--:-- Georgia Howe: Welcome to Morning Wire, I'm Georgia Howe.
--:-- John Bickley: And I'm John Bickley, Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We've been off the air for a week, and you know who else has? Tucker Carlson. We break down what's causing the seismic shift in viewership.
--:-- John Bickley: That's right. Late night shows with hosts such as Jimmy Fallon and Stephen Colbert have lost a grip on their audience as their ratings have begun to fall.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We have the news you need to know. A new report reveals that CBS was losing approximately $20 million a year on the late, late show with James Corden before it decided to cancel it, while ratings for the late night format overall have been shrinking dramatically in recent years.
--:-- Megan Basham: As Daily Wire culture reporter, I spoke with Brian Stelter, the author of that report.
--:-- John Bickley: So Megan, I know Stelter talked to a lot of people behind the scenes for this report, including network CEOs and some of the former show hosts. What did he find?
--:-- Megan Basham: Yeah, he did. And he talked to the head of CBS and also some current show writers as well. And primarily what he found was a broad awareness that the days for late night shows as the reigning kings of that 10 p.m. to midnight block, well, they're pretty much over.
--:-- Megan Basham: These shows are very expensive, especially because of host salaries. The top guys like Jimmy Fallon and Stephen Colbert make over $15 million a year, and yet at the same time, they're losing audience.
--:-- John Bickley: So CBS's decision to just end the Late Late Show after almost 30 years, rather than find a new host to replace Corden is really emblematic of Late Night's broader woes.
--:-- Megan Basham: Stelter, who is a former CNN host, told me part of this is about the massive competition it faces from streaming and social media.
--:-- Megan Basham: I spoke with a longtime Late Night producer who said, you know, Late Night, when he used to have a Late Night show, it was like having a diner on the side of I-95. People are just always come in at all hours of the day.
--:-- Megan Basham: It's valuable real estate. You're guaranteed people coming in just because people need to eat. And now, like, not only is the diner not there, there's thousands of roads. There's not just one road.
--:-- Megan Basham: You know, that's what's happened to broadcast TV. And so to quantify that, for the six major late night shows, ad revenue is down around 60% from its high in 2016.
--:-- John Bickley: Well, it's funny because 2016 doesn't seem that long ago. But of course, they've also lost their favorite target for jokes since then.
--:-- Megan Basham: Does Stelter think that Trump leaving office is a major factor for this decline?
--:-- Megan Basham: Yeah, that's a really good point. And Stelter did say that he does think that Trump was a disruptive force in late night Left viewers craved more jokes at his expense so the shows naturally kind of moved in that direction.
--:-- Megan Basham: But it also polarized the audience in the long run and that drove a lot of right viewers away Donald Trump changed so much about television, including late-night television.
--:-- Megan Basham: And these shows, most of these shows, they went in a very aggressive political direction, in part because a huge part of the audience wanted that, And in part because that's where the writers and hosts naturally were.
--:-- Megan Basham: And, you know, these shows became perceived as anti-Trump and anti-Republican. That obviously leaves a huge opening for someone like Greg Gutfeld.
--:-- Megan Basham: So as you heard there, Stelter brought up Gutfeld. And he did tell me that the more Late Night evolved to appeal to those blue state viewers, the more that left an opening for some counter-programming to appeal to red state viewers.
--:-- Megan Basham: And not just for right-wing branded hosts, but also for those willing to challenge kind of the standard left-wing talking points you tend to find on broadcast late night.
--:-- Megan Basham: I think Bill Maher has always been a contrarian and lately his contrarianism gets a lot more attention from right-wing media.
--:-- Megan Basham: So now he's a reliable source of content for, let's say, shows on Fox in a way that he was not 10 years ago.
--:-- Megan Basham: At the same time, Got from out on Fox News as a smash success for Fox because he has a unique audience and a unique program.
--:-- Megan Basham: So to me, this is an interesting business case study in trying to find unique openings in the marketplace.
--:-- John Bickley: Well, it seems like there could be an opening here if a major network could find a more nonpartisan host. It would be great if they could.
--:-- Megan Basham: Megan, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Megan Basham: Anytime.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The New England Journal of Medicine is under fire for publishing a paper that argues in favor of racially segregating medical students.
--:-- John Bickley: Their stated rationale is to have a space where black students can be safe from the white students that seem to apparently terrorize them day in and day out.
--:-- Ash Short: I'm here to discuss the paper with Daily Wire senior editor Ash Short.
--:-- Ash Short: Well, it starts with a lot of academic jargon, saying that medical education was, quote, founded on legacies of colonialism and racism and has perpetuated structural racism by focusing on white students.
--:-- Ash Short: The paper claims that students of color could be re-traumatized by studying next to white students, which could result in, quote, imposter syndrome, heightened anxiety, and a reduced sense of belonging.
--:-- Ash Short: It claims that black medical students, quote, have been socialized to care for the egos of white people, to express their emotions only in ways that are palatable to white audiences, and to tread lightly around white fragility in order to maintain their relationships, professional status, and safety.
--:-- Ash Short: So the writers believe the solution is segregation, segregating students by race.
--:-- Ash Short: Yes. The idea is that non-white students would be able to be open and honest without alleged fear, while white students could be taught to be, quote, thoughtful allies who are less dominating in integrated spaces.
--:-- Ash Short: White students would also be taught to, quote, re-evaluate their own internalized racism and sense of superiority that can obstruct anti-racist commitment and action.
--:-- Ash Short: All right, a lot of assumptions there. Where does this concept originate that Black students need to be protected from white students?
--:-- Ash Short: Well, we spoke to Dr. Stanley Goldfarb founder of Do No Harm who called the idea of segregated classes morally abhorrent and explained what factors led to where we are now.
--:-- Ash Short: This idea that racism is prevalent in American medical institutions and that that's the reason that there are health care disparities and that black students are being terrorized or whatever, traumatized all the time, has been the result of two factors, the growth of student activists from the 60s and 70s into leadership positions and the emergence of a small crew of very vocal activists these days who are populating the student bodies as well as the faculty of medical schools.
--:-- Ash Short: And how was this paper received by the journal's readers? Will this idea spread in the medical school community?
--:-- Ash Short: It might, as so many other aspects of student life have advocated for segregation, such as student housing.
--:-- Ash Short: Dr. Goldfarb feels strongly about calling out these harmful race-based ideas before they take over our medical institutions and discourage qualified applicants.
--:-- Ash Short: I doubt if it's really diffused out into the medical community quite like it has taken over the academic institutions, which are just rife with this sort of nonsense currently.
--:-- Ash Short: In reality, there are so many young people that want to go into medicine. There are two applicants for every position in medical school.
--:-- Ash Short: So I don't think the problem is going to be that there are not enough applicants. The problem is going to be that really qualified applicants are going to be excluded because they're not of the right political ideology or not of the right race, frankly.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Ash, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Ash Short: You're welcome.
--:-- Georgia Howe: For the first time in centuries, China will no longer be the most populous nation on earth, as new data from the UN shows India set to overtake the communist country this summer.
--:-- John Bickley: Here with more on what's driving the shift and what it means for the global balance of power is Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So last month, the United Nations released its annual report on global population trends and determined that by July, India's population will hit 1.42 billion people, surpassing China, which has held the title of most populous country for centuries.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And based on current trends, as Chinese birth rates continue to decline, by the start of the next century, India is projected to double China's population.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, what are the expected impacts of a population shift like that?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, from a global economic standpoint, the ramifications are massive. The economies of both China and India rely heavily on manufacturing, which requires a huge workforce.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: For years, China has leaned on its population to dominate global manufacturing and offer businesses an enormous and cheap labor pool.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: But as their workforce begins to age and their population shrinks, and also as Western nations begin to pull production from China, India has stepped in to fill the void.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And unlike China, which has a disproportionately elderly population, India is incredibly young, with over 600 million people under the age of 25.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: That means a cheap pull of labor, which the Indian government is looking to leverage for economic gain.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been quick to tout the nation's standing as the largest democracy on Earth and is encouraging companies seeking an alternative to China to relocate there.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: As part of that effort, the country has poured billions into expanding their infrastructure, building new railways, highways, and airports in an attempt to court foreign businesses.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And in many ways, they've already seen huge progress.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So in recent years, India has really been a democratic success story. After decades of loose socialist control the country embraced a free market system opening up to global trade in the latter part of the 20th century and they soon began to experience undeniable progress.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Since 2000 the country GDP has increased almost tenfold from 468 billion to 3 trillion
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And during that time, the country's poverty rates have plummeted. According to the UN, in 2005, 55% of Indians were living in what they call multidimensional poverty.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: By 2020, that number was 16%.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: In 2007, 30% of Indians did not have access to electricity. Today, that number is 7%.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And get this, as recently as 2014, just 40% of Indian households had a toilet. Today, that number is 99%.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So a lot of progress. And in recent years, that positive movement has accelerated as a growing number of companies have moved manufacturing hubs out of China and into India.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Last year, for example, Apple began manufacturing products there. By 2025, 25% of all iPhones are expected to be made in India.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And Walmart's making similar investments, saying they hope to export $10 billion worth of goods from India by 2027.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: But it is worth noting, the country still faces a number of struggles as it attempts to fully modernize its economy.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So Indian officials have been clear their biggest concern is simply finding enough work for all the people entering the workforce.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: That has been a major struggle. At the moment, their labor force participation rate is just 39.8%.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: For context, that figure is 62% in the US.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And another key factor in whether India capitalizes on its population growth will be including women in the workforce.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Just 66% of Indian women are literate, and for decades they've been excluded from education and work.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: According to government data, just one in five Indian women currently hold a formal job, and experts say that number will have to increase for the economy to flourish.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, how does the growth of India impact the global balance of power?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: That is the big question here. Because China is the greatest threat to American power on the world stage, A strong India is typically viewed by U.S. officials as a positive counterbalance in the region.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: But China's been clear that they view India as an enemy, so there's also a fear that as India grows, it makes the prospect of a conflict more likely.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: The two countries have grown increasingly hostile toward one another in recent years, and there have actually been a number of skirmishes along their shared border.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: In one incident in 2020, the two sides engaged in a massive hand-to-hand brawl after China began amassing tanks and artillery on a mountain overlooking Indian positions.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: That fight left 24 soldiers dead, but thankfully did not escalate further.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: But things have hardly calmed down since then.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: The exact lines of that shared border, which they call the line of actual control, have never been agreed on by either country.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And both sides have continued to build out their military presence there as a show of force.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So trying to clearly view the rise of India as a threat and wants to do everything they can to counter their presence in the region.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Right. Those kind of situations can escalate quickly.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Cabot, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Anytime.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's Daily Wire senior editor, Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Plus, if you go to the website dailywire.com slash shop, you can see Cabot and I are actually modeling the gear.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Very exciting. As always, purchasing an item is a great way to support our show. Find all of our merch at dailywire.com slash shop.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We'll be back this afternoon with an extra edition of Morning Wire.
