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Valuetainment

“Netflix Is Playing With FIRE” - Hawley GOES NUCLEAR On Netflix CEO Over Trans Content For Kids

05 Feb 2026

Transcription

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

Chapter 1: What is the proposed deal between Netflix and Warner about?

0.031 - 26.881 Unknown

So Netflix, Warner, defend proposed deal in Senate hearing. This is a Wall Street Journal story. It got nasty very quick. Rob, if you want to go to the Josh Hawley clip before we go to the Ted Cruz one. Co-CEO Ted Sarandos defended the streaming company's planned $72 billion acquisition of Warner Brothers and HBO Max at a Senate hearing Tuesday that occasionally grew contentious.

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26.901 - 38.576 Unknown

The best part of this that I want you to watch is here with Josh Hawley. Josh Hawley pushes both of these guys, and they couldn't answer a couple of the questions he asked. Go ahead, Rob.

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40.118 - 61.551 Ted Cruz

It's so much of Netflix content for children promotes a transgender ideology. almost half of your content for, I'm talking about minor children now, I'm not talking about teenagers. Minor children promotes a transgender ideology agenda. I was just looking at the data here from your various series.

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61.691 - 84.19 Ted Cruz

And what concerns me is just two days ago, a jury in New York awarded a former transitioner $2 million. Because she said that her psychologists and others pressured her into, they pushed on her an ideology that proved to be extremely detrimental. I'm sure you know that in the UK, the National Health Service in the UK has said,

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84.473 - 102.263 Ted Cruz

that they're not gonna perform transgender surgeries or any longer so-called gender-affirming care for minors, including in counseling, because it is so incredibly detrimental. Our own HHS has come forward with similar findings this past year, yet if you turn on Netflix, you'll find that an enormous amount, and I say this as a parent,

102.243 - 116.85 Ted Cruz

with three young children, an enormous amount of your children's programming has this ideology and agenda in it. Is this an advocacy position for Netflix? Is this an ideological commitment you have? Why is this?

117.591 - 120.336 Unknown

Senator Ali, Netflix has no political agenda of any kind.

120.67 - 132.086 Ted Cruz

Well, then why is your children's program so full of this highly sexualized, highly controversial, highly controversial agenda? I don't understand it.

132.126 - 138.075 Unknown

It seems strange to me. Respectfully, sir, it's because it's inaccurate. We have millions of hours of children's programming.

Chapter 2: How did senators react to Netflix's content for children?

176.649 - 178.894 Ted Cruz

Here's what I tell you what my personal experience is since you bring it up.

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178.914 - 187.414 Unknown

Rob, can you pause it real quick? Pause it right there. Can you go a little bit to the end where the HBO Max guy responds? Look at his blink rate. Keep going, keep going, keep going.

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187.394 - 188.536 Jeff

Yeah, he does not look comfortable.

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188.556 - 210.938 Unknown

No, he doesn't look comfortable. Do me a favor. Go back to the Ted Cruz one if you could because what Josh Holley continues to say is we're watching movies. We're watching all this stuff. We don't let our kids watch movies before we watch them ourselves. This part he talks about what Billy Eilish said, we live on stolen land. I want you to go on the second half of this interview.

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210.918 - 218.926 Unknown

If you go right around there, go back a little bit, like 30 seconds before he starts talking. Go right there. That's good. From right there.

219.386 - 234.701 Josh Hawley

Are people at home, how should they feel even remotely confident that if this merger happens, the combined entity would not simply be a propaganda outlet pushing one particular political view with much greater market power than you have now?

236.302 - 256.335 Unknown

Well, sir, we would fail. We would fail pushing a political view or propaganda. We deliver entertainment to consumers. Our consumers see our business pretty much the way they see America. About 40% conservative, about 40% liberal, about 20% don't know. But when they turn on TV, they're tuned in to be entertained.

256.655 - 284.051 Unknown

And if we fail to entertain them by trying to promote propaganda or something, anything other than entertainment, we fail. Mr. Campbell, same question to you. We see the world very similarly. Did we lose it or did he lose it? We have a very broad range of content across not only HBO Max, but all of our platforms that we need to appeal to all audiences.

Chapter 3: What concerns were raised about transgender content in children's programming?

284.672 - 296.512 Unknown

Our content ranges from hard knocks from the NFL to shows like Deadliest Catch and Gold Rush. It's a very broad collection of programming that represents broad interests across America.

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296.552 - 301.32 Josh Hawley

You have a wide range of programming on HBO. Name one program that is designed to appeal to conservatives.

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301.3 - 304.383 Unknown

We don't design our programming to appeal to anyone.

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304.403 - 306.566 Josh Hawley

I can think of a lot that are designed to go to liberals. Name one.

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308.508 - 311.931 Unknown

None of our shows are designed to go to any political group.

311.951 - 337.534 Josh Hawley

They're designed to appeal to... Really, John Oliver's not designed to appeal to a certain group? It's a program that... You just said none of your program is... Let me ask you, do you think CNN is fair and balanced? I do believe CNN is a fair... So when CNN showed riots and fires behind them and you put a chyron, mostly peaceful but fiery protest, was that journalism?

338.155 - 349.139 Unknown

Sir, I'm not involved with CNN. And in fact, they're not part of this transaction. But they have an independent editorial board. They have independent news gathering. We don't direct the decisions.

349.159 - 368.554 Josh Hawley

They have no independence other than hating Donald Trump, which is why their viewership numbers have plummeted because they don't actually report news. They instead engage in very biased propaganda. And I will say the truest words you said a minute ago is when you said with respect to Mr. Sarandos, well, he and I see the world in very much the same way.

369.215 - 387.764 Josh Hawley

That is exactly the problem, that in the world of journalism, it should not be propaganda. In the world of entertainment, there is a reason why. Why entertainers who are even slightly right of center get blackballed in Hollywood. Writers get blackballed in Hollywood. Actors get blackballed in Hollywood.

Chapter 4: What arguments did Netflix executives present during the Senate hearing?

504.442 - 525.733 Unknown

the opinions of the showrunners and the producers that they're funding. And they're simply not funding showrunners and producers that run with core conservative or core family programs. And by the way, while you're talking here, Rob, can you pull up the stats when he was saying half of it is LGBTQ? Is this the article? Is this from Washington times? Yes, sir. Okay, perfect.

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525.753 - 555.255 Unknown

If you go a little bit lower to the stats right there, the organization's report says, LGBTQ messaging pervasive in Netflix children programming showed that both 41% of G-rated programs and 41% of TV Y7 shows include LGBTQ elements, a result that CWA president and CEO Penny Nance called shocking. 41%. That's absolutely insane to be thinking about that, especially following a

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555.235 - 577.964 Unknown

$2 million lawsuit that just came out with a young girl who transitioned, and now she got $1.6 million, I think, and another $400,000 for a total of $2 million. The one plane would fire. Two, parents are not supporting. Ted Sarandos did say, look, Josh, you have the ability to control what your kids get to watch. You get to say you don't get to watch this. It doesn't show up in the search.

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577.984 - 582.61 Unknown

And then Josh is like, I don't even want to do that. I don't even want to go through it. Jeff, where do you stand with this?

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582.59 - 594.085 Jeff

Well, I think one of the things that he said was that if we do this, we fail. In many ways, this merger is a failure because if they were succeeding, they would stand alone. They wouldn't need to do the merger.

594.145 - 608.884 Jeff

The reason why they're merging in the first place is because they need to create a larger content library that appeals to more people because their individual content library, let's face it, is just garbage. Netflix should be dominating completely. Mm-hmm.

608.864 - 624.763 Jeff

The fact that they're not and they're actually trying to buy Warner's library, it is an acknowledgement that they have failed, that their agenda has failed, and they're trying to keep it going for as long as they possibly can. I think this is one of those situations where they've created a monster they can no longer control.

