DVD-Day in Hollywood, Weekend Whats
I didn’t know it at the time, but the future of entertainment depended on a single data point shared with me over a cup of coffee in the 90s. I was chatting with Marc Randolph, one of the co-founders of a small, just-launched company called Netflix. Even though the company had only rented a relative handful of DVDs at that point, Randolph was very bullish on its prospects because the founders had an answer to the one key question that they believed would ultimately determine the company’s success: Would consumers be willing to rent a DVD by mail? The early answer was yes. That answer upended the entire movie rental business, and it was followed by a series of additional yeses. Would bandwidth reach a level where we could reasonably download and then stream movies? Yes. Could Netflix successfully manage the transition and the competition associated with adapting to the streaming age? Yes. Could a tech upstart from the Bay Area establish itself as one of the most powerful, influential players in the business of Hollywood? Yes? And now the biggest yes of all: Would Netflix eventually become a 300 million subscriber behemoth so massive and valuable that it could win a bidding competition against the likes of Paramount and Comcast to buy one of Hollywood’s most storied studios? NYT (Gift Article): Netflix to Buy Warner Bros. in $83 Billion Deal to Create a Streaming Giant. “Netflix announced plans on Friday to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming business, in a deal that will send shock waves through Hollywood and the broader media landscape. The cash-and-stock deal values the business at $82.7 billion, including debt. The acquisition is expected to close after Warner Bros. Discovery carves out its cable unit, which the companies expected be completed by the third quarter of 2026. That means there will be a separate public company controlling channels like CNN, TNT and Discovery.” (I suppose this is an appropriate moment to look back at that moment in September of 2000 when Netflix offered to sell itself to Blockbuster for $50 million. John Antioco, CEO of Blockbuster, declined, saying, “The dot-com hysteria is completely overblown.”)
+ I’m not sure that morphing from a builder to a buyer is a smart move for Netflix. And I’m not sure that market consolidation will be good for consumers. And I’m going to be really worried if company executives announce that the new name for the combined streamer will be Netflix Max. But I am sure the deal’s announcement will set off a blockbuster debate among regulators, and that will include Trump administration officials who sure seemed to prefer the Ellison father and son backed Skydance/Paramount bid that could have been a big win for a Trump ally and put CNN into the hands of a MAGA-friendly owner. Netflix-Warner Bros deal faces political pushback even as company touts benefits. “Republicans in Congress have warned of potential antitrust problems with Netflix absorbing HBO Max and Warner Bros’ content rights — and Democrats including U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren criticized the transaction after it was announced on Friday.” (How will it all turn out? We can either wait and see, or I can just invite Marc Randolph to coffee again. I just worry about him asking me about those two or three DVDs rentals I never returned.)
Are You Not Entertained?
“Andrew Kolvet, a spokesperson for the late Charlie Kirk’s Conservative nonprofit Turning Point USA, showcased ardent support for the Secretary of Defense via social media, saying ‘Every new attack aimed at Pete Hegseth makes me want another narco drug boat blown up and sent to the bottom of the ocean.’ In response, Hegseth said: ‘Your wish is our command, Andrew. Just sunk another narco boat.'” The latest strike took place on the same day Congressional officials were gathering information on the infamous second strike. The second strike was a crime. The first strike was a crime. But, as Phil Klay explains in the NYT (Gift Article), these strikes are something more than that. “This [legality] discussion misses the bigger effort the Trump administration seems to be engaged in. In lieu of careful analysis of the campaign’s legality, detailed rationales for the boat strikes and explanations of why they couldn’t be done with more traditional methods, we get Mr. Hegseth posting an image of himself with laser eyes and video after video of alleged drug traffickers being killed. The cartoon turtle is just one example in an avalanche of juvenile public messaging about those we kill. I suspect the question the administration cares about is not ‘is this legal,’ ‘is this a war crime,’ ‘is this murder’ or even ‘is this good for America,’ but rather, ‘isn’t this violence delightful?'” What Trump Is Really Doing With His Boat Strikes. “We’re in the Colosseum, one brought to us digitally so that we need not leave our homes to hear the cheers of the crowd, to watch the killing done for our entertainment.”
