The CEO of entertainment streaming corporation Netflix defended the company&#8217;s decision to censor &#8220;Patriot Act With <a href="https://mashable.com/article/china-censorship-companies-hong-kong-protests-nba/">Hasan Minhaj</a>&#8221; in Saudi Arabia after the show was critical of the Middle Eastern nation&#8217;s crown prince, Mohammad Bin Salman, and his role in the disappearance and probable murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
<a href="https://www.thewrap.com/netflix-ceo-on-censoring-patriot-act-with-hasan-minhaj-in-saudi-arabia-were-not-trying-to-do-truth-to-power/">The Wrap reports</a> that Netflix CEO Reed Hastings was clear, in an interview at the New York Times&#8217; DealBook conference, that Netflix had no desire to anger foreign nationals and that it would not court controversy if it meant forgoing profits and access to foreign audiences.
“Well, we’re not in the news business. We’re not trying to do ‘truth to power,&#8217;” Hastings said.
The Saudi-focused episode of &#8220;Patriot Act&#8221; disappeared from Netflix in Saudi Arabia last January after the Saudi royal family complained that the episode criticizing Mohammad Bin Salman violated the country&#8217;s &#8220;anti-cyber crime law.&#8221;
At the time, the Wrap reports, Netflix issued a statement claiming that &#8220;we strongly support artistic freedom worldwide.&#8221; It added that “we had received a valid legal request&#8221; to pull the episode, which required them &#8220;to comply with local law.”
Social media users noticed the disappearance and notified Minhaj, who addressed the issue in an additional episode of &#8220;Patriot Act&#8221; that aired in February.
“This isn’t about just censoring one episode of a TV show. It’s about the precedent,&#8221; Minhaj said in a taped segment. &#8220;Because as tech companies keep expanding, they’re going to keep running into more vague censorship laws — laws that can allow governments to pull any content at any time.”
Hastings seemed to confirm Minhaj&#8217;s suspicions of censorship in his interview, noting that Netflix has no desire to pick fights with prickly regimes over “newsy topics.&#8221;
“We can accomplish a lot more by being entertainment and influencing a global conversation about how people live, than trying to be another news channel,&#8221; Hastings said, adding that Saudi Arabia has approved the Netflix series, &#8220;Sex Education&#8221; despite the fact that Saudi officials consider the show&#8217;s content very controversial.
Netflix is, of course, hardly the only entertainment corporation that censors content for foreign audiences &#8212; especially in countries known to bankroll expensive film and television projects, like China.
Hollywood has had a very complicated relationship with China and the Chinese government. China is the single <a href="https://www.axios.com/hollywood-movies-china-censorship-bba26aa9-b122-4b2c-80e1-054394414698.html">largest global entertainment market</a> and only allows around 40 foreign movies to be shown in Chinese theaters each year. Competition for those slots is heavy, and entertainment companies, like Disney, are more than willing to tailor their offerings to please Chinese censors and government information ministers.
Activision Blizzard, the company behind World of Warcraft and other popular massive multiplayer online role playing games recently censored a pro gamer, confiscating his winnings and banning him from competition for a year, after that gamer noted support for the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong in a post-competition interview. The NBA, likewise, censored players and team administrators from speaking out on the protests in Hong Kong after China complained.
&#8220;Patriot Act&#8221; will return to Netflix for a new season next month, and it&#8217;s very likely Hasan Minhaj will make censorship a top topic.

Netflix reed hastings

Netflix CEO Defends Censorship: &#8216;We&#8217;re Not Trying To Do Truth To Power&#8217;

Netflix

LeBron James got caught cozying up to China in the most embarrassing of ways a few weeks back. Turns out he’s got some competition on the “cozying up” front from two of the biggest companies in Hollywood.
The Los Angeles Lakers superstar scolded Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey for supporting Hong Kong protesters, dubbing Morey “misinformed” and “not educated.” A massive public backlash ensued.
The derisive chant “Shut Up and Dribble” made a sudden comeback.
Much less has been made of two similar comments tied to authoritarian regimes.
Netflix, the world’s biggest streaming company (for now), got in trouble with one of its politically charged originals. The company’s far-left talker “Patriot Act” starring Hasan Minhaj aired a segment critical of Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and his ties to the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi earlier this year.
The streaming giant yanked the episode in question from its Saudi feed at the country’s urging. Recently, CEO Reed <a href="https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/11/netflix-ceo-defends-censoring-anti-government-video-in-saudi-arabia/">Hastings defended the decision</a>.
<blockquote>&#8220;We&#8217;re not in the news business,&#8221; he said during an event sponsored by The New York Times. &#8220;We&#8217;re not trying to do &#8216;truth to power.&#8217; We&#8217;re trying to entertain.&#8221;
&#8220;We can accomplish a lot more by being entertainment and influence the conversation about the way people live, rather than being another news channel,&#8221; he added.</blockquote>
Netflix seemed less interested in “entertaining” when it got into <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/flashback-obamas-netflix-not-political/">bed with the Obamas</a> on a multi-million dollar production deal. Or when Hastings added former Obama official Susan Rice to the company’s Board of Directors.
And what about Netflix threatening to pull productions out of Georgia after the state passed strict new legislation <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hypocrites-netflix-films-middle-eastern-countries-paul-bois">targeting abortion procedures</a>?
That doesn’t mention the streamer’s hard-left content catalog, featuring uber-woke talent like Chelsea Handler, the aforementioned Minaj, David Letterman and, briefly, Michelle Wolf.
Standing up to authoritarian regimes isn’t of particular interest to Team Disney, either. The House that Mickey Built gains plenty from showing its product in Chinese movie theaters. That allows gargantuan hits like “Avengers: Endgame” to be gargantuan-er.
So it’s not shocking to hear Disney echo similar talking points.
The Hollywood Reporter recently <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/hollywood-reporter-executive-roundtable-7-major-studio-chiefs-1250718">invited seven major studio chiefs</a> to weigh in on a number of critical issues, from the changing digital landscape to our current superhero fixation.
Alan Horn, chief creative officer and co-chairman of Disney, joined in the conversation which eventually steered toward … China. THR brought up the imbroglio revolving around the studio’s live-action version of “Mulan.” That film’s star, Yifei Liu, shared her support for the Hong Kong protests, causing a LeBron-sized outcry.
How did Horn react?
<blockquote>“My feeling is free speech is an important component of our society, and folks ought to be able to say what they want to say.”</blockquote>
So far, so good.
<blockquote>“We try to be nonpolitical. There is always an issue somewhere in the world, and China happens to be a very, very big market, but it&#8217;s not the only market where there have been issues. The only thing I have said to the folks that work with me is to keep in mind that when you speak, [the media will quote you]. And that carries with it a certain responsibility. Be sensible and think before you speak. Especially on social media.”</blockquote>
The conversation then shifted to the “Fast &amp; Furious” franchise, one of Hollywood’s hottest properties. The roundtable moderator asks if the series could have a Chinese villain at some point. Universal’s Donna Langley offers this answer:
<blockquote>“We run a business. We have to be sensitive to important markets.”</blockquote>
That would be a “no.”
These revelations don’t address the other ways studios appease Chinese censors, from adding positive Asian characters to win over foreign censors to ensuring no plot points interfere with the nation’s “flawless” image.
The international markets certainly complicate business decisions in the 21st century. Movie studios know a stateside flop can turn into a profit leader if select foreign markets rally to their side.
There are few easy answers in our increasingly global age. Still, it’s hard to process the non-stop lectures and finger-wagging from Hollywood Inc. and the aforementioned comments.

Disney Plus Netflix

TOTO: Disney, Netflix Wave White Flag On International Censorship

China

Disney

LeBron James

Marvel

Former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama are now Hollywood power players, according to the latest top 100 list from <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/thr-100-hollywood-reporters-powerful-people-entertainment-1246527/item/thr-100-2019-dick-wolf-1246575" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-track-label="inline|intext|n/a">The Hollywood Reporter</a>.
Clocking in at number 50 ahead of top names like Jeffrey Katzenberg and James Cameron, THR said that the Obamas are soaring into Hollywood with deals from every corner:
<blockquote>Who wouldn&#8217;t take their call? The former president, 58, and first lady, 55, kicked off 2019 with a Sundance acquisition — doc American Factory, which premiered to strong reviews on Netflix in August en route to an awards-season run. Tonia Davis and Priya Swaminathan, co-heads of Obama banner Higher Ground, are steering projects under the couple&#8217;s deal with the streamer — including adaptations of David W. Blight&#8217;s Frederick Douglass bio and Michael Lewis&#8217; Fifth Risk, and Bloom, a post-World War II-era show about fashion — plus podcasts under a new deal with Spotify.</blockquote>
Earlier this year, the Obamas&#8217; production company, Higher Ground, announced an impressive slate of content for Netflix and Spotify. Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos hailed their slate as a symbol of their commitment to “diverse creators and unique voices.”
“President Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, and the Higher Ground team are building a company focused on storytelling that exemplifies their core values,” Sarandos said. “The breadth of their initial slate across series, film, documentary, and family programming shows their commitment to diverse creators and unique voices that will resonate with our members around the world.”
In a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/here-are-seven-projects-barack-and-michelle-obama-paul-bois">statement announcing the projects</a> at the time, former President Obama said that Higher Ground is proud to use the power of dramatic narrative to explore social justice issues. “We created Higher Ground to harness the power of storytelling,” he said. “That’s why we couldn’t be more excited about these projects. Touching on issues of race and class, democracy and civil rights, and much more, we believe each of these productions won’t just entertain, but will educate, connect and inspire us all.”
Michelle Obama said the projects will offer something “for everyone” that will likely generate conversations. “We love this slate because it spans so many different interests and experiences, yet it’s all woven together with stories that are relevant to our daily lives,” she said. “We think there’s something here for everyone — moms and dads, curious kids, and anyone simply looking for an engaging, uplifting watch at the end of a busy day. We can’t wait to see these projects come to life — and the conversations they’ll generate.”
In May of 2018, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/28789/netflix-names-former-obama-ambassador-susan-rice-paul-bois">Netflix announced</a> it would be adding to its board of directors former Obama administration United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice.
“We are delighted to welcome Ambassdor Rice to the Netflix board,” said Netflix co-founder and CEO Reed Hastings at the time. “For decades, she has tackled difficult, complex global issues with intelligence, integrity and insight, and we look forward to benefiting from her experience and wisdom.”
Former Ambassador Rice said she was “thrilled” to be joining the “cutting-edge” company. “I am thrilled to be joining the board of directors of Netflix, a cutting-edge company whose leadership, high-quality productions, and unique culture I deeply admire,” she said at the time.

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama Portraits  &#8211; Washington, DC

Barack And Michelle Obama Make List Of Hollywood’s ‘Most Powerful’ People

Barack Obama

Hollywood

Michelle Obama

Speaking recently with <a href="https://variety.com/2019/film/news/martin-scorsese-marvel-theme-parks-1203360075/">Empire Magazine</a>, legendary director Martin Scorsese compared superhero movies to &#8220;theme parks.&#8221;
<blockquote>I don’t see them. I tried, you know? But that’s not cinema. Honestly, the closest I can think of them, as well made as they are, with actors doing the best they can under the circumstances, is theme parks. It isn’t the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being.</blockquote>
Scorsese’s latest film, &#8220;The Irishman,&#8221; has won rave reviews, and will debut in limited theaters on November 1 before being available to stream on Netflix just three weeks later.
In the wake of Scorsese’s comments, several directors and actors who have worked as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) have issued responses.
Speaking with Variety’s Angelique Jackson on Saturday, Samuel L. Jackson, who has portrayed character Nick Fury in a host of MCU films, <a href="https://variety.com/2019/film/news/samuel-l-jackson-martin-scorseses-marvel-1203360546/amp/">offered his opinion</a> on the Scorsese remark.
<blockquote>VARIETY: Did you hear Martin Scorsese’s thoughts on Marvel films, on superhero films not being cinema?
JACKSON: I passed by that, but I didn’t pay much attention to it &#8230; I mean, that’s like saying, you know, Bugs Bunny ain’t funny. Films are films. Everybody doesn’t like his stuff either. We happen to. Everybody doesn’t. You know, there are a lot of Italian Americans who don’t think he should be making films about them like that. Everybody’s got an opinion, so, I mean, it’s okay. Ain’t going to stop nobody from making movies.</blockquote>
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James Gunn, writer and director of both &#8220;Guardians of the Galaxy&#8221; films, as well as the upcoming &#8220;The Suicide Squad,&#8221; tweeted out a response as well:
<blockquote>Martin Scorsese is one of my 5 favorite living filmmakers. I was outraged when people picketed The Last Temptation of Christ without having seen the film. I’m saddened that he’s now judging my films in the same way.</blockquote>
Gunn added: &#8220;That said, I will always love Scorsese, be grateful for his contribution to cinema, and can’t wait to see The Irishman.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
That said, I will always love Scorsese, be grateful for his contribution to cinema, and can’t wait to see The Irishman.
— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) <a href="https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/1180158818736574464?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 4, 2019</a></blockquote>
One Twitter user questioned Gunn’s response, saying: &#8220;You must see what he means, at least — that their primary aim is not to explore the complexity of human emotion but to provide entertainment?&#8221;
Gun <a href="https://mobile.twitter.com/jamesgunn/status/1180165680823508994?s=21">responded</a> by saying that his &#8220;primary aim&#8221; with the &#8220;Guardians of the Galaxy&#8221; movies was to achieve that feeling. &#8220;Whether they achieve it or not is up to others to decide — but it’s absolutely their primary aim,&#8221; the director wrote.
This is not the first, nor will it be the final, time that the essence of &#8220;cinema&#8221; is debated among filmmakers.
As films from streaming services like Netflix and Amazon have gained traction during awards season, some have protested.
In 2018, legendary director Steven Spielberg <a href="https://youtu.be/_hTTvO50QTs">told ITV</a>: &#8220;Once you commit to a television format, you’re a TV movie. You certainly, if it’s a good show, deserve an Emmy, but not an Oscar. I don’t believe films that are just given token qualifications in a couple of theaters for less than a week should qualify for the Academy Award nomination.&#8221;
In 2019, Netflix received 15 Oscar nominations. The streaming giant went on to win across four categories, including best director. Expect Netflix to surpass its 2019 nominations total when the 2020 Academy Awards nominees are announced on January 13.

Samuel L. Jackson.

Samuel L. Jackson Responds To Scorsese: ‘Everybody Doesn’t Like His Stuff Either &#8230; It’s Okay’

Martin Scorsese

For both the &#8220;Woke&#8221; and sleeping viewers out there, comedian-turned-full-time political activist Chelsea Handler hits all the wrong notes in her Netflix documentary exploring her so-called &#8220;white privilege.&#8221;
The newly-released documentary, wherein Handler explores how her white privilege has helped her career and its effects on American culture, has racked up some viewer feedback on review site <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/hello_privilege_its_me_chelsea/reviews?type=user">Rotten Tomatoes</a>, and let&#8217;s just say Handler&#8217;s supposed white privilege provided little help in landing her high praise.
As of Wednesday evening, &#8220;Hello Privilege. It&#8217;s Me, Chelsea,&#8221; has a stunning 16% audience approval rating.
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Ouch. <a href="https://t.co/ke8kSlqGx1">pic.twitter.com/ke8kSlqGx1</a>
— Amanda Prestigiacomo (@AmandaPresto) <a href="https://twitter.com/AmandaPresto/status/1174433128208830469?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 18, 2019</a></blockquote>
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The reviewers were wildly unsatisfied; either Handler was not sensitive enough to the intersectional Woke experience, or her desperate apologetics were too much to bear.
One seemingly left-leaning reviewer, for example, blasted the documentary as &#8220;full of fake outreach and perpetuation of black stereotypes with no real insight from the main character.&#8221;
&#8220;The most enlightening parts of this documentary are the conversations held with actual activist,&#8221; the female reviewer <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/hello_privilege_its_me_chelsea/reviews?type=user">posted</a>. &#8220;There is no nuance or heart in this documentary.&#8221;
&#8220;[Handler] even had the nerve to make a sexual joke about (comedian and actress) Tiffany Hadish when Tiffany was being DEAD serious in her example of white privilege,&#8221; she continued. &#8220;Even when Tiffany was nearly brought to tears with a fact that had personally brought ME to tears, Handler reacted in the most unattached way ever.&#8221;
The reviewer noted that Handler &#8220;completely tried the &#8216;we didn&#8217;t have a lot of money&#8217; bit which she later contradicts by talking about going back to her nice neighborhood.&#8221;
&#8220;This &#8216;documentary&#8217; is full of fake outreach and perpetuation of black stereotypes with no real insight from the main character. I. Can. Not,&#8221; she closed.
Another audience review complained that Handler interviewed the wrong people.
&#8220;Chelsea was good and put effort into trying to understand what is going on, but I don&#8217;t think she interviewed the best people to talk about this subject because I ended up taking nothing away from this documentary,&#8221; the person said.
A female viewer who seemingly wanted to like the doc gave Handler two out of five stars and ironically criticized the work for exposing the comedian&#8217;s white privilege.
&#8220;[I don&#8217;t know]. I think creating a documentary and traveling the world seeking answers about white privilege is the epitome of white privelege [sic],&#8221; she posted. &#8220;I&#8217;m a fan of Handler and especially her last book, but this wasn&#8217;t her best use of time in my opinion. Was just a little cringey to watch to be honest.&#8221;
&#8220;Seriously cringy and racist all along,&#8221; a male reviewer bluntly wrote.
Another said, &#8220;So boring I cried.&#8221;
&#8220;Only giving it a half star because she made me chuckle once or twice,&#8221; a male reviewer posted. &#8220;Otherwise [it&#8217;s] a cringe fest of self deprecation/loathing.&#8221;
&#8220;A long, boring, scolding given by an unfunny white comedian pretending to depth. If you are a masochist, or a difficult person to be around, you will probably really enjoy it,&#8221; a post blasted. &#8220;Anyone with the bodily resources to create a measurable EEG readout should give it a pass.&#8221;

Chelsea Handler

Viewers Savage Chelsea Handler’s ‘White Privilege’ Netflix Doc

Race

President Trump started off this week on a Twitter tear, trolling the Democrats on the dead &#8220;collusion&#8221; narrative and the dying &#8220;obstruction&#8221; allegations, flaunting his judicial appointments and America&#8217;s energy progress, smacking the &#8220;horrible&#8221; people in the media for yet another &#8220;assault&#8221; on Brett Kavanaugh, and suggesting it&#8217;s time to start investigating Barack Obama&#8217;s post-presidency Netflix deal.
As The Daily Wire has reported, not long after leaving the White House, Barack and Michelle Obama inked a lucrative, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/46582/here-are-seven-projects-barack-and-michelle-obama-paul-bois">multi-project deal</a> with Netflix, which has run into a few <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/51462/obamas-new-production-company-gets-deplorable-james-barrett">legal problems</a> due to a copyright issue, but is still moving forward on cranking out a slate of features, documentaries, and TV series for the streaming platform in the near future.
Trump kicked off Monday by tweaking the Democrat-controlled House Judiciary Committee over collusion and obstruction, then found a way to tie his taunts to Obama. &#8220;House Judiciary has given up on the Mueller Report, sadly for them after two years and $40,000,000 spent — ZERO COLLUSION, ZERO OBSTRUCTION,&#8221; Trump wrote (tweets below). &#8220;So they say, OK, lets look at everything else, and all of the deals that &#8216;Trump&#8217; has done over his lifetime. But it doesn&#8217;t work that way.&#8221;
He then offered the committee &#8220;a better idea&#8221;: &#8220;Look at the Obama Book Deal, or the ridiculous Netflix deal. Then look at all the deals made by the Dems in Congress, the &#8216;Congressional Slush Fund,&#8217; and lastly the IG Reports. Take a look at them. Those investigations would be over FAST!&#8221;
Trump returned to the Obama-Netflix theme a few hours later amid another Mueller report-themed mini-rant. &#8220;[The Democrats] failed on the Mueller Report, they failed on Robert Mueller’s testimony, they failed on everything else, so now the Democrats are trying to build a case that I enrich myself by being President,&#8221; he tweeted. &#8220;Good idea, except I will, and have always expected to, lose BILLIONS of DOLLARS for the privilege of being your President — and doing the best job that has been done in many decades. I am far beyond somebody paying for a hotel room for the evening, or filling up a gas tank at an airport I do not own. These Radical Left Democrats are CRAZY! Obama Netflix?&#8221;
Trump&#8217;s trolling was successful over at the left-leaning outlet <a href="https://www.mediaite.com/trump/trump-suggests-justice-department-investigate-barack-obamas-publishing-and-netflix-deals/">Mediaite</a>, which was clearly incensed about him taunting Obama and spiking the football over the Democrat-disappointing Mueller report. House Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler, Mediaite noted, &#8220;announced just last week an active Congressional investigation based in part on details emerged from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office.&#8221; So obstruction isn&#8217;t dead, at least not totally.
As <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/51808/trump-check-out-what-nyt-just-had-do-after-james-barrett">The Daily Wire</a> reported earlier, Trump also blasted out to his 64 million followers his thoughts on The New York Times&#8217; recent &#8220;assault&#8221; on Kavanaugh, which it was forced to correct amid pushback by other journalists.
&#8220;&#8216;The New York Times walks back report on Kavanaugh assault claim,'&#8221; he tweeted, citing &#8220;Fox and Friends.&#8221; &#8220;The one who is actually being assaulted is Justice Kavanaugh &#8211; Assaulted by lies and Fake News! This is all about the LameStream Media working with their partner, the Dems.&#8221;
&#8220;Just Out: &#8216;Kavanaugh accuser doesn’t recall incident,'&#8221; he added later, again citing his favorite morning show. &#8220;DO YOU BELIEVE WHAT THESE HORRIBLE PEOPLE WILL DO OR SAY. They are looking to destroy, and influence his opinions &#8211; but played the game badly. They should be sued!&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/51462/obamas-new-production-company-gets-deplorable-james-barrett">Obamas’ New Company Gets ‘Deplorable’ With Smaller Business, Says Lawyer</a>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">House Judiciary has given up on the Mueller Report, sadly for them after two years and $40,000,000 spent &#8211; ZERO COLLUSION, ZERO OBSTRUCTION. So they say, OK, lets look at everything else, and all of the deals that “Trump” has done over his lifetime. But it doesn’t&#8230;.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1173552937542569986?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 16, 2019</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">&#8230;.work that way. I have a better idea. Look at the Obama Book Deal, or the ridiculous Netflix deal. Then look at all the deals made by the Dems in Congress, the “Congressional Slush Fund,” and lastly the IG Reports. Take a look at them. Those investigations would be over FAST!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1173552939019001857?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 16, 2019</a></blockquote>
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<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">They failed on the Mueller Report, they failed on Robert Mueller’s testimony, they failed on everything else, so now the Democrats are trying to build a case that I enrich myself by being President. Good idea, except I will, and have always expected to, lose BILLIONS of DOLLARS..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1173597713860046848?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 16, 2019</a></blockquote>
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<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">&#8230;.for the privilege of being your President &#8211; and doing the best job that has been done in many decades. I am far beyond somebody paying for a hotel room for the evening, or filling up a gas tank at an airport I do not own. These Radical Left Democrats are CRAZY! Obama Netflix?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1173597715487477760?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 16, 2019</a></blockquote>
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<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">“The New York Times walks back report on Kavanaugh assault claim.” <a href="https://twitter.com/foxandfriends?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@foxandfriends</a> The one who is actually being assaulted is Justice Kavanaugh &#8211; Assaulted by lies and Fake News! This is all about the LameStream Media working with their partner, the Dems.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1173568871481171974?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 16, 2019</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">Just Out: “Kavanaugh accuser doesn’t recall incident.” <a href="https://twitter.com/foxandfriends?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@foxandfriends</a> DO YOU BELIEVE WHAT THESE HORRIBLE PEOPLE WILL DO OR SAY. They are looking to destroy, and influence his opinions &#8211; but played the game badly. They should be sued!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1173576122811985920?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 16, 2019</a></blockquote>
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barack_obama_gi.jpg

Trump: Time To Start Looking Into Obama’s Netflix Deal

Donald Trump

Jerrold Nadler

Robert Mueller

Russia

A production company founded by former first couple Barack and Michelle Obama that was granted a massive contract with Netflix is taking legal action to save its name, &#8220;Higher Ground Productions&#8221; — a nod to Michelle&#8217;s famous line about when their enemies &#8220;go low, we go high.&#8221; But the lawyer for the much-less financially robust company in the Obamas&#8217; crosshairs is decrying their legal team&#8217;s &#8220;deplorable behavior&#8221; and says the Obamas are failing to practice &#8220;the values they preach.&#8221;
On Aug. 20, Higher Grounds Productions, founded shortly after Obama left office, demanded the cancellation of another company&#8217;s earlier trademark, Higher Ground Enterprises, <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/barack-obamas-production-company-runs-a-trademark-problem-1236219">The Hollywood Reporter</a>&#8216;s Eriq Gardner reports.
&#8220;Higher Ground Enterprises is run by Hanisya Massey, who, according to her attorney Larry Zerner, is in the business of helping authors publish e-books. Her trademark is in Class 41, which includes entertainment services. Zerner says Massey has been using &#8216;Higher Ground&#8217; since 2008,&#8221; Gardner explains. &#8220;Naturally, as the Obamas came to a lucrative agreement with Netflix for films and television series, Higher Ground Productions came into conflict with Higher Ground Enterprises.&#8221;
The couple contends that the two trademarks should be able to coexist, but a Trademark Examiner disagreed, maintaining that the names of the two companies and the services they offer are too similar. When the office refused to register the Higher Ground Productions mark on April 10, the Obamas chose to take further action, demanding the cancellation of the 2008-founded company&#8217;s trademark.
In response to Obamas&#8217; cancellation demand, Zerner expressed disgust. &#8220;The Obamas have known for almost a year that their Higher Ground trademark application was rejected by the USPTO because it infringed my client&#8217;s rights,&#8221; he said in comments reported by THR. &#8220;Instead, of simply picking another name, the Obamas&#8217; lawyers have now filed a meritless petition to cancel my client&#8217;s trademark so they can take it for themselves. This is really deplorable behavior. I hope that the Obamas realize that these actions are not consistent with the values they preach and that they instruct their attorneys to immediately dismiss the petition.&#8221;
In their failed initial bid to let both trademarks co-exist, the Obamas&#8217; production company sent a letter to the Trademark Office, which, as Hot Air&#8217;s <a href="https://hotair.com/archives/karen-townsend/2019/09/05/legal-woes-obamas-deplorable-behavior-cited/">Karen Townsend</a> puts it, &#8220;arrogantly implies it&#8217;s a distinction between a big, important entertainment deal with the former First Couple and a small business that promotes e-books.&#8221;
&#8220;[T]he consumers of &#8216;media production services&#8217; covered by the Application are likely to be highly sophisticated,&#8221; the letter states, as reported by THR. &#8220;Media production services are generally offered not to individual consumers but to commercial entities and professionals in their field. Indeed, Applicant has entered a deal with Netflix in connection with its media production services. Such customers, whether multi-billion-dollar media companies or smaller commercial entities in need of media production services, will exercise the height of care in selecting a media production company and are highly unlikely to be confused by a photographer or e-book publisher — particularly when the other party uses a distinguishable mark.&#8221;
As reported by <a href="https://deadline.com/2019/04/barack-michelle-obamas-higher-ground-sets-first-netflix-slate-1202604661/">Deadline</a>, in April, the Obamas unveiled their first slate of productions for Netflix, which includes &#8220;American Factory,&#8221; a film that &#8220;takes a deep dive into a post-industrial Ohio, where a Chinese billionaire opens a new factory in the husk of an abandoned General Motors plant and hires two thousand blue-collar Americans&#8221;; &#8220;Bloom,&#8221; a &#8220;drama series set in the world of fashion in post-WWII New York City that depicts barriers faced by women and by people of color in an era marked by hurdles but also tremendous progress,&#8221; and a feature film adaptation of &#8220;Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom&#8221; by David W. Blight.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/49676/watch-students-slam-trump-statement-immigration-james-barrett">WATCH: Students Slam Trump Statement On Immigration, Then Learn Obama Said It</a>

Obamas’ New Company Gets ‘Deplorable’ With Smaller Business, Says Lawyer

Failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will serve as the inspiration for an upcoming Netflix series, which crafted the story based on her ill-fated attempted to defeat Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.
According to <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/greg-berlanti-julie-plec-adapting-chasing-hillary-as-netflix-series-1234960?utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=social">The Hollywood Reporter</a>, &#8220;the streamer, which already has an overall deal and multiple projects in the works with the Obamas, has won a multiple-outlet bidding war for &#8216;The Girls on the Bus,&#8217; a drama series inspired by a chapter from New York Times journalist Amy Chozick&#8217;s novel &#8216;Chasing Hillary: Ten Years, Two Presidential Campaigns and One Intact Glass Ceiling.'&#8221;
After a considerable bidding war, Netflix acquired the rights to Chozick&#8217;s book. &#8220;This is the most exciting thing that has ever happened to me,&#8221; she said in response to the new series.
Though the series will not be a direct adaptation of Chozick&#8217;s book, Netflix said the show would &#8220;follow the every move of a parade of flawed presidential candidates, finding friendship, love, and a scandal that could take down not just the presidency but our entire democracy along the way.&#8221;
<a href="https://www.thecut.com/2018/04/interview-amy-chozick-on-her-new-memoir-chasing-hillary.html">New York Magazine</a> in 2018 said Chozick&#8217;s memoir of the failed presidential campaign would &#8220;piss off both sides&#8221; by what it contained:
<blockquote>Chozick spent a decade of her life — from her late 20s to late 30s — covering Hillary Clinton, first for The Wall Street Journal during the 2008 election and then for the New York Times for 2016. Now she’s written a memoir about the period, Chasing Hillary — a sort-of Bridget Jones’s Diary meets What it Takes coming-of-age rom-com set on the campaign trail, with a tragic twist at the end (spoiler alert: Clinton lost). &#8220;I’m sure it’s going to piss off [both sides],&#8221; Chozick says. &#8220;I’m bracing for that.&#8221;</blockquote>
The series comes amid Netflix&#8217;s recent deal with the Obamas and their production company Higher Ground, which will be developing a variety of content for the streaming empire, from scripted to non-scripted series along with documentary films. Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos said that Higher Ground will express the Obamas&#8217; &#8220;core values,&#8221; hailing their slate as a symbol of their commitment to &#8220;diverse creators and unique voices.&#8221;
&#8220;President Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, and the Higher Ground team are building a company focused on storytelling that exemplifies their core values,&#8221; Sarandos said. &#8220;The breadth of their initial slate across series, film, documentary, and family programming shows their commitment to diverse creators and unique voices that will resonate with our members around the world.&#8221;
In May of last year, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/28789/netflix-names-former-obama-ambassador-susan-rice-paul-bois">Netflix announced</a> it would be adding to its board of directors former Obama administration United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice.
&#8220;We are delighted to welcome Ambassdor Rice to the Netflix board,&#8221; said Netflix co-founder and CEO Reed Hastings at the time. &#8220;For decades, she has tackled difficult, complex global issues with intelligence, integrity and insight and we look forward to benefiting from her experience and wisdom.&#8221;
Former Ambassador Rice said she was &#8220;thrilled&#8221; to be joining the &#8220;cutting-edge&#8221; company.
&#8220;I am thrilled to be joining the board of directors of Netflix, a cutting-edge company whose leadership, high-quality productions, and unique culture I deeply admire,&#8221; said former Ambassador Rice.

Hillary Clinton Holds Primary Night Event In Brooklyn, New York

Netflix Creating Series Inspired By Hillary’s Failed 2016 Presidential Campaign

Hillary Clinton

The overwrought wallaby, the derelict steer, and the paranoid turtle are back following a 23-year hiatus. &#8220;Rocko&#8217;s Modern Life,&#8221; which ended its run on Nickelodeon in 1996, returned to Netflix this Friday as a 45-minute special — only this one comes with a helpful serving of social justice with the inclusion of a transgender story arc.
According to <a href="https://ew.com/tv/2019/08/07/rockos-modern-life-movie-trans-rachel/">Entertainment Weekly</a> (EW), &#8220;Rocko&#8217;s Modern Life: Static Cling&#8221; features Rocko and his two friends, Heffer and Filbert, adjusting to modern life after floating around in space for two decades. The show reaches an emotional climax when one of the characters comes out as transgender. Here is the full description from EW:
<blockquote>The wallaby and his buddies Heffer and Filburt have been floating around in space since the original series finale. Now they’re back on earth in the events of Static Cling, but everything is different. The trio try to adapt to this new world of smartphones, food trucks, and print kiosks. One thing Rocko can’t deal with is the loss of his favorite show, The Fatheads, which Rachel created.
Mr. and Mrs. Bighead lost touch with their child, who went off on a mission of self-discovery. Thus, Rocko goes on a search to save his show and finds Rachel, now working out of a mobile Fatheads-inspired ice cream truck (as shown in EW’s exclusive clip above).</blockquote>
Creator Joe Murray said he included the transgender storyline in the special to reflect how society has changed over the past 20 years.
&#8220;When I started writing [&#8216;Static Cling&#8217;], I really started latching onto the idea of change and how society has changed and what’s gone on in the last 20 years and the development of our characters and how they would react to change,&#8221; Murray told EW. &#8220;It felt natural, because it was not only about change, about somebody finding who they are and making that courageous choice to go through that change.&#8221;
The Gay &amp; Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) has long been seeking more LGBT representation in G-rated, kid-friendly material. Nick Adams, GLAAD&#8217;s director of transgender representation, even consulted on &#8220;Static Cling,&#8221; which he says tells a beautiful storyline about coming out as transgender.
&#8220;&#8216;Rocko’s Modern Life: Static Cling&#8217; tells a beautiful — and hilarious — story about accepting change,&#8221; Adams told EW. &#8220;The younger characters accept Rachel immediately; recognizing she’s still their friend. And while Rachel’s father is slow to accept change within his own family, even he realizes that loving your child should be unconditional. This story of inclusion and acceptance is so needed in our current climate.&#8221;
&#8220;When I read the story outline, I was happy to see that Rachel’s gender was treated as a non-issue by Rocko and his friends, and that Rachel’s father finally realized that he loves and supports his daughter,&#8221; Adams continued. &#8220;I worked with the show’s creators to ensure that Rachel was drawn in a respectful way, so that her femininity wasn’t a joke. We also talked about how to portray the moment Rachel reveals her transition to the boys so that it wasn’t sensationalistic. From story outline to storyboards to animatics, to the final show, Nickelodeon kept GLAAD updated every step of the way.&#8221;
Nickelodeon originally approached Joe Murray for a 45-minute special that was set to air in 2018. Netflix picked it up shortly after the network shelved the project. &#8220;It has to be the story that I want to do and not watered down. I was concerned about that,&#8221; Murray said of the creative process. &#8220;I wanted it to be as strong as the show and as much satire and as much social commentary as we could do in the times that we live in now.&#8221;
LGBT representation in children&#8217;s shows has been on the uptick this past decade, beginning in 2014 on the Disney show &#8220;Good Luck Charlie,&#8221; <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/good-luck-charlie-lesbians_n_4675943">which featured</a> a character with a lesbian mom couple.
&#8220;In the storyline, parents Amy and Bob Duncan (Leigh-Allyn Baker and Eric Allan Kramer) set up a playdate for preschooler Charlie (Mia Talerico) and one of her new friends,&#8221; TV Guide reported at the time. &#8220;When the kid arrives, the Duncans learn that Charlie’s pal has two moms. That’s fine, but the potential new friendship is put to the test as one mom chats with Amy, and the other is stuck listening to Bob’s dull stories.&#8221;
Earlier this year, the PBS television show &#8220;Arthur&#8221; made waves when a beloved character came out as gay by <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/14/arts/television/ratburn-arthur.html">marrying his male partner</a>. That was later followed by the Disney show &#8220;Andi Mack&#8221; featuring the first <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50097/disney-features-first-teenage-gay-couple-andi-mack-paul-bois">teenage gay couple on the network</a>.
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></div>

Rocko

‘Rocko’s Modern Life’ Reboot Features A Transgender Story Arc

LGBT

Transgender

Could the streaming giant Netflix be headed toward a decline? The financial numbers from the company&#8217;s second quarter indicate that there might be some tough times ahead.
&#8220;Netflix reported earnings on Wednesday night, and the results were disastrous,&#8221; reports <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/18/20699037/netflix-earnings-report-q2-streaming-wars-disney-apple-warnermedia-international">The Verge</a>. &#8220;The company saw its first major loss in US subscribers last quarter, and a mere 2.7 million paid customers added globally, nearly half of what was forecast.&#8221;
Following the report, stocks dropped by <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/ajimpact/netflix-stock-drops-10-percent-earnings-shortfall-190717222824393.html">more than 10%</a>, with a loss of 126,000 subscribers domestically — debunking expert predictions that it would gain at least 352,000 subscribers. According to <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/18/why-netflix-says-it-had-a-rare-subscriber-loss-in-q2-2019.html">CNBC</a>, Netflix blames its content slate and regional price increases.
Speaking with investors on Wednesday, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings assured them that the company saw significant subscriber growth internationally. &#8220;There are about 700 million households that pay for TV outside of China — the equivalent of the US hundred million — and that’s one established market,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Do we have enough content in each of those countries? The internet is capable of some very large customer bases.&#8221;
CNBC notes, however, that Netflix still underperformed this quarter internationally, leading many investors to worry about the company&#8217;s future. &#8220;While Netflix&#8217;s subscriber loss in the U.S. is rare, its miss on international subscribers may be more troubling to investors since this represents its biggest growth opportunity,&#8221; reports the outlet. &#8220;Netflix reported international net additions of 2.8 million subscribers compared with analyst estimates of 4.8 million.&#8221;
One factor contributing to the domestic subscriber decline could be the company alienating certain swaths of the U.S. population, such as when the company announced it would <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/netflix-disney-consider-boycotting-georgia-continue-partnerships-with-anti-abortion-egypt-anti-muslim-china">boycott Georgia</a> in response to the fetal heartbeat law.
&#8220;We have many women working on productions in Georgia, whose rights, along with millions of others, will be severely restricted by this law,&#8221; Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos said. &#8220;Given the legislation has not yet been implemented, we&#8217;ll continue to film there, while also supporting partners and artists who choose not to. Should it ever come into effect, we&#8217;d rethink our entire investment in Georgia.&#8221;
The dismal performance this quarter directly follows an<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/47531/investor-netflixs-days-are-numbered-ashe-schow"> investor predicting</a> back in May that Netflix&#8217;s days were numbered due to the arrival of new streaming platforms, like Disney+, that would strip it of beloved content.
&#8220;It&#8217;s going to charge $6.99/month — around $6 cheaper than Netflix. And it&#8217;s pulling all its content off of Netflix,&#8221; personal investor Stephen McBride told Forbes. &#8220;This is a big deal.&#8221;
&#8220;Picture this … Disney puts a blockbuster like Avengers Endgame on its platform the same day it opens in theaters,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;After a few weeks it’s no longer in theaters. You can&#8217;t buy it. You can&#8217;t rent it. The only way to watch is to subscribe to Disney&#8217;s steaming service, Disney+. For example, the only place your children or grandchildren will be able to see Toy Story 4 and Frozen 2 may be on Disney+. Can you imagine how many parents will sign up for this? I’ll certainly be subscribing for my daughter. At $6.99/month, what family with kids under 12 years wouldn’t subscribe?&#8221;

Netflix Loses 126,000 Domestic Subscribers In Second Quarter

A graphic suicide scene from the season finale of Netflix&#8217;s &#8220;13 Reasons Why&#8221; has now been edited in response to accusations that the show glorifies suicide.
According to <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/netflix-alters-graphic-13-reasons-why-suicide-scene-controversy-1224489">The Hollywood Reporter</a> (THR), Netflix released a statement on Tuesday that tacitly defended the company&#8217;s original decision to keep the scene while acknowledging it may have contributed to unhealthy ideas about suicide among teens.
&#8220;We&#8217;ve heard from many young people that &#8217;13 Reasons Why&#8217; encouraged them to start conversations about difficult issues like depression and suicide and get help — often for the first time,&#8221; Netflix said on Tuesday. &#8220;As we prepare to launch season three later this summer, we&#8217;ve been mindful about the ongoing debate around the show. So on the advice of medical experts, including Dr. Christine Moutier, chief medical officer at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, we&#8217;ve decided with creator Brian Yorkey and the producers to edit the scene in which Hannah takes her own life from season one.&#8221;
The original three-minute scene featured the character Hannah (actress Katherine Langford) taking a razor blade to her left wrist while sitting in the bathtub as blood gushes from a cut extending all the way up to her elbow. It didn&#8217;t stop there.
&#8220;Hannah is then seen gasping for air as her breathing ultimately slows and bloodstained water tips out of the tub,&#8221; reports THR. &#8220;Not long after, Hannah&#8217;s mother (Kate Walsh) discovers her daughter&#8217;s lifeless body in the blood-filled tub. Male lead Dylan Minnette provides voiceover during the entire scene as he tells the school&#8217;s guidance counselor (played by Derek Luke) precisely what happened to Hannah.&#8221;
The new scene will simply feature Hannah assessing her life in the mirror and then cutting to her mother&#8217;s reaction to the suicide. Netflix insiders told THR that the streaming platform will be working to monitor any pirated clips that feature the original scene.
Brian Yorkey, the show&#8217;s creator, said in a statement on Tuesday that he initially intended &#8220;13 Reasons Why&#8221; to spark empathy in those who viewed it.
&#8220;It was our hope, in making &#8217;13 Reasons Why&#8217; into a television show, to tell a story that would help young viewers feel seen and heard and encourage empathy in all who viewed it, much as the best-selling book did before us,&#8221; Yorkey said. &#8220;Our creative intent in portraying the ugly, painful reality of suicide in such graphic detail in season one was to tell the truth about the horror of such an act and make sure no one would ever wish to emulate it.&#8221;
&#8220;But as we ready to launch season three, we have heard concerns about the scene from Dr. Christine Moutier at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and others, and have agreed with Netflix to re-edit it,&#8221; Yorkey continued. &#8220;No one scene is more important than the life of the show and its message that we must take better care of each other. We believe this edit will help the show do the most good for the most people while mitigating any risk for especially vulnerable young viewers.&#8221;
The move to edit the scene comes upon the heels of Netflix recently announcing it would be limiting depictions of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/49233/netflix-diminish-depictions-onscreen-smoking-teen-paul-bois">on-screen smoking</a> in its original shows and movies. This past April, NPR <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/04/30/718529255/teen-suicide-spiked-after-debut-of-netflixs-13-reasons-why-report-says">reported</a> on a study that showed &#8220;13 Reasons Why&#8221; correlated with a spike in teen suicide rates.
&#8220;In the month following the show&#8217;s debut in March 2017, there was a 28.9% increase in suicide among Americans ages 10-17, said the <a href="https://www.jaacap.org/article/S0890-8567(19)30288-6/fulltext">study</a>, published Monday in the &#8216;Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry,'&#8221; <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/04/30/718529255/teen-suicide-spiked-after-debut-of-netflixs-13-reasons-why-report-says">reported</a> NPR. &#8220;The number of suicides was greater than that seen in any single month over the five-year period researchers examined. Over the rest of the year, there were 195 more youth suicides than expected given historical trends.&#8221;
In June of last year, as Netflix renewed &#8220;13 Reasons Why&#8221; for its third season, company CEO Reed Hastings <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/31592/netflix-ceo-defends-13-reasons-why-nobody-has-paul-bois">dismissed critics</a> by saying &#8220;nobody has to watch it.&#8221;
&#8220;&#8217;13 Reasons Why&#8217; has been enormously popular and successful. It’s engaging content,&#8221; Hastings said during the company’s annual shareholder meeting. &#8220;It is controversial. But nobody has to watch it.&#8221;

Netflix Cuts Graphic Suicide Scene From ‘13 Reasons Why’

Health

Suicide

Spoilers ahead. 
Binge-watchers of the third season of Netflix&#8217;s &#8220;Stranger Things&#8221; went wild on social media over the inclusion of the show&#8217;s first LGBT character.
According to <a href="https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2019/07/07/stranger-things-3-netflix-first-openly-lgbt-character/">Pink News</a>, the show broke its heteronormative trend this year with the inclusion of the character Robin (Maya Hawke), whom the character Steve (Joe Keery) develops feelings for as the two work alongside each other at the mall ice cream parlor throughout the summer.
&#8220;After realising he has a crush on his ice cream parlor colleague,&#8221; reports Pink News, &#8220;[Steve] tells new character Robin (Maya Hawke) that he likes her. The scene cleverly defies genre expectation, as it sees Steve list all the things he admires about her and seemingly set up the oh-too-familiar storyline of the &#8216;cool guy&#8217; falling for – and ending up with – the &#8216;quirky misfit.&#8217; But instead, Robin’s face suggests she’s not into him in the way we’ve come to believe.&#8221;
&#8220;When Steve asks her what she thinks of his confession, Robin explains that she wasn’t acting &#8216;jealous and obsessed&#8217; because she had a crush on him in high school; she was envious of him because the girl she liked couldn’t stop staring at him in class,&#8221; the report said of the big reveal.
People who watched all eight episodes of the new season could not get enough of Robin and publicly expressed their enthusiasm on social media, with some calling it a &#8220;win for the gays.&#8221;
&#8220;I’m genuinely so happy stranger things gave us this lesbian icon,&#8221; one Twitter user wrote. &#8220;Robin is beautiful, smart, funny, one of the coolest characters and she’s a lesbian. It’s a win for the gays.&#8221;
Not only that, people also appreciated Steve&#8217;s total support for Robin coming out to him as a lesbian.
&#8220;When Steve admitted his feelings for Robin, only to find out that she likes girls and he becomes 100% supportive of her after she comes out to him &#8230;,&#8221; said another user.
Speaking with <a href="https://ew.com/tv/2019/07/05/stranger-things-season-3-robin-reveal-episode-7/">Entertainment Weekly</a>, Maya Hawke said she felt &#8220;honored&#8221; to play the show&#8217;s first LGBT character. &#8220;She gets less sarcastic and more vulnerable and more herself, until finally, in the end, she has no choice but to be her complete self,&#8221; she said. “I think that to have that scene [set] in the ’80s, and to have that scene on TV in general, I feel really honored to have got to be a part it, and I’m really grateful that the Duffer Brothers wrote it.&#8221;
The hit Netflix show has not actually faced much criticism from the LGBT community in the past for not including more characters of different sexual persuasions. As season 2 premiered in 2017, <a href="https://www.advocate.com/television/2017/11/14/homophobia-still-real-monster-stranger-things-2">The Advocate</a> actually praised the show for its depictions of homophobia and even said that the principal characters were all &#8220;queer in some fashion.&#8221;
&#8220;All of the young protagonists are queer in some fashion, because they are outsiders who defy heteronormativity,&#8221; said Daniel Reynolds of The Advocate. &#8220;Jonathan Byers (Charlie Heaton) is a loner and a photographer. Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Will (Noah Schnapp), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), and Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) are harassed for their love of A.V. Club and fantasy games like Dungeons &amp; Dragons. And Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) is the clearest allegory of a queer character. A gender-nonconforming child with supernatural abilities, she escapes a government institution and endures homelessness before discovering a found family with these other young folks. <a href="https://www.advocate.com/commentary/2017/11/14/why-my-queer-heart-wept-through-stranger-things-2" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Her journey has resonated with many LGBT viewers</a>.&#8221;

‘Stranger Things’ Fans Go Wild Over Inclusion Of First LGBT Character

As Netflix <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/31592/netflix-ceo-defends-13-reasons-why-nobody-has-paul-bois">exploits teen suicide</a>, threatens to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/47762/netflix-may-consider-boycotting-filming-georgia-kassy-dillon">boycott Georgia</a> for protecting unborn children, and denounces the term <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/46166/netflix-denounces-term-chick-flick-offensive-paul-bois">&#8220;chick flick&#8221; as offensive</a>, the streaming platform has now suddenly had a &#8220;come to Jesus&#8221; moment on its depictions of smoking cigarettes.
&#8220;Netflix says it will cut back on depictions of smoking in its shows in the wake of a report that called out the streamer for the number of instances in which characters use tobacco in shows like <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/topic/stranger-things" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Stranger Things</a>,&#8221; according to <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/netflix-vows-curb-onscreen-smoking-stranger-things-criticism-1222797">The Hollywood Reporter</a>.
In a statement to CNN, a Netflix spokesperson said that all shows with a TV-14 rating or movies with PG-13 ratings will no longer depict smoking unless the story absolutely needs it.
&#8220;Going forward, all new projects that we commission with ratings of TV-14 or below for series or PG-13 or below for films, will be smoking and e-cigarette free — except for reasons of historical or factual accuracy,&#8221; said the spokesperson.
The spokesperson added that Netflix still supports artistic expression and will be including tobacco warnings in the ratings box. &#8220;Netflix strongly supports artistic expression,&#8221; the statement continued. &#8220;We also recognize that smoking is harmful and when portrayed positively on screen can adversely influence young people.&#8221;
The announcement comes on the heels of a Truth Initiative <a href="https://truthinitiative.org/sites/default/files/media/files/2019/07/WUWS-SOD-FINAL.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">report</a> released last week that showed Netflix had nearly tripled the number of scenes depicting tobacco use (866) in just one year.
&#8220;[Netflix] topped the list with nearly triple the number of tobacco instances (866) compared with the prior year (299),&#8221; the study found. &#8220;Smoking on the small screen has gone from common to nearly unavoidable, as popular programs like &#8216;Stranger Things,&#8217; [Netflix&#8217;s] &#8216;Orange Is the New Black&#8217; and [ABC&#8217;s] &#8216;Modern Family&#8217; increasingly show images of tobacco and portray characters who smoke.&#8221;
&#8220;For both the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons, episodic programming on Netflix had a greater total number of tobacco depictions than programs aired on broadcast or cable TV, with Stranger Things continuing to show the most tobacco overall,&#8221; the report continued. &#8220;Researchers found that 100 percent of &#8216;Stranger Things&#8217; episodes coded included tobacco.&#8221;
Regardless of the moral questions behind depictions of tobacco on screen, Netflix caving to this one report from Truth Initiative stands in stark contrast to the leadership&#8217;s treatment toward critics of shows like &#8220;13 Reasons Why,&#8221; which has led to <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/04/30/718529255/teen-suicide-spiked-after-debut-of-netflixs-13-reasons-why-report-says">an actual spike in teen suicide rates</a>.
&#8220;In the month following the show&#8217;s debut in March 2017, there was a 28.9% increase in suicide among Americans ages 10-17, said the <a href="https://www.jaacap.org/article/S0890-8567(19)30288-6/fulltext">study</a>, published Monday in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry,&#8221; <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/04/30/718529255/teen-suicide-spiked-after-debut-of-netflixs-13-reasons-why-report-says">reported</a> NPR this past April. &#8220;The number of suicides was greater than that seen in any single month over the five-year period researchers examined. Over the rest of the year, there were 195 more youth suicides than expected given historical trends.&#8221;
In June of last year, as Netflix renewed &#8220;13 Reasons Why&#8221; for its third season, company CEO Reed Hastings <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/31592/netflix-ceo-defends-13-reasons-why-nobody-has-paul-bois">dismissed critics</a> by saying &#8220;nobody has to watch it.&#8221;
&#8220;&#8217;13 Reasons Why&#8217; has been enormously popular and successful. It’s engaging content,&#8221; Hastings said during the company’s annual shareholder meeting. &#8220;It is controversial. But nobody has to watch it.&#8221;

Netflix To Diminish Depictions Of Onscreen Smoking. Teen Suicide Still Okay.

