Tucker Carlson Videos LEAKED, & Hollywood Writers Go on Strike for a Silly, Woke Reason

Welcome back to The Liz Wheeler Show. If you haven’t already subscribed, would you start the show today by doing that? Just pull out your smartphone. Bring up Apple Podcast and click subscribe. Or if you prefer the video version, go to Rumble.com/LizWheeler and subscribe over there. Greatly appreciate it. I don’t know if you guys saw the latest videos that have gone viral today of Tucker Carlson. There’s supposedly videos that were taken behind the scenes when he was just on a set. We call it a hot set, meaning when you walk into a studio, a good rule of thumb is to assume that even if you don’t believe the cameras are rolling, even if you don’t believe your audio is being recorded, you always assume that it is, because oftentimes, whether accidental or intentional, oftentimes it is. We’ve seen some of the funniest bloopers of all times from behind the scenes. 

You remember Bill O’Reilly, his “We’ll do it live” video that someone released, released when he was being such a diva decades ago on his show? Well, Tucker Carlson has some videos from behind the scenes from a hot set that are circulating, and the intention of these videos the intention of these videos, I wanna talk about that because Media Matters is the organization that released them. And this is how they, this is how they introduce ’em. They said Media matters obtained video obtained, okay, they obtained video. So we’re gonna talk today about what that word means and how exactly media matters obtained them, and why whoever gave them to Media matters, gave them to media matters. And of course, we’re gonna watch the videos because they’re probably the most hilarious thing that I’ve seen all day. We’re also gonna talk about the writer’s strike that’s happening in Hollywood and what this means outside of Hollywood. Maybe you don’t care about what is happening in Hollywood, but this has reverberating effects for all of us, for our entire country. So we’re gonna talk about that a little bit. We’re also gonna talk about Bud Light. Their latest sales number came in. Oh my goodness, this boycott is perhaps the most devastating boycott ever in the history of anything. I cannot remember any boycott being as devastating to a company as this one is. And I have a very important message about what this should teach us as conservatives. So let’s get to it. 

Okay. So media Matters obtained behind the scenes video of Tucker Carlson obtained, I love that word, media organizations of all kinds. Use this word when they mean that a snoop or a source kind of potato, potato, in this case a source, gave them this video, but doesn’t want to be named for fear of getting in trouble. So what you’re about to see is Tucker Carlson on his set at Fox News and Fox Nation at, at his two shows, and he’s on a hot set, which means he’s not on air officially, but the cameras are rolling, his audio is recording, therefore, the footage has been archived. Now, whether this was intentional, whether it was unintentional, I can tell you from my experience in this studio and others that oftentimes cameras are rolling. Oftentimes audio is also recording because for no nefarious purposes, just because that’s part of the production of the show, to get every level of audio properly managed and make sure the video is working properly, you often start rolling early. 

That’s fine. No, no scandal there. It’s not like someone was deliberately trying to record Tucker Carlson, but because this happened on the studio of Fox News, or in a Fox News studio, because this happened in Tucker Carlson’s, Tucker Carlson, today’s Studio, we know that this footage was exclusively owned by Fox News, right? This was not footage that came out of a charity dinner. This was not footage that was recorded of Tucker fishing in the park, like the video that we watched a couple weeks ago. This was not footage that happened in a public place. This was footage that was exclusively owned by Fox News, who is extremely protective of their footage. As all production companies are, we all are very protective of our footage, which means that someone within Fox News deliberately leaked this video. They gave this video to media Matters in order for Media Matters to publish it. And we’re gonna watch the video first, and then we’re gonna talk about why Fox News gave this video to Media Matters. In an attempt to portray Tucker Carlson negatively, I am happy to announce that that goal was not achieved. This video is one of the funniest videos that I’ve seen all day. Take a look at this. 

This company is thrilled that you’re doing this. I’ve gotten more calls from people about it. 

Oh, hat’s great. Whatever. I’ve gotta say, when I came to New York a couple of weeks ago, I couldn’t believe how welcoming and friendly everybody was. It was fantastic. I loved it. 

Yeah. They really mean it from the owners on down. It’s cool to see it. I like that. It’s a good, you know, people are nicer than this company. I think they’ve always been nice. 

I completely agree with you. I completely agree. Everyone’s been very, very friendly and very nice, and I really appreciate it. But thank you so much for coming on. It’s fun. 

I bet that doesn’t change. Of course. 

Yeah, it’s great to have you on my show. I mean, I’ve been on yours enough times. It’s great. 

I think it’s totally cool. So, if we’re gonna talk about sex, I’d love to hit some of the fine points of technique. But, you know, but it’s your show. It’s totally up to you. 

We can certainly talk about your sexual technique, especially after your tanning testicles last week. 

Not mine. We, we’ll speak in more general terms, but I’ve got something to add. 

Well, okay. That was Piers Morgan. I should have said this before I played the video. That was Piers Morgan’s voice. For anybody who didn’t recognize it, you probably did recognize it. But Tucker Carlson was connected with him probably just via audio, perhaps on the phone, right before he was about to be a guest on Piers Morgan’s program. And I think that we can all agree that Tucker Carlson is hilarious. This is not, this is not a toxic work environment. This is not misogyny. This is not creating an uncomfortable situation by talking about inappropriate topics. Come on, come on. This actually makes me excited for what Tucker’s gonna do next, because one of the things that Tucker was never able to fully showcase at Fox News, because cable news is a more serious platform. This is not, this is not something exclusive to Fox News. 

It’s not even something negative about Fox News. This is just cable news in general. It’s a very formal format. You present it in a very professional way. And so Tucker Carlson was never fully able to showcase his sense of humor, cuz the guy’s hilarious. He’s just an objectively funny person. The funniest kind of humor, in my opinion, is that deadpan humor where you say something in a serious conversation that’s either maybe inappropriate, but just outrageous, but say it with a very straight face and it just slays me. It’s kind of like the humor from the office. It’s kind of, that’s Tucker Carlson’s style humor. but this was released by Media Matters as evidence that Tucker Carlson created a toxic workplace. The second video, they they released, it was all in this same article, the same Twitter thread from Matthew Gertz. He’s a senior, senior person at Media Matters. the second video of Tucker Carlson is Tucker commenting on, I’m not sure who, he doesn’t specify who he’s talking about, but the girlfriend of some guy take a look. 

You wouldn’t, okay, I’m not, you know what? I’m not qualified on that score. I will say, I thought his girlfriend was kind of yummy. Just kidding. That just kidding. Cases is being pulled off The bird. Yeah, the bird. Hey, media matters for America. Go [inaudible] yourself. That’s the first thing I want to say tonight. Second thing is, totally kidding. I don’t even know what his girlfriend looks like, and if I did, I would not find her yummy 

Okay, first of all, the bird is the satellite. It’s a slang term in cable news used for the satellite, which is where they beam footage in order to then collect it at headquarters. Because Tucker Films either in Florida, or he did, I should say formerly, he filmed at his home in Florida, or at his summer home in Maine. He did not often film in Washington DC or New York where Fox’s main, main headquarters are. So the footage would be beamed up to the satellite, and then from his home, and then beamed down to headquarters. So he was talking about pulling it from the bird, the footage that was in space, and then backed down. I think it is so funny that he called out. I mean, this is actually embarrassing for media matters to post this stuff, right? Because he is openly mocking media matters because he knew that they would A care about and misrepresent and three, fall onto their fainting couