00:10:18.140 The reason why they're merging in the first place is because they need to create a larger content library that appeals to more people because their individual content library, let's face it, is just garbage.

00:10:29.380 Netflix should be dominating completely.

00:10:32.320 The fact that they're not and they're actually trying to buy Warner's library, it is an acknowledgement that they have failed, that their agenda has failed, and they're trying to keep it going for as long as they possibly can.

00:10:43.480 I think this is one of those situations where they've created a monster they can no longer control.

00:10:48.160 When everybody started to shift to streaming, companies just threw money at Hollywood.

00:10:54.180 Said, just give me content.

00:10:55.120 I don't care what it is.

00:10:55.980 I need content.

00:10:56.740 I need content, content, content to get subscribers.

00:10:59.320 And Hollywood is notoriously left-leaning.

00:11:00.840 Let's be honest here.

00:11:01.500 It's incredibly left-leaning.

00:11:02.780 So they enabled all of these left-leaning producers, like you said, showrunners, talent, and everybody, and just gave them gobs of money, created tons of content, and now they're stuck because these are their one source of content creation.

00:11:16.180 And they can't really do much about it.

00:11:18.360 They can't go back in the other direction because the people that they've enabled would absolutely revolt if they even thought about doing something differently.

00:11:25.420 So, to me, in many ways, this merger is an acknowledgment that we've failed in that model.

00:11:30.660 We have been doing advocacy.

00:11:31.860 Do you think they'll succeed?

00:11:33.840 Do you think it'll get done?

00:11:34.880 I think the merger's going to happen.

00:11:36.640 Do you think the merger's going to happen?

00:11:37.560 I think it will happen.

00:11:39.220 Okay.

00:11:39.800 Even if the involvement of whose approval do they need?

00:11:44.280 Federal Trade Commission.

00:11:45.200 Yeah, FTC.

00:11:45.840 Federal Trade Commission.

00:11:46.880 The guy that runs it, what do we know about?

00:11:49.140 Car?

00:11:49.760 No, it's not Car.

00:11:50.600 That's FCC.

00:11:51.400 FCC is Brandon Car.

00:11:52.180 FCC is Car.

00:11:53.040 But FTC is Andrew N. Ferguson.

00:11:56.160 What do we know about him?

00:11:57.180 He got appointed in January of last year, I believe.

00:11:59.580 Zoom in a little bit.

00:12:00.360 And look at who he replaced.

00:12:01.780 Remember who he replaced was the anti-business woman? 0.90

00:12:04.600 Solicitor of Virginia.

00:12:05.280 Yeah.

00:12:06.420 Ferguson was born.

00:12:08.040 Background is graduating from Eastern Minnesota.

00:12:09.920 Go a little bit lower.

00:12:10.660 Legal career.

00:12:11.400 What did he do?

00:12:12.640 The law school.

00:12:13.920 Lena Kahn.

00:12:14.820 Remember her?

00:12:15.980 I do remember Lena Kahn.

00:12:17.280 Communist.

00:12:17.800 She was there. 1.00

00:12:18.640 A freaking communist. 0.98

00:12:20.180 From 2016, 2017. 0.99

00:12:21.360 He clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court.

00:12:25.660 Okay, so go to Lena Thomas.

00:12:28.160 Lena Kahn.

00:12:28.800 Go to Lena Kahn to the right preceded by Lena Kahn.

00:12:31.880 I call her a communist in my own opinion, obviously.

00:12:33.760 We definitely remember her.

00:12:35.220 She was all over the place. 1.00

00:12:36.240 And we were talking about her as well on the podcast.

00:12:39.000 So how much authority does he have to prevent this from happening?

00:12:44.040 Can he prevent this deal from happening?

00:12:45.920 I think what they really have.

00:12:46.780 Sorry, Tom.

00:12:47.120 Don't they have a border five?

00:12:48.080 They have to find some kind of legal basis.

00:12:51.580 They can't just willy-nilly say we're going to do it.

