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--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: The NFL is back, and FanDuel's got everything you need to play your game. From same-game parlays to live betting. Right now, new customers bet $5 and get $300 in bonus bets if you win. 21-plus in president select states. 18-plus in Kentucky and Wyoming. Must be first online real money waging. $5 deposit required. Bonus issued is non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire seven days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See full terms at FanDuel.com slash sportsbook. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER.
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--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: YouTube has announced that it will ban all content questioning the safety of any approved vaccines. What do these new guidelines mean for big tech's ability to control medical information? I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's October 2nd, and this is your Saturday edition of Morning Wire.
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--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: Hollywood braces for a labor strike from one of its largest unions. How will a potential walkout affect the shows you watch? And a Texas school district told teachers to help students hide their gender identity from their own parents. Now their parents want answers.
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--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. This show is sponsored by Birch Gold Group. Inflation is destroying the dollar. Birch Gold Group can help protect your IRA or 401k with a precious metals IRA. Text WIRE to 989898 to claim a free info kit on physical gold and silver. There's zero obligation. Text the word WIRE to 989898 to protect your savings today.
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--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: After another big tech platform expands its censorship policies, a complex battle has emerged between those who want free speech online, those who want to stop medical misinformation, and those who want tighter control over the internet itself. Here to explain is Daily Wire's Ian Howarth.
--:-- Ian Howarth: So, YouTube recently made a big announcement about vaccine misinformation. Can you unpack that a little bit for us?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Sure. So earlier this week, YouTube announced that they are expanding their so-called medical misinformation policies to include new guidelines when it comes to vaccines. These guidelines expand previous policies, which covered what YouTube deemed to be COVID-19 vaccine misinformation, to cover all vaccines approved by local health authorities and the World Health Organization.
--:-- Ian Howarth: But you can still talk about vaccines, right?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yeah, YouTube did say that they will continue to allow content about vaccine policies, new vaccine trials, and historical vaccine successes or failures. Personal testimonials relating to vaccines will also be allowed, but only if the video doesn't violate other community guidelines or demonstrate a pattern of promoting vaccine hesitancy.
--:-- Ian Howarth: And would you say that this is an unusual change or is this following suit with other social media companies?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yeah, it's not unusual at all. If anything, YouTube is lagging behind. Other platforms have already moved to enforce the same sorts of policies. Facebook, for example, announced in February that they plan to remove or demote posts which either spread so-called vaccine misinformation or included content which discouraged vaccinations more generally in certain cases. And then in March, Twitter followed suit, with users facing punishment of various forms for posting what they view as harmful misinformation.
--:-- Ian Howarth: So if anything, YouTube's almost late to the game here.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yeah, and it didn't go unnoticed by critics who wanted YouTube to act faster. This also isn't the first time YouTube has been criticized for acting too slow in the eyes of those who want more censorship online. In 2020 for example YouTube took a comparatively hands-off approach to content deemed as misinformation related to the presidential election by Facebook and Twitter until they started acting on this content about a month after the election.
--:-- Ian Howarth: So what's been the reaction to the new policies?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, it's been a bit mixed. While there are many critics of YouTube's policies in the U.S., either because of beliefs regarding vaccines or the subject of social media censorship more generally, the impact of YouTube's decision actually goes beyond our borders. And what's surprising here is that Russia is now threatening to ban YouTube.
--:-- Ian Howarth: Russia? Why is that?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, the Kremlin threatened to ban YouTube on Wednesday unless the state-backed broadcaster RT's German language channels are reinstated. They were deleted for violating COVID-19 misinformation guidelines.
--:-- Ian Howarth: But we should remember that this move by Russia isn't necessarily something to celebrate. The enemy of your enemy isn't always your friend when it comes to the internet.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Right. The reason Russian officials are threatening YouTube isn't because they care about freedom of speech. Instead, this is part of an ongoing battle for control, with authoritarian states like Russia and China constantly looking to tighten their grip on the internet.
--:-- Ian Howarth: Well, clearly the attempt to control the internet is a growing theme these days.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Ian, thanks for the update. My pleasure. Have a great weekend. That's Daily Wire's Ian Howarth.