Fans of Chelsea Handler&#8217;s Netflix show &#8220;Chelsea&#8221; will have to go digging to find the 66 past episodes that the streaming giant has now erased.
&#8220;Netflix <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/activist-chelsea-handler-needs-break-from-toxic-news-cycle-will-stay-informed-by-watching-joy-reid" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">quietly removed dozens</a> of episodes of Chelsea Handler’s <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/chelsea-handlers-netflix-talk-show-to-end-after-season-2-so-she-can-focus-on-activism" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">failed talk show</a>, &#8216;Chelsea,&#8217; from its archives back in 2017– an unusual move that nobody seemed to notice until a Tuesday New York Times story about widespread talk show issues for the streaming giant,&#8221; reports <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/netflix-chelsea-handlers-talk-show">Fox News</a>. &#8220;A Netflix spokesperson told the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/02/business/media/netflix-talk-shows.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Times</a> that it had removed 66 &#8216;Chelsea&#8217; episodes in &#8216;the only instance of the company’s having scrubbed content that it owned and created,&#8217; chalking the decision up to making it easier for viewers to catch up on more recent episodes.&#8221;
Exactly why Netflix chose to single out Chelsea Handler&#8217;s show for an episode scrub remains to be seen, especially since other talk shows on the streaming platform have cratered with the same amount of force. In fact, Netflix has had tremendous difficulty in creating talk shows, despite dominating in almost every other genre of television. The New York Times theorized that streaming may not be the right platform.
&#8220;In the last two years, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/15/business/media/netflix-price-increase.html?module=inline">Netflix</a> has canceled three shows in the genre: &#8216;The Break With Michelle Wolf,&#8217; &#8216;The Joel McHale Show With Joel McHale&#8217; and &#8216;Chelsea,'&#8221; the outlet reported. &#8220;Two other Netflix talk shows — &#8216;Norm Macdonald Has a Show&#8217; and &#8216;The Fix,&#8217; starring Jimmy Carr, D. L. Hughley and Katherine Ryan — haven’t generated much buzz.&#8221;
&#8220;Part of the problem may be that talk shows make for an awkward fit with streaming,&#8221; the report continued. &#8220;From Johnny Carson to Trevor Noah, talk show stars have bonded with audiences by riffing on current events. Netflix and other streaming services, on the other hand, have won over viewers mainly through binge-worthy programming that has no real expiration date.&#8221;
Tim Young, host of “The No Things Considered” podcast, told Fox News that Netflix may have deleted the &#8220;Chelsea&#8221; episodes out of fear that her brand of humor (not always politically correct) would be extremely offensive in a few years, so the streaming giant tried to nip the problem in the bud before further issues could arise.
&#8220;The far-left rules what is politically correct and what is allowed constantly shifts for them, to show just how woke they are,&#8221; Young said. &#8220;Handler pushed the envelope to be funny at times, and Netflix may just be trying to cover up her old material to be in line with how woke they want to portray themselves as.&#8221;
The New York Times claimed, however, that Netflix removed those episodes prior to the debut of its second season to provide &#8220;an easy way for viewers to catch up before the new episodes launched.&#8221;
None of that means that Chelsea Handler has finished with Netflix. Just last year, she <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/34939/chelsea-handler-working-funny-netflix-series-about-paul-bois">told Buzzfeed News</a> that she will be creating a new show for the streaming platform about the most important of subjects: white people.
&#8220;I intend for it to be very funny and I intend to hang myself out to dry,&#8221; she said of the show. &#8220;I’m a perfect example of the American dream, if you’re white and borderline pretty.&#8221;

Netflix Pulls 66 Episodes Of Chelsea Handler’s Failed Talk Show

In today&#8217;s polarized atmosphere, false accusations of racism are often hurled about. A self-righteous Internet mob, inspired by a fabricated TV dramatization, is using social media to publicly humiliate and destroy the reputation and livelihood of an award-winning attorney heralded for her trailblazing advocacy for justice for victims of sexual violence and other forms of abuse. This Internet shaming by impersonal digital mobs is the 21st century weapon of choice in our culture of personal destruction.
In 1989, Linda Fairstein headed the sex crimes unit in the Manhattan District Attorney&#8217;s office and supervised the prosecution and conviction of five teenage black and Hispanic men for participating in the brutal assault and rape of Trisha Meili, a white woman out for a jog in New York City&#8217;s Central Park.
In 30 years of postmortems about the Central Park jogger case, suggestions of prosecutorial malfeasance have been investigated and rejected.
Ava DuVernay&#8217;s four-part Netflix miniseries, &#8220;When They See Us,&#8221; is a fictional tale of supposed white institutional racism, accusing Linda Fairstein and her staff of coercing helpless, innocent boys to confess to the vicious assault of Ms. Meili. DuVernay reinforces her narrative by selectively editing portions of the damning videotaped confessions, using cherubic-looking actors to play the leading roles and manipulating a mountain of facts in the public record. &#8220;When They See Us&#8221; is anything but a documentary.
The teens, part of a thirty-plus pack on a rampage in the park, beating and terrorizing innocent people, were tried for the savage assault of Ms. Meile and other crimes. <a href="https://www.law.com/newyorklawjournal/2019/06/03/in-defense-of-the-central-park-5-prosecution/">According to Fairstein</a>, jurors convicted the &#8220;Central Park Five&#8221; despite no DNA evidence against them, believing that there was a sixth, unidentified attacker among the horde of rioters. The defendants completed prison sentences. In 2002, an imprisoned serial rapist/murderer, Matias Reyes, volunteered that he was the jogger&#8217;s rapist. This was confirmed by DNA tests, but his claim of acting alone was never substantiated.
The Five then sued the city for malicious prosecution. City attorneys refused to settle the suit, but in 2014, Mayor de Blasio directed them to agree to a $41 million payout.
Fairstein has insisted that copious evidence, readily available to DuVernay, together with an extensive report from New York State Supreme Court Justice Thomas Galligan, who oversaw the trials, proves the teens were treated fairly and that their confessions were not coerced.
Following Reyes&#8217; confession, the District Attorney, without declaring their innocence, set aside the convictions of the Five. He found that no police or prosecutorial misbehavior occurred in their detention or questioning.
The lead NYPD officer on the case, African-American Eric Reynolds, viewed the vacating of the convictions as a miscarriage of justice and <a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-news-eric-reynolds-detective-central-park-20180713-story.html">insisted</a> there was absolutely no coercion. He <a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-news-eric-reynolds-detective-central-park-20180713-story.html">remarked</a> that the case had become so racially charged that &#8220;everybody who had some kind of an agenda was going to use it for their own ends.&#8221;
Immediately after the Netflix miniseries premiere, the #cancellindafairstein campaign, a digital-age witch-hunt, exploded on social media. Multiple petitions, signed by thousands, appeared on Facebook urging that she be removed from boards of trustees, her awards be rescinded, her books banned (she is a successful mystery writer), and that she be prosecuted for her role in the case.
Fairstein&#8217;s book publisher, Dutton, terminated their relationship. Threats to withdraw donations from organizations about which she cares deeply prompted Fairstein to resign from the boards of a victims-services agency, an organization addressing hunger and malnutrition, and another organization that empowers survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse. &#8220;I do not want to become a lightning rod to inflict damage,&#8221; Fairstein <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/central-park-five-prosecutor-linda-fairstein-resigns-from-charity-boards-amid-backlash">wrote</a>, due to <a href="https://nypost.com/2019/06/04/central-park-five-prosecutor-resigns-from-charity-boards-over-netflix-show-backlash/">&#8220;mob-mentality reaction&#8221;</a> to the series.
A Vassar College student started an <a href="https://www.change.org/p/vassar-college-remove-linda-fairstein-from-vassar-college-board-of-trustees">online petition</a>, signed by tens of thousands, to force the school to remove the alleged racist alumna from its board of trustees. The Vassar administration, after <a href="https://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/news/local/2019/06/03/when-they-see-us-central-park-five-prompts-vassar-trustee-review/1322218001/">consulting</a> its African-American alumni group to <a href="https://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/news/local/2019/06/03/when-they-see-us-central-park-five-prompts-vassar-trustee-review/1322218001/">gauge</a> &#8220;the temperature of black alums&#8221; and finding that calls for Fairstein&#8217;s removal were &#8220;strong,&#8221; <a href="https://miscellanynews.org/2019/06/06/news/fairstein-resignation-sparks-debate-on-college-culture-previous-inaction/">asked</a> its board of trustees to investigate. Shortly thereafter, Ms. Fairstein resigned. President Elizabeth Bradley&#8217;s perfunctory announcement of her departure lacked any reference to Fairstein&#8217;s pioneering work or her years of service to Vassar. Vassar appeared more concerned about ridding itself of a public relations problem than standing for the truth.
It is bizarre that many of those same feminists who decry the unfair treatment of sexual assault victims within our criminal justice system joined the digital attack mob.
The fury generated by a made-for-TV fictionalized drama exposes our society&#8217;s inability to separate fiction from reality and reveals the power of social media to create cyber mobs intent on publicly shaming and destroying those the mobs deem unworthy.

Ziva Dahl is a senior fellow with the news and public policy group <a href="https://salomoncenter.org">Haym Salomon Center</a>.