00:12:52.980 And there's not a monopoly law that doesn't exist here because it's not like it's about 50%.

00:12:56.380 Yeah, so I think unless they have some kind of legal basis that's already been spun up that we haven't heard about, which is possible, I just don't think it's likely.

00:13:04.440 Brandon, where are you at with this?

00:13:05.460 Yeah, I don't think that it's as certain that Netflix goes out with this because it doesn't feel like Trump wants that to be the case.

00:13:11.660 It doesn't feel like the conservatives want that to be the case.

00:13:13.280 I think they'd rather have Paramount slash Oracle, like in my view.

00:13:17.840 But I think both scenarios are bad for different reasons.

00:13:20.420 I think Netflix, you know, because of the propaganda side, Paramount because of the control side because of some of the things that they're aligned with.

00:13:26.740 But what Holly said there's totally true or what Serrano said to Holly is true as far as how are you controlling what your kids watch?

00:13:37.000 You know, maybe he's able to, but a lot of parents aren't able to control what their kids watch.

00:13:40.800 And Netflix got to that position where since they were first, I think they were able to be comfortable in, you know, putting out propaganda, putting out their messaging they're aligned with because they were comfortable in that number one position.

00:13:50.940 Because, I mean, their stock's still doing really well.

00:13:52.960 They're still, you know, have a ton of market share for kind of abusing their product for a long time.

00:13:57.680 So, yeah, I think that, you know, it's unfortunate that a lot of parents probably don't even have the ability to make sure their kids aren't watching that stuff.

00:14:04.980 And it does a lot of damage to society.

00:14:06.440 Like, we've seen those charts that show, like, was it 20% of Gen Z identifies as part of LGBT?

00:14:13.040 You know, like, where's that coming from?

00:14:14.120 It's coming from entertainment and education.

00:14:16.340 So, yeah, I mean, I think it's a threat to society to let them just get away with it.

00:14:20.540 Yeah, Rob's got it right there.

00:14:21.560 So, you know, I think this is a direct result of stuff like this that we're talking about.

00:14:25.760 That doesn't just come out of nowhere.

00:14:26.840 It's from school and from entertainment.

00:14:28.740 Yeah, it's true.

00:14:29.480 And, Rob, can you do me a favor and pull up Netflix's market cap?

00:14:33.020 If you can type in Netflix market cap, last 12 months.

00:14:37.300 I'm curious to know how the go-to year, if you could.

00:14:42.300 Is split recently.

00:14:43.120 Yeah, and then zoom in a little bit so we can see it closer, Rob.

00:14:46.700 So, when, what was it in six months ago?

00:14:50.020 What number was it?

00:14:50.720 120, 130?

00:14:51.960 Mm-hmm.

00:14:52.220 133, 91.

00:14:53.300 It's 79.

00:14:54.780 Can you go based on the market cap instead of what the stock price is?

00:14:58.840 So, it's down.

00:15:00.660 If we look at market cap.

00:15:02.680 You see what the market thinks?

00:15:03.840 The market thinks you're going to get less valuable by doing this.

00:15:06.880 Yeah.

00:15:07.160 So, market cap 337.

00:15:08.940 Or do they think it's not going to happen?

00:15:10.420 Is there a market cap high?

00:15:13.000 Because I think they hit a half a trillion, if I'm not mistaken.

00:15:15.800 Yes.

00:15:16.340 They were close to a half a trillion at one point.

00:15:20.000 So, they've lost 150.

00:15:21.240 Okay, yeah.

00:15:21.680 So, 407.

00:15:24.040 No, that's just the market cap.

00:15:25.560 It's not the peak.

00:15:26.660 I think they hit a half a trillion.

00:15:28.000 Or if not, 470, 480 in market cap.

00:15:30.380 What's the price right now?

00:15:32.020 So, 79, 130.

00:15:33.640 So, 79, 130.

00:15:34.860 50 up.

00:15:35.540 So, 50 up on 70.

00:15:37.000 It's 80%.

00:15:37.940 There you go.