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--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: Coming up, Hollywood faces a potentially devastating labor strike. You can get this show and all of the content you love wherever you are, all on the Daily Wire app. Even if you're not a Daily Wire member, you'll be the first to know what's trending with mobile notifications for the latest news, and you'll get content from all your favorite Daily Wire shows. Download the Daily Wire app and keep up with the facts, no matter where your day takes you.
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--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: It's been 14 years since Hollywood last experienced a labor walkout. But now, negotiations are faltering between the production companies and the unions representing crew members. And a strike vote is happening as we speak. Here to explain the points of disagreement and how it could affect the average viewer at home is Daily Wire reporter Megan Basham.
--:-- Megan Basham: So, I know last time Hollywood faced a major strike, it involved the Writers Guild. Who's involved this time?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, I'm glad you brought up the Writers Strike, because before we talk who, I think it's important to talk about just how many people we're talking about here. So the 2008 Writers Strike involved just 12,000 Guild members, and it shut down a huge number of productions for more than 14 weeks. Today, the estimated cost of that strike was $2 billion and nearly 38,000 jobs.
--:-- Megan Basham: Whoa. So this time, we're talking about 60,000 crew members, so five times as many workers involved. Really, this could be the biggest entertainment industry walkout since World War II.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So now to the who. The group we're talking about is the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, IATSE, which represents workers behind the scenes. So think camera operators, costume designers, prop makers, all those people like that.
--:-- Megan Basham: Right, so a lot of people. Yeah. So they've been in negotiations with the Association of Production Companies, which represents Disney, Paramount, Warner Brothers, all the big studios, basically, as well as your big broadcast networks and streamers like Netflix. So basically, your guys in the corner offices.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So what is the union asking for? I mean, most of the issues are pretty standard contract dispute stuff. They want higher pay, they want more time off, and they want shorter working days.
--:-- Megan Basham: But like several other stories we've discussed lately, Scarlett Johansson's Disney lawsuit being one, a lot of the disagreement is arising out of the streaming revolution. So the last time IATSE negotiated the terms of streaming contracts was back in 2009 when streaming was just getting started.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now under that agreement, smaller platforms like say Apple TV Paramount they can pay lower rates. One electrical engineer for example said he might make an hour on a studio film but only an hour on a streaming series.
--:-- Megan Basham: Wow, that's a steep decrease right there. Yes, a very big difference. And so that last agreement also allowed all the streamers to contribute less to crew pensions and health plans. So the union wants to see all that change.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And how about the celebrity class, the people we typically think of when we talk about Hollywood? Are they weighing in on this?
--:-- Megan Basham: Well, I mean, you know, if you're a star with a reputation for left-wing politics, it could look pretty bad to say nothing on behalf of the workers here. So yeah, your usual liberal suspects are speaking out. Jane Fonda, Susan Sarandon, they've both expressed support for the union. And so have some of the newer stars like Ryan Reynolds, Seth Rogen, but mostly they're really only showing their support on Instagram and Twitter and other social media platforms as opposed to speaking out in, say, a more formal way.
--:-- Georgia Howe: To give you an example, the Emmys just passed, and given how political award shows can typically get, you might have expected a speech or two there to mention it. That didn't happen.
--:-- Megan Basham: Yeah, I don't remember hearing any speeches about IATSE at the Emmys.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So how could this affect, you know, the average person at home? A lot's going to depend on the next couple of days. So since the deadline passed with no agreement, the union is holding a strike vote right this minute as we speak.
--:-- Megan Basham: So after the 2008 writer's strike, dozens of shows experienced delays. Some had to have fewer episodes that year. Other shows that would have been given more seasons under normal circumstances were canceled. Late night shows like Letterman, Saturday Night Live, Tonight Show, they had to air reruns.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So we could see all of that again and to a greater degree. But one more kind of interesting historical note, reality shows experienced a boom after that because networks were scrambling to find content that didn't involve writers. So that permanently altered the entertainment landscape. Could be interesting to see if something like that happens again.
--:-- Megan Basham: Yeah. So we find out what Monday? Yeah, Monday. Okay, we'll be watching.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for being here, Megan. Yep, always happy to do it. That was Daily Wire entertainment reporter Megan Basham.