Clause and Effect
“He switched from vodka to light beer. He started booking two-hundred-dollar-an-hour corporate Santa gigs. He reconnected with his son and even employed him as an elf. The easy explanation would be that playing Santa Claus saved Billy and that the magic of Christmas had wrapped its warm glow around another lost soul. That’s what Billy thought. That’s what a lot of men who worked at Macy’s thought when they, too, found happiness sitting in a gold-painted chair wearing a red costume. But there was something else at work on Thirty-fourth Street. Something more profound. A better story, actually.” David Gauvey Herbert in Esquire: Yes, Bob, There is a Santa Clause.
Weekend Whats
What to Watch: Michael Shannon, Matthew Macfadyen, and Nick Offerman lead an excellent cast in the the story of James Garfield, who rose from obscurity to become America’s 20th president — and Charles Guiteau, the man who assassinated him. Watch Death by Lightning on Netflix.
+ What to Book: Kaplan’s Plot by Jason Diamond is an entertaining and sometimes touching story of failed tech bro who returns home to Chicago and uncovers a sprawling story of his grandfather’s role in an epic gangster saga.
+ What to Sandman: Adam Sandler is the latest interviewee on David Letterman’s Netflix show: My Next Guest. These two guys chatting just makes me feel good.
Extra, Extra
Erasure Head: “The document released overnight is the clearest statement yet of how the president wants his America First foreign policy to be a clarion call for other nationalist politicians to overhaul their political systems. And it echoes some of the language of the Great Replacement Theory, a nationalist conspiracy theory embraced by some of his top aides that warns of a deliberate effort to replace white people with nonwhite immigrants.” NYT (Gift Article): Trump Administration Says Europe Faces ‘Civilizational Erasure.’ (I could use some news erasure…)
+ Replacing Merits with Parrots: “But as the populist right trashes meritocracy, it is replacing it with something older, cruder and more corrosive: a naked plutocracy — rule by the very rich. We have the wealthiest Cabinet in history, stocked with billionaires and centimillionaires. Immense wealth is now seen as the single best qualification to run anything.” An excellent piece from Fareed Zakaria in WaPo (Gift Article): Populists are replacing meritocracy with something far worse.
+ Vax Attacks: Panel Votes to End Recommendation for Hepatitis B Shots for All Newborns. (And RFK’s vaccine dismantling begins.)
+ Scotus Operandi: Supreme Court lets Texas use gerrymandered map that could give GOP 5 more House seats. (The Court’s majority disregarding the law and lower court rulings to support Trump? Shocker.)
+ Shock and Draw: The United States will face Australia, Paraguay and winner of Turkey, Romania, Slovakia and Kosovo. Here’s a look at all the groups and news from the World Cup draw, where Trump accepted the FIFA Peace Prize and spoke briefly onstage at the Kennedy Center. ‘This is truly one of the great honors of my life. We’ve saved millions and millions of lives.'” (Millions? I’m pretty sure it’s more like trillions…)
+ Fact Wrecker: A headline that defines an era: State Department to deny visas to fact checkers and others.
+ The Next Pardon? “One of Trump’s first executive actions of his second term was to issue clemency to the nearly 1,600 defendants accused or convicted of ‘offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.’ It remains to be seen whether Cole’s lawyers will try to argue that their client is covered by Trump’s proclamation.” Brian Cole Jr., suspect in Jan. 6 pipe bomb plot, reportedly told FBI he believed 2020 election was stolen.
Feel Good Friday
“Mesfin Yana Dollar came to the U.S. for surgery. Now he works at the Mayo Clinic, assisting with some of the world’s most complex open-heart surgeries.” WaPo (Gift Article): A heart surgeon saved his life as a teen. Now they perform surgeries together.
+ Teens may have come up with a new way to detect, treat Lyme disease using CRISPR gene editing.
+ 14-Year-Old Wins Prize For Origami That Can Hold 10,000 Times Its Own Weight.
+ Students in need were paid $500 a month to stay in school. It worked.
+ Boy, 5, Sneaks Out for Chick-fil-A While Family Sleeps.
+ “Usually, there’s about an hour of quiet reading. Then you can stick around to chat and swap books — or not.” Inside Seattle’s silent book clubs. You show up with your own book and just read for a while in the presence of others doing the same thing. (If I can partipate from home, this would be the perfect club.)