DAHL: Internet Mob Uses Fictional Miniseries To Take Down Women’s Rights Champion Linda Fairstein

Crime

Internet

New York City

Sexual Assault

Violence

On Wednesday&#8217;s episode of &#8220;The Andrew Klavan Show,&#8221; host Andrew Klavan explains how the Left is pushing conservatives out of social media because they want to control the crucial sphere. Video and partial transcript below.
Yesterday, I played this clip of an abortion radical saying that having a baby is doing violence to the mother&#8217;s body. So, we have to commit violence against that, we have to kill it. That&#8217;s why abortion is justifiable. Obviously, kind of a kook. But it sums up the Left&#8217;s attitude, doesn&#8217;t it? This terrible stuff is happening. They&#8217;re so oppressed, so they&#8217;re justifying oppressing others. They&#8217;re justified in shouting you down on campus because your speech is violence. It&#8217;s all in their imagination, but it justifies the terrible things they&#8217;re doing.
You know we talked about that New York Times piece yesterday about silencing people on YouTube because they&#8217;re radicalizing people, and they found a guy who was so radicalized he actually dated a religious woman. That&#8217;s how radicalized he was. I mean that was really what it was. He never bought into the crazy theories about white supremacy. Never went into any of that. But he dated an evangelical Christian and that was what made him radical and that&#8217;s why we should knock all these people off YouTube and deplatform them.
It&#8217;s all about the fact that they own the media. They own the entertainment media and they own the news media, and then the Democrats send out their talking points and those become A) the news and then B) history.
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RI0VWUiVFSo?start=387" width="560"></iframe></div>
You know, there&#8217;s a show on Netflix right now called &#8220;When They See Us&#8221; about something that I remember. I was in New York when this happened. The Wilding incident, where a woman, just a Central Park jogger, was beaten and raped almost to the point of death. Other people were beaten also. It was about 30 rioters went through Central Park and five guys were sent away for it. Then, later on, somebody, this guy in prison a psychopath said, &#8220;No, it was I who did the raping,&#8221; and they found out his DNA did match up and so these guys were theoretically exonerated.
The thing is, they weren&#8217;t exonerated for all the things that they were charged with. They were charged with riot and assault and all these things and they were not exonerated for that, but they were, and they made a big killing off it and they reformed their lives it looks like.
So, they&#8217;re doing this thing, &#8220;When They See Us,&#8221; in which Linda Fairstein who writes a piece about it in the Wall Street Journal today. Very well-respected prosecutor, also a fairly good mystery novelist. She wrote a piece saying look, these guys confessed they made a statement. They have parts in this Netflix show about Linda Fairstein as a bigot, which she never was. As [if she] was kind of planning how to set these guys up, which she never did. Leaving them in their cells not allowing them to go to the bathroom, which as she says, if that had really happened in any good pre-trial hearing, they would have brought that up in order to get their statements thrown out of court.
But in fact, they said there were confessions, there were bloodstains, there was corroborating testimony, there was dirt on their clothes. One of them testified, made the statement that he had simulated sex on this poor woman&#8217;s body and in fact, they found semen in his underwear which would corroborate that. But they have this powerful fantasy making machine so that now as someone once said that this is all people will remember. People watching this and they will think this is reality especially the left that just eats the stuff. They read the New York Times every day and they think that&#8217;s the news instead of hate speech about Donald Trump. So, it&#8217;s all theater with these guys.
<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/show/andrew-klavan-show&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1560435404647000&amp;usg=AFQjCNG1JuSs7Z0EeZawKU6wq8N0jPL_IA" href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/show/andrew-klavan-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Watch more of The Andrew Klavan Show here</a>.
<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-andrew-klavan-show/id1045171376?mt%3D2&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1560435404647000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGQlukeD9pBTC1tsyhbLK3vJHg-DA" href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-andrew-klavan-show/id1045171376?mt=2" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Listen to more of The Andrew Klavan Show on iTunes here.</a>

KLAVAN: The Left Is Using Social Media To Change History

Andrew Klavan

Conservatism

Leftism

Media

Media Bias

New York

Wall Street Journal

Though Netflix threatens to boycott the state of Georgia for passing a fetal heartbeat law to protect unborn children from abortion, the company still films in countries like Jordan and Egypt, where abortion is illegal.
Earlier this week, Netflix helped start a chain reaction of major studios threatening to boycott Georgia if lawmakers did not overturn the fetal heartbeat law.
&#8220;We have many women working on productions in Georgia, whose rights, along with millions of others, will be severely restricted by this law,&#8221; Netflix&#8217;s chief content officer Ted Sarandos told <a href="https://variety.com/2019/film/features/abortion-laws-hollywood-studios-netflix-1203225843/">Variety</a>. &#8220;It&#8217;s why we will work with the ACLU and others to fight it in court. Given the legislation has not yet been implemented, we&#8217;ll continue to film there, while also supporting partners and artists who choose not to. Should it ever come into effect, we&#8217;d rethink our entire investment in Georgia.&#8221;
Netflix was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/47877/major-studios-join-disney-georgia-boycott-over-paul-bois">later joined</a> by Disney, NBCUniversal, CBS, Showtime, and WarnerMedia with similar calls to boycott Georgia throughout the week. But, as noted by <a href="https://www.lifenews.com/2019/05/30/netflix-continues-filming-shows-in-middle-east-where-abortion-is-illegal-despite-boycotting-georgia/">LifeNews</a>, Netflix is clearly willing to work in heavily abortion-restrictive countries.
According to<a href="https://variety.com/2019/tv/news/netflix-steps-up-middle-east-production-with-third-arabic-original-paranormal-1203226368/"> Variety</a>, on the very same week that Netflix threatened Georgia, the company began working on its third Arabic original, titled &#8220;Paranormal,&#8221; which will, of course, be produced in Egypt. From the report:
<blockquote>
<a data-tag="netflix" href="https://variety.com/t/netflix/">Netflix</a> is stepping up production in the Middle East with its third and most ambitious Arabic original, titled &#8220;Paranormal,&#8221; with young Egyptian director <a data-tag="amr-salama" href="https://variety.com/t/amr-salama/">Amr Salama</a> (&#8220;Sheikh Jackson&#8221;) on board as director and showrunner.
&#8220;Paranormal,&#8221; based on bestselling Arabic horror books by late Egyptian author Ahmed Khaled Tawfik, is being jointly produced by Salama and prominent Egyptian indie producer <a data-tag="mohammed-hefzy" href="https://variety.com/t/mohammed-hefzy/">Mohammed Hefzy</a>, whose Film Clinic shingle is known internationally for churning out a stream of edgy titles such as &#8220;Microphone,&#8221; &#8220;Sheikh Jackson&#8221; and &#8220;Yomeddine.&#8221;
The series, set in the 1960s, marks the streaming giant&#8217;s first foray into a drama produced in Egypt, which is historically the Arab world&#8217;s production powerhouse. &#8220;Paranormal&#8221; depicts the adventures of lead character Dr. Refaat Ismail, a hematologist who finds himself &#8220;faced with a series of supernatural events.&#8221;
</blockquote>
As many as three Netflix original series are shot in the Middle East, two of which are produced in Jordan &#8211; &#8220;Jinn&#8221; and &#8220;Al Rawabi School for Girls.&#8221;
So how restrictive are the abortion laws in both Jordan and Egypt? According to the <a href="https://freebeacon.com/issues/disney-would-leave-georgia-abortion-jordan/">Washington Free Beacon</a>, Jordan restricts abortion in nearly all cases except in cases when the life or mental health of the mother is at risk. People in violation of those laws face imprisonment. The country Jordan also provided locations for parts of Disney&#8217;s &#8220;Aladdin,&#8221; another studio threatening Georgia.
Over in Egypt, the Pew Research Center <a href="https://www.pewforum.org/2008/09/30/abortion-laws-around-the-world/#middleeast">reports</a> that the country has maintained a ban on abortion in nearly all circumstances since 1937.
&#8220;The Egyptian Penal Code of 1937 bans abortion in all circumstances, but criminal law allows flexibility on grounds of &#8216;necessity,'&#8221; the report says. &#8220;Physicians rely on that principle to justify performing an abortion when they believe the mother&#8217;s life or health is in danger or in cases of fetal abnormality. A committee of physicians must agree that the abortion is acceptable within the confines of the law.&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/47891/sophie-turner-vows-never-work-anti-abortion-states-james-barrett">Sophie Turner Vows To Never Work In Anti-Abortion States, Gets Asked About Where &#8216;Game Of Thrones&#8217; Was Filmed</a>

Hypocrites: Netflix Films In Middle Eastern Countries As It Threatens Georgia Over Abortion Law

Abortion

Georgia

In response to Georgia&#8217;s new law prohibiting aborting babies with a detectable heartbeat, Netflix said that the company may &#8220;rethink&#8221; filming in Georgia if the law goes into effect. In response, some conservatives are saying they will consider boycotting Netflix if they follow through on the Georgia boycott. 
In a statement to <a href="https://variety.com/2019/film/features/abortion-laws-hollywood-studios-netflix-1203225843/">Variety</a>, Netflix&#8217;s chief content creator Ted Sarandos said the company will work with the ACLU to fight the Georgia law in court.&#8203;
&#8220;We have many women working on productions in Georgia, whose rights, along with millions of others, will be severely restricted by this law,&#8221; Sarandos said. &#8220;It&#8217;s why we will work with the ACLU and others to fight it in court.&#8221;
He also said Netflix will continue to film in Georgia due to the law not being yet implemented but will still work with partners and artists who choose to boycott the state.
&#8220;Should it ever come into effect, we&#8217;d rethink our entire investment in Georgia,&#8221; Sarandos added. 
In response, conservatives are threatening to cancel their subscriptions to Netflix.
Fox News contributor Guy Benson parodied a headline about Netflix&#8217;s statement to say that he may boycott the company.
&#8220;Benson would rethink Netflix subscription if abortion advocacy stands,&#8221; Benson tweeted.
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Benson would rethink Netflix subscription if abortion advocacy stands <a href="https://t.co/a3m6Jnvjy4">https://t.co/a3m6Jnvjy4</a>
&#8212; Guy Benson (@guypbenson) <a href="https://twitter.com/guypbenson/status/1133452255917694978?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 28, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Kira Davis, the Editor-At-Large of RedState, said she is also considering ending her Netflix subscription. 
&#8220;I enjoy @netflix but there&#8217;s literally nothing on there I can&#8217;t live without. I&#8217;m totally happy to &#8216;rethink&#8217; my investment as well. It&#8217;s a two way street, friends!&#8221;
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I enjoy <a href="https://twitter.com/netflix?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@netflix</a> but there&#8217;s literally nothing on there I can&#8217;t live without. I&#8217;m totally happy to &#8220;rethink&#8221; my investment as well. It&#8217;s a two way street, friends! <a href="https://t.co/LO3lYTKnN4">https://t.co/LO3lYTKnN4</a>
&#8212; Kira (@RealKiraDavis) <a href="https://twitter.com/RealKiraDavis/status/1133555552477372417?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 29, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Fox News Contributor Lisa Boothe also chimed in.
&#8220;Works both ways, @netflix. Will gladly cancel my account,&#8221; Boothe tweeted.

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Works both ways, <a href="https://twitter.com/netflix?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@netflix</a>. Will gladly cancel my account.
&#8212; Lisa Boothe (@LisaMarieBoothe) <a href="https://twitter.com/LisaMarieBoothe/status/1133503277977489408?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 28, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
The Daily Wire&#8217;s Elisha Krauss said she would use alternative streaming services. 
&#8220;Fine, I&#8217;ll pay for the @Disney app and cancel @Netflix,&#8221; Krauss tweeted. &#8220;My kids don&#8217;t need their programming and I can do without Ozark.&#8221;
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Fine, I&#8217;ll pay for the <a href="https://twitter.com/Disney?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Disney</a> app and cancel <a href="https://twitter.com/netflix?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Netflix</a>. My kids don&#8217;t need their programming and I can do without Ozark. <a href="https://t.co/I43ObL8BNM">https://t.co/I43ObL8BNM</a>
&#8212; Elisha (@ElishaKrauss) <a href="https://twitter.com/ElishaKrauss/status/1133521247533322240?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 28, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Fox News contributor and Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen warned the streaming service against alienating pro-life customers.
&#8220;Hey .@netflix nearly half the country is pro-life,&#8221; Thiessen tweeted. &#8220;Don&#8217;t alienate your pro-life customers. We have lots of streaming options these days.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Hey .<a href="https://twitter.com/netflix?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@netflix</a> nearly half the country is pro-life. Don&#8217;t alienate your pro-life customers. We have lots of streaming options theses days. <a href="https://t.co/2a4aSzElMM">https://t.co/2a4aSzElMM</a>
&#8212; Marc Thiessen (@marcthiessen) <a href="https://twitter.com/marcthiessen/status/1133474141762400256?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 28, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Several well-known producers and actors said they will avoid filming in Georgia due to the law, including actress Kristen Wiig who canceled her plans to film her upcoming comedy &#8220;Barb and Star Go To Vista Del Mar&#8221; in the state.&#8203;
In a tweet, producer Mark Duplass announced he would no longer film in Georgia and encouraged others to do the same.
&#8220;Don&#8217;t give your business to Georgia,&#8221; Duplass tweeted. &#8220;Will you pledge with me not to film anything in Georgia until they reverse this backwards legislation?&#8221;

<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Don&#8217;t give your business to Georgia. Will you pledge with me not to film anything in Georgia until they reverse this backwards legislation?
&#8212; Mark Duplass (@MarkDuplass) <a href="https://twitter.com/MarkDuplass/status/1126617339955503105?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 9, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Producers J.J. Abrams and Jordan Peele decided to still film their show &#8220;Lovecraft Country&#8221; in the state but plan to donate their fees to the ACLU of Georgia and Fair Fight Georgia, reported <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-28/netflix-threatens-to-pull-out-of-georgia-if-abortion-law-stands">Bloomberg</a>.&#8203;
Georgia is a favorable state for filming due to its generous film and TV subsidies, which have led to the popular show &#8220;The Walking Dead&#8221; and the hit movie &#8220;Black Panther&#8221; being filmed there.
Earlier this month Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/46895/ga-governor-signs-heartbeat-bill-law-defying-hank-berrien">signed</a> the &#8220;heartbeat bill&#8221; into law which bans abortions if a fetal heartbeat can be detected.
&#8220;(The bill) is very simple but also very powerful: a declaration that all life has value, that all life matters, and that all life is worthy of protection,&#8221; Kemp said at the time. &#8220;I realize that some may challenge it in a court of law. But our job is to do what is right, not what is easy. We are called to be strong and courageous, and we will not back down. We will always continue to fight for life.&#8221;

Netflix May Consider Boycotting Filming In Georgia; Conservatives May Consider Boycotting Netflix

Apparently, the power of nostalgia has the capacity to resurrect products that were complete disasters way back when. In honor of &#8220;Stranger Things,&#8221; Coca-Cola will be reviving the notorious &#8220;New Coke&#8221; for a limited time, <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2019/05/21/business/new-coke-stranger-things/index.html">reports</a> CNN.
&#8220;The company is bringing back a limited number of <a href="http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/biz2/0706/gallery.launch_hits_and_misses.biz2/8.html">New Coke</a> cans in honor of the <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2018/03/26/entertainment/stranger-things-season-3/index.html">upcoming third season</a> of &#8216;Stranger Things,&#8217; in which the product is featured,&#8221; reports the outlet.
Season 3 of &#8220;Stranger Things&#8221; will debut on Netflix July 4 and unfolds during the summer of 1985, during which Coca-Cola presented a new recipe (&#8220;New Coke&#8221;) that Americans roundly rejected, becoming one of the biggest marketing failures in history.
&#8220;So-called New Coke was a flop: Consumers reacted so poorly to the new drink that Coca-Cola pulled it from shelves after a few months,&#8221; reports CNN. &#8220;New Coke was rebranded as Coke II, and sold in some places after 1985. But this is the first time Coca-Cola is bringing back New Coke with that branding.&#8221;
Stuart Kronauge, president of Coke&#8217;s sparkling business unit and senior vice president of marketing for Coca-Cola North America, told CNN Business that the revival of New Coke is a way to show everyone that the company does &#8220;not take ourselves too seriously.&#8221;
&#8220;Maybe a while ago we wouldn&#8217;t have done this,&#8221; Kronauge said. &#8220;But we&#8217;re changing and trying to innovate in ways that are beyond traditional new products. This is a cultural innovation.&#8221;
Kronauge argued that the marketing trick is a way for Coca-Cola to reach audiences in an ever-changing media landscape where television spots and billboards have been rendered nearly useless.
&#8220;Buying a 30-second ad to drop into a certain time-frame is not as valuable as it once was,&#8221; Kronauge said told CNN business. &#8220;The world is changing into streaming and non-ad platforms and subscription-based platforms. So it&#8217;s important for us to make sure that we are where our consumers&#8217; eyeballs and hearts and spirits are.&#8221;
Barry Smyth, Head of Global Partner Marketing at Netflix, told CNN that the Coke partnership will give the company an entryway into internet viral marketing. &#8220;We exist on the internet, and Coke has a century of experience in building consumer products that are physical,&#8221; he said.
Bringing back New Coke took considerable effort, according to the <a href="http://www.apnews.com/2e3f971842924b0cb4c6eb76a076c288">Associated Press</a>, with the company having to comb through decades of archives to both recover the recipe and the proper can design. &#8220;All told, everything took about six months and was top secret,&#8221; Peter Shoemaker, director of sparkling category commercialization, told the AP.
CNN provided some ways to buy the product as well as the other &#8220;Stranger Things&#8221;-themed products that Coca-Cola will be rolling out this summer:
<blockquote>
There are three ways for customers to get the retro product: As a gift when they buy limited-edition &#8220;Stranger Things&#8221; Coke and Coke Zero Sugar glass bottles online starting Thursday, through &#8220;Stranger Things&#8221; themed pop up vending machines that will be in cities this summer, or as a giveaway when they purchase a gift or ticket at the World of Coca-Cola in Atlanta. Coca-Cola has produced under 500,000 of the New Coke 12-ounce cans, and expects to run out quickly.
</blockquote>
Of course, Coke is not the only company to have a run-in with rebranding failures. Fox News listed some of the biggest product failures that children of the 80s and 90s will remember, including Pepsi A.M. and Crystal Pepsi as well as the Apple Newton and the McDonald&#8217;s Arch Deluxe.

Coca-Cola Bringing Back Notorious ‘New Coke’ Because Nostalgia

This article has been updated with information from Netflix.
Streaming service giant Netflix may run into massive problems once its next competitor, Disney+, launches in November.
That&#8217;s what personal investor Stephen McBride is warning over <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/stephenmcbride1/2019/05/21/netflix-has-175-days-left-to-pull-off-a-miracle-or-its-all-over/amp/">at Forbes</a>. McBride, who is also the chief analyst at RiskHedge and publishes a weekly report on stocks he believes will disrupt the market, called Disney &#8220;The Undisputed King of Content,&#8221; noting the media giant plans to offer a cheaper streaming service with guaranteed great content.
&#8220;It&#8217;s going to charge $6.99/month&#8212;around $6 cheaper than Netflix. And it&#8217;s pulling all its content off of Netflix,&#8221; McBride wrote. &#8220;This is a big deal.&#8221;
Netflix, he wrote &#8220;is not the future of TV,&#8221; even though it is the current king of the streaming services. While it has disrupted the distribution process for cable companies and spent billions of dollars developing original content, the streaming service is racking up billions of dollars of debt, according to McBride. &#8220;It currently owes creditors $10.4 billion, which is 59% more than it owed this time last year,&#8221; he wrote.
But with Disney set to take even an even bigger slice of media (with its streaming service), Netflix may not be able to compete. Disney, McBride reminded us, has been around since 1928, had more than 160 million people visit its theme parks in 2018, owns ESPN and ABC News, Marvel, Pixar Animations, Star Wars, and more. &#8220;In six of the past seven years, Disney has produced the world&#8217;s top-selling movie,&#8221; McBride wrote. In 2018, four of the five highest-earning films were made by Disney.
If the megacorporation pulls all its popular content from Netflix and puts it on its own streaming service, it could really hurt Netflix.
&#8220;While Netflix is running into debt &#8216;trying out&#8217; new shows, Disney already has the best of the best in its arsenal,&#8221; McBride wrote.
McBride provided a scenario that could potentially devastate Netflix (though there&#8217;s no evidence thus far Disney actually plans to do this):
<blockquote>
Picture this&#8230;
Disney puts a blockbuster like Avengers Endgame on its platform the same day it opens in theaters.
After a few weeks it&#8217;s no longer in theaters. You can&#8217;t buy it. You can&#8217;t rent it. The only way to watch is to subscribe to Disney&#8217;s steaming service, Disney+.
For example, the only place your children or grandchildren will be able to see Toy Story 4 and Frozen 2 may be on Disney+.
Can you imagine how many parents will sign up for this? I&#8217;ll certainly be subscribing for my daughter.
At $6.99/month, what family with kids under 12 years wouldn&#8217;t subscribe?
</blockquote>
Of course, McBride&#8217;s warning does contain several &#8220;ifs.&#8221; He&#8217;s assuming people would drop Netflix for Disney+. Some may do so, but <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonifitzgerald/2019/03/29/how-many-streaming-video-services-does-the-average-person-subscribe-to/#138f49e56301">a study</a> from March of this year found that the average American subscribes to 3.4 services &#8212; and that 70% of U.S. households have at least one subscription. Netflix offers so much more than Disney content, and since Disney+ will cost only $6.99 to start, people might simply add it to their list of streaming services.
A Netflix spokesperson did not provide The Daily Wire with a comment, but did direct the author to a <a href="https://variety.com/2019/digital/news/netflix-beats-hbo-survey-best-original-programming-1203221107/">recent survey</a> finding 40% of respondents said the streaming service had the &#8220;best original programming.&#8221; The spokesperson also provided the company&#8217;s past two letters to investors, which state the streaming services is not worried about Disney+ or any other competitor.
&#8220;Our focus is not on Disney+, Amazon or others, but on how we can improve our experience for our members,&#8221; <a href="https://s22.q4cdn.com/959853165/files/doc_financials/quarterly_reports/2018/q4/01/FINAL-Q4-18-Shareholder-Letter.pdf">one of the reports said</a>.

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