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--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: A public school training in Texas told teachers to help students hide information about their gender identity from their parents in order to make school a safe place. A Texas public school district held a teacher training that told teachers to help students hide information about their gender identity from parents. Now, parents are demanding an explanation, saying the school district violated their parental rights. Daily Wire investigative reporter Mairead Elordi did some digging on this.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: Yeah, it's hard to believe, but it's true. This happened in a school district just north of Austin, Texas called Leander ISD, which I know you know because you broke the story about the pornographic books in the curriculum. Yes.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Anyway, the same district hosted a teacher training in October of last year during a staff development conference, and the presentation was given by two social workers who worked for the district. The training was optional.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: So what happened is these two social workers told the teachers who attended that they should discuss gender identity with their students and ask them what their preferred pronouns are. They also said that teachers should ask students if they can use the preferred pronouns when they talk to their parents.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So they explicitly instructing the teachers to bring up gender identity with students and then proactively volunteer to conceal that information from parents. Exactly. In fact, not only that but in the training materials they cast parents as potential threats.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: One of the district social workers told teachers that if a student has not told their parents about their gender identity, it may be because it is not, quote, safe for them to be out with their parents. She warned that some students may have, quote, non-affirming parents or even parents who are shaming about a student's identity.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The training also instructed teachers to ask students if they want to have a private conversation about their pronouns. And some parents, I imagine, feel this is inappropriate.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: Yeah, parents are really upset about this. I spoke to one mom who said she sees this as an attempt by the school district to deceive parents.
--:-- Georgia Howe: In addition, a group of angry parents showed up at a school board meeting on September 9th to speak out against the training. One parent apparently found out in the spring that the school was allowing their child to go by a new gender identity opposite of his biological gender. This was apparently going on for some time without the parent's knowledge.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: The family says this caused a lot of distress. This parent accused the school district of violating their trust and denying them the possibility of getting psychiatric care for their child for at least a year.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Right. And like you mentioned, this is the same district that had kids reading books with really explicit sex scenes. I mean, it was some pretty violent, disturbing stuff.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: Exactly. Now, the school district apologized earlier this year and took some of the books off the list, but some of the titles have remained in use. These books included a very graphic description of a gang rape, scenes with a strap-on sex toy, and detailed descriptions of child molestation. Really shocking stuff.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So many parents are fed up with this. They feel the school district continues to push a political and social agenda that does not represent them. And we've heard that some parents are even pulling their kids out of the district.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: This is starting to feel like a really familiar story these days. Loudoun County comes to mind.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Right. Mairead, thanks so much for reporting. Of course. That's investigative reporter Mairead Elordi.
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--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: Other stories we're tracking this week. An Oregon school board voted this week to ban educators from displaying, quote, political, quasi-political, or controversial symbols in the classroom. Among the banned items are pride flags and Black Lives Matter symbols.
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--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: And with weekend sports news, Daily Wire sports reporter Joe Morgan. The NBA announced Wednesday that any player that misses a game due to not complying with local vaccine mandates, that means San Francisco and New York, will not be paid for the game missed. The mandates only apply to players who play in those cities with vaccine mandates, and that does mean Kyrie Irving and Andrew Wiggins and do not apply to visiting players.
--:-- Joe Morgan: In lighter news, we have an amazing slate of college football games on Saturday. Number eight, Arkansas travels to number two, Georgia. Number seven, Cincinnati hopes for a marquee win when they travel to South Bend to take on number nine, Notre Dame. And Lane Kiffin and his number 12, Ole Miss Rebels return to Tuscaloosa in a matchup against Nick Saban and number one, Alabama.
--:-- Georgia Howe: This isn't a Saturday for running errands, folks. Let's make sure that fridge is stocked and the lazy boy prepared for 12 hours of sitting.
--:-- Joe Morgan: If you like this podcast and are interested in hearing more, subscribe to Morning Wire on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you're listening, and give us a five-star review.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back next week with the news you need to know. If you like this podcast, subscribe to our Morning Wire newsletter, available exclusively to Daily Wire members. Get the Morning Wire newsletter delivered straight to your inbox when you join at dailywire.com slash subscribe. Use code Morning Wire to try a Reader's Pass membership and get your first month for only 99 cents.