624.743 - 639.323 Jeff

When everybody started to shift to streaming, companies just threw money at Hollywood. Said, just give me content. I don't care what it is. I need content. I need content, content, content to get subscribers. And Hollywood is notoriously left-leaning. Let's be honest here. It's incredibly left-leaning.

639.343 - 654.367 Jeff

So they enabled all of these left-leaning producers, like you said, showrunners, talent, and everybody, and just gave them gobs of money, created tons of content, and now they're stuck. Because these are their one source of content creation, and they can't really do much about it.

Chapter 5: How does the merger impact market competition in streaming?

697.821 - 721.079 Unknown

Remember who he replaced was the anti-businesswoman? Solicitor of Virginia. Ferguson was born in Virginia. Background is graduating from Eastern Minnesota. Go a little bit lower. Legal career. What did he do? The law school. Lena Kahn. Remember her? I do remember Lena Kahn. She was there, a freaking communist. From 2016 to 2017, he clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court.

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721.681 - 741.894 Unknown

Okay, so go to Lena Thomas, Lena Kahn. Go to Lena Kahn to the right, preceded by Lena Kahn. I call her communist in my own opinion. We definitely remember her. She was all over the place, and we were talking about her as well on the podcast. So how much authority does he have to prevent this from happening? Can he prevent this deal from happening?

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741.914 - 748.947 Jeff

I think what they really have—sorry, Tom. Don't they have a board of five? They have to find some kind of legal basis. They can't just willy-nilly say where you're going.

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748.967 - 752.352 Unknown

And there's not a monopoly law that doesn't exist here because it's not like it's about 50%.

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752.512 - 760.223 Jeff

Yeah, so I think unless they have some kind of legal basis that's already been spun up that we haven't heard about, which is possible, I just don't think it's likely.

760.503 - 761.424 Unknown

Brandon, where are you at with this?

761.845 - 776.345 Brandon

Yeah, I don't think that it's as certain that Netflix goes out with this because it doesn't feel like Trump wants that to be the case. It doesn't feel like the conservatives want that to be the case. I think they'd rather have Paramount slash Oracle, like in my view. But I think both scenarios are bad for different reasons.

776.405 - 796.755 Brandon

I think Netflix, you know, because of the propaganda side, Paramount because of the control side, because of some of the things that they're aligned with. But what Holly said, there's totally true or what the Serrano said that Holly is true as far as. How are you controlling what your kids watch? Maybe he's able to, but a lot of parents aren't able to control what their kids watch.

796.775 - 814.557 Brandon

And Netflix got to that position where, since they were first, I think they were able to be comfortable in putting out propaganda, putting out their messaging they're aligned with because they were comfortable in that number one position. Because their stock's still doing really well. They still have a ton of market share for abusing their product for a long time.

Chapter 6: What are the implications of the $72 billion merger for consumers?

876.074 - 898.895 Unknown

Yeah. If we look at market cap. You see what the market thinks? The market thinks you're going to get less valuable by doing this. Yeah, so market cap 337. Or do they think it's not going to happen? Is their market cap high? Because I think they hit a half a trillion, if I'm not mistaken. Yes. They were close to a half a trillion. At one point. So they've lost $150. Okay, yeah. So $407.

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898.915 - 924.328 Unknown

No, that's just the market cap. It's not the peak. I think they hit a half a trillion or if not $470, $480 in market cap. What's the price right now? $79, $130. So $79, $130, $50 up. So $50 up on $70. It's 80%. There you go. 80% higher. Yeah, they hit a half a trillion market cap. So, Tom, did you have any final thoughts on this? Yeah, I have a dark thought.

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925.709 - 949.113 Unknown

Ellison's want to buy the whole thing and they want the cable nets, Pat. They want CNN and the cable channels. So the Ellison's paramount want to buy the whole thing. If they do, you saw what they did to CBS, right? What do you think they're going to do to CNN? they're going to neutralize it, bring it back to the center. This is what the rest of the industry doesn't want.

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949.594 - 966.305 Unknown

They don't want another news channel to come back to neutral or, Lord God, one-click conservative. By the way, so, Brandon, why do you say neither is a case you want? Neither Paramount... And neither does. So you would rather have Netflix control. You have to choose between the two.