00:15:38.580 80% higher.

00:15:39.640 Yeah, they hit.

00:15:40.540 They hit a half a trillion market cap.

00:15:42.660 So, Tom, did you have any final thoughts on this?

00:15:45.360 Yeah, there is a – I have a dark thought.

00:15:50.020 Ellison's want to buy the whole thing, and they want the cable nets, Pat.

00:15:53.780 They want CNN and the cable channels.

00:15:56.500 So, the Ellison's, Paramount, want to buy the whole thing.

00:15:59.880 If they do, you saw what they did to CBS, right?

00:16:03.420 What do you think they're going to do to CNN?

00:16:06.800 They're going to neutralize it, bring it back to the center.

00:16:10.040 This is what the rest of the industry doesn't want.

00:16:13.240 They don't want another news channel to come back to neutral or, Lord God, one-click conservative.

00:16:19.820 By the way, so, Brandon, why do you say neither is a case you want?

00:16:23.800 Neither Paramount and neither this.

00:16:26.520 So, you would rather have Netflix control.

00:16:29.100 You have to choose between the two.

00:16:30.700 Yeah.

00:16:31.120 I mean, for the immediate future, probably Paramount's better.

00:16:34.140 But, you know, long-term, I don't like some of the things that Ellison's stand for, you know, based on what they say in the past.

00:16:40.040 You know, we've seen the videos of Larry Ellison saying how he monitors his people at work.

00:16:44.500 You get a little break from the body camera when you go to the bathroom or when you go hang out with your friends.

00:16:48.740 But it's still recording and it could be retrieved to the corridor.

00:16:51.400 So, some of those sensibilities make me a little bit uncomfortable.

00:16:54.000 But I get what you're saying, that short-term, yes, they're conservative.

00:16:57.080 They're more reasonable.

00:16:57.700 So, it's better than Netflix and they're propaganda.

00:16:59.620 Oh, no, I think long-term, Netflix is going to be worse.

00:17:03.200 Oh, yeah, for sure.

00:17:03.880 That's what I'm saying.

00:17:04.380 I think short-term, mid-term, long-term, Netflix is worse than Paramount.

00:17:08.260 Where are you at with this?

00:17:09.520 Oh, I mean, look at what do people watch on Netflix?

00:17:12.340 They watch old reruns of The Office and Friends, right?

00:17:14.560 They don't watch the new content.

00:17:15.840 Again, I go back to this.

00:17:16.940 This is the industry kind of trying to stay in the same mode realizing they're failing.

00:17:23.180 What would really work is somebody coming along and saying, look, we need to actually do what the guy said.

00:17:27.900 We need to make content that appeals to actually the entire country and the entire audience instead of a narrow focus.

00:17:34.120 And so, in many ways, the merger is the industry trying to resist that.

00:17:39.720 So, I think it's positive in the respect that it's being forced to do something.

00:17:43.840 And eventually, that might actually correct with market forces, but it's going to take a while to get there.

00:17:48.100 Yeah, I don't know.

00:17:49.000 I mean, when you look at that, you've got the two behemoths, right?

00:17:51.620 You've got Netflix is dealing with a problem trying to buy Time Warner.

00:17:55.120 And Paramount, you know, the Ellisons are trying to pick up Time Warner. 0.99

00:17:58.520 We'll see what will happen.

00:17:59.180 By the way, if this, there's a strange turn of events and all of a sudden, boom, they're out.

00:18:05.700 FTC's not allowing this to happen.

00:18:07.220 And then they're looking at Paramount as a possible buyer.

00:18:10.280 What a curveball.

00:18:11.460 Imagine you're looking at this in six months and David Ellison is sitting next to the CEO of Time Warner.

00:18:18.040 And they're having this type of conversation.

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00:19:58.260 Cannot wait to see many of you there this year at Trump Doral.

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Valuetainment - February 05, 2026

“Netflix Is Playing With FIRE” - Hawley GOES NUCLEAR On Netflix CEO Over Trans Content For Kids

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