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--:-- John Bickley: Hollywood is not only suffering financially at the box office, but also at home in Los Angeles, where production has dramatically fallen off. People are showing up to see a spectacle, something they cannot get on their screen at home. And if it doesn't have that, then you're dead. Why are workers in Tinseltown calling the situation a full-on crisis? I'm Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley with guest host Michelle Tafoya, host of the Michelle Tafoya podcast.
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--:-- John Bickley: It's June 1st, and this is a Saturday edition of Morning Wire. President Biden loses big money from big oil as industry leaders turn to Trump. And the British government is poised to pay out billions of pounds after giving tens of thousands of people infected blood. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
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--:-- Michelle Tafoya: All across the entertainment landscape, studios and streamers have reduced the number of films and shows they're producing. This has left many industry workers jobless or underemployed. Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham is here now to explain what led to Hollywood's struggles.
--:-- Megan Basham: So, the big umbrella issue is contraction. According to a new report from tracking firm ProdPro, the first quarter of 2024 saw a 7% decrease in film and TV production compared with 2023. And you have to keep in mind that 2023 was a contraction year as well. So the industry had really tightened its belt in anticipation of that historic writer's strike. And then also streamers realized they could make a lot more money licensing old content rather than producing expensive original series and movies.
--:-- Megan Basham: So between 2022 and 2023, for instance, Netflix slashed its scripted series by more than a third. All told, spending on production is down 50% over the last year. And that indicates not only fewer shows and films, but also cheaper shows and films. As a result, the past year has seen layoffs at Disney, Warner Brothers, NBC, Amazon, Netflix. I could easily keep going. And that having ripple effects Big talent agencies like CAA UTA for instance they also cut staff By the end of 2023 17 fewer workers were employed by Hollywood. And that's not just true. The executive class is getting hit too. In that sector, a recent deadline report described it as a quote, full scale depression.
--:-- Megan Basham: So with tens of thousands of people out of work, losing insurance, many are rightly, I think, calling this a crisis for the entertainment industry. Wow. So is this primarily the result of, you know, a lingering COVID hangover and the writers and actors strikes we saw last year? Or is there more to this?
--:-- Megan Basham: You know, I think those definitely played a role, particularly that writer strike, which, you know, at five months, it was the second longest in Hollywood history. But that's really only part of the story. What we're witnessing is a much broader restructuring that I think you could say COVID did hasten, but it didn't create. It forced people to adapt to new ways of entertaining themselves much more quickly than they might otherwise have done. But the technological disruption was already in place. And you could see that the content arms race that we saw with streamers showed that even they weren't quite sure how to approach it. And eventually they realized that trying to create niche content for every demographic was not going to be the path to profitability.
--:-- Megan Basham: So in some sense, this scaling back from those boom years may have always been inevitable. Kind of a shakeout. So if this is a case of unavoidable disruption, you know, how does Hollywood come out of this tailspin? Well, you know, obviously, I think the biggest component is that they have to look at what's working. And despite being a relatively bad year, the summer of 2023 was a pretty big success thanks to three movies, Barbie, Oppenheimer, and Sound of Freedom.
--:-- Megan Basham: Now, all three were fairly original. They were not part of franchises. Of course, we know Barbie, but it was an original story. And on their own, those three movies generated over a billion dollars last year without a superhero in sight. So we can see that audiences will still go to the movies when they think it's worth it. This is what Matthew Bellany, formerly at The Hollywood Reporter, now at Puck News, told CNBC about that terrible Memorial Day box office. I mean, this is a disaster. The entire industry thought Furiosa was going to be a hit. It cost $170 million to make. They did a full freight marketing campaign. You know, it just shows that right now in Hollywood, if you've got the goods and people want to see the movie, they will show up. But good is not good enough for movie theaters anymore. It's got to be great.
--:-- Megan Basham: It's been interesting for me to see more willingness from some of the big studios and streamers to embrace faith-based properties as well. I've seen a lot of that on a variety of platforms. Yeah, you know, and I think that represents a couple of these trends. One, it's that licensing successful content rather than creating something new that's expensive, and also just doing something different that audiences are responding to. So Netflix deciding to pick up the movie Jesus Revolution and the show The Chosen, which immediately started trending.
--:-- Megan Basham: But I think if you look beyond the originality of the content, you are also seeing some fundamental restructuring. Streamers, for instance, are now embracing cable-style bundling. Who knew we'd get back to that? So Disney, Hulu and Max are now offering a bundle of their platforms for one price. Also, a new sports bundle, ESPN, TNT, Fox Sports will also soon be available. And as you and I talked about earlier this week there is simply the rising tide lifting all boats If the economy recovers and audiences have more money to spend on entertainment well studios and streamers might feel confident enough to start spending again themselves. And that could be a big if, and that could depend a lot on November of 2024.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks, Megan. Anytime.
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--:-- John Bickley: There's growing evidence that the financial support Joe Biden has traditionally received from the oil industry may be drying up as more and more of its leaders look towards supporting Donald Trump. Here to discuss this inroad that the challenger is trying to make among an important donor class is Daily Wire contributor David Marcus.
--:-- David Marcus: Hey, John. So according to the New York Times, the uneasy detente between Biden and big oil is quickly unraveling here. Why is that?
--:-- David Marcus: Look, Biden for some time has been a supporter of green policies that harm big oil and gas. But until January of this year, many in the industry thought he was striking or at least trying to strike a reasonable balance with his policies. That changed with the administration's announcement that it was putting a pause on all new permits for export facilities for liquefied natural gas. According to Thomas J. Pyle, the president of the American Energy Alliance, the move was a, quote, wake up call, end quote, that could be icing billions of dollars in long-term natural gas contracts.
--:-- David Marcus: These are the kinds of significant moves that make lobbyists and donors turn off one spigot and open up another. So just how open is Trump's and how aggressively is he courting the big players in fossil fuel? The money figures have moved substantially since 2020. Trump had already banked $7.6 million from the oil and gas industry before these new efforts. And that's three times more than he got from them during his entire run last time. Biden lags way behind with 186,000 bucks. These are donors with very deep pockets, which they proved through their haul of up to 40 million dollars for Trump in this recent swing through big oil state Texas.
--:-- David Marcus: Yeah. Who specifically are we talking about here in terms of leading this effort? And is this organized in a way that already seems well off the ground? It sure seems to be. These are people like Kelsey Lee Warren and Harold G. Ham, not exactly household names, but very powerful players in the world of natural gas who have enormous bags of money to spend on elections.
--:-- David Marcus: Back in April, Trump hosted many of these same executives at a private luncheon at Mar-a-Lago. And according to The Washington Post reporting, Trump asked them to raise a billion dollars and promised to relax most, if not all, of Biden's restrictions. Now, on the one hand, this looks a little like a backroom deal. But on the other hand, Drill Baby Drill is a hit single on the Trump rhetorical jukebox. So it's not like he's hiding his intentions from the voters here. No, he's not.
--:-- David Marcus: Finally, as you mentioned at the top, it's a little counterintuitive that Biden had any backing from these industries, given his position on climate and renewable energy. Why did they offer him support in the first place?
--:-- David Marcus: So, look, oil and gas companies are well aware that in general, Republicans support better policies for them. but they also know that there are times when Democrats are in charge and they want to have some lobbying influence to mitigate the Green New Deal wish list of fossil fuel reduction. This fundraiser sends a clear message that they expect a second Biden term to basically be the equivalent of canceling the Beverly Hillbillies by shutting down all the bubbling crude oil. That is.
--:-- John Bickley: Yes. As opposed to a moderate balanced approach. An unchecked second term Joe Biden the industry fears could be not just bad for the bottom line, but an existential crisis. And that why pausing the export facilities for natural gas was such a blow It very hard for American energy companies to enter into long international contracts if they can trust that the basic infrastructure will exist Meanwhile Biden released a million barrels from the nation's strategic energy reserves last week in a move that critics slammed as craven and blatantly political. But even if this small move does make gas prices slightly lower, You can expect that gas, energy independence and broader energy costs, they're going to play a big role in Donald Trump's pitch to the American people, as they always have.
--:-- John Bickley: Indeed. Dave, thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me.
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--:-- John Bickley: The long awaited conclusion to the UK's infected blood inquiry has resulted in the UK government committing to paying out an estimated 10 billion pounds. I'm joined by Sarah Elliott of the Legatum Institute think tank to give us the full details.
--:-- Sarah Elliott: Hey, so a really unthinkable scandal here. First, for those less familiar with what took place, how did this happen and how was it allowed to impact so many people?
--:-- Sarah Elliott: It happened in the 1970s and 80s. People with hemophilia, sickle cell anemia, thalassemia, and other blood-linked conditions were given blood products as part of their treatment. But that blood ended up being infected due to shortages in local blood supplies in the UK. Blood was sourced from paid-for donations in countries with some locations being high-risk sources of HIV and other blood-borne diseases. This resulted in thousands of people being infected after receiving transfusions as part of medical treatment, transfusions following surgery, childbirth, and other medical procedures.
--:-- Sarah Elliott: And how many people were ultimately infected? The report estimates the total deaths to be more than 3,000 people because of infected blood products. The estimation is that 1,250 people were infected with HIV, of which 380 of those were children. The report also estimates over 26,000 people were infected with hepatitis due to these infected blood products. So tens of thousands, including hundreds of children.
--:-- Sarah Elliott: What finally led to the launching of this inquiry this long after the fact? Well, in 2017, Prime Minister Theresa May announced there would be a public inquiry into what she called an appalling tragedy. The inquiry formally launched in July 2018 and was led by the accomplished judge Sir Brian Langstaff. The inquiry published their final report on the 20th of May, 2024.
--:-- Sarah Elliott: As to the results of the investigation, what were the key findings? The report concluded that most infections could and should have been avoided. Sir Langstaff stated that victims had been failed not once but repeatedly by their doctors, by the bodies responsible for their treatment, and by the government. This is obviously significant in laying blame on the government, which will ultimately result in the compensation packages being awarded.
--:-- Sarah Elliott: The government has accepted the findings of the inquiry, with officials confirming the day after the publication of the report that compensation would be paid to the victims. The government minister, John Glenn, has committed to paying victims an initial compensation of £210,000 within 90 days ahead of the full payment. While the government has not yet confirmed the total amount of the compensation package, it is estimated that it will reach £10 billion.
--:-- John Bickley: All right, so too little, too late in terms of the human cost, I'm afraid. Sarah, thanks for coming on. Thanks for having me.
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--:-- John Bickley: Before we sign off today, Michelle, thank you so much for lending your talents to the show this week. It has been my pleasure.
--:-- Michelle Tafoya: Thanks for having me.
--:-- John Bickley: And for our listeners, where can they find you? Just look for the Michelle Tafoya podcast wherever you download your podcasts.
--:-- Michelle Tafoya: Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back this afternoon with an extra edition of Morning Wire.
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--:-- John Bickley: Birch Gold: Text "WIRE" to 989898 for your no-cost, no-obligation information kit.