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966.686 - 984.67 Brandon

Yeah. I mean, for the immediate future, probably Paramount's better. But long term, I don't like some of the things that Ellison's stand for, based on what they say in the past. We've seen the videos of Larry Ellison saying how He monitors his people at work. You get a little break from the body camera when you go to the bathroom or when you go hang out with your friends.

984.73 - 995.8 Brandon

But it's still recording, and it could be retrieved with a corridor. So some of those sensibilities make me a little bit uncomfortable. But I get what you're saying, that short-term, yes, they're conservative. They're more reasonable. So it's better than Netflix and their propaganda.

995.82 - 1005.549 Unknown

Oh, no, I think long-term, Netflix is going to be worse. Oh, yeah, for sure. That's what I'm saying. I think short-term, mid-term, long-term, Netflix is worse than Paramount. Where are you at with this?

1005.569 - 1012.86 Jeff

Oh, I mean, look at what do people watch on Netflix? They watch old reruns of The Office and Friends, right? They don't watch the new content. Again, I go back to this.

Chapter 7: What is the current state of Netflix's market share?

1012.96 - 1035.26 Jeff

This is the industry kind of trying to stay in the same mode, realizing they're failing. What would really work is somebody coming along and saying, look, we need to actually do what the guy said. We need to make content that appeals to actually the entire country and the entire audience instead of a narrow focus. And so in many ways, the merger is the industry trying to resist that.

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1035.701 - 1043.913 Jeff

So I think it's positive in the respect that it's being forced to do something. And eventually that might actually correct with market forces, but it's going to take a while to get there.

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1044.093 - 1061.02 Unknown

Yeah, I don't know. I mean, when you look at that, you've got the two behemoths, right? You've got Netflix is dealing with a problem trying to buy Time Warner and Paramount, you know, the Ellisons are trying to pick up Time Warner. We'll see what happens. By the way, if this – There's a strange turn of events, and all of a sudden, boom, they're out.

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1061.48 - 1083.477 Unknown

FTC's not allowing this to happen, and then they're looking at Paramount as a possible buyer. What a curveball. Imagine you're looking at this in six months, and David Ellison is sitting next to the CEO of Time Warner, and they're having this type of conversation. Gang, once a year we host an event called the Sales Leadership Summit. If you're a sales leader running a business,

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1083.457 - 1102.879 Unknown

and you want to find out how is the most effective way to move your revenue, watch this clip about the event that's coming up with Sales Leadership Summit. Go ahead, Rob. Say you're a CEO, you're a boss, you're an executive, you're a leader. Which of these four feelings do you want your employees or your sales team to feel the most? Do you want them to like you? Do you want them to trust you?

1103.299 - 1122.475 Unknown

Do you want them to respect you? Or do you want them to fear you? And if I was to ask you to order them and say, ah, I think I want them to like me first, then I want them to trust me, then I want them to respect me, I don't want them to fear me, right? This whole thing that we're talking about. Developing salespeople in a big sales team, which can exponentially increase

1122.455 - 1145.188 Unknown

increase the valuation of your company your income your lifestyle this is a big problem to solve you have to get these four things in order while you're developing people once a year i host a conference called the sales leadership summit which is purely about developing sales people and we go through this 200 page manual together this year we're doing it at the trump doral

1145.168 - 1165.183 Unknown

from March 25th to the 27th. And that dynamic of like, trust, respect, and fear is one of the ones that creates a lot of debate. If you want to find out how you can attend this event, click on the link below, get registered. One of our consultants will get ahold of you. All right. Having said that, click on a link below. You have to qualify to attend.

1165.203 - 1179.86 Unknown

You need to do a minimum of a million dollars and have five people on your sales team to attend this conference. But the link is below. Click on it. Talk to our consultants. They will tell you all about it. Cannot wait to see many of you there this year at Trump Doral. If you enjoyed this video, you want to watch more videos like this, click here.

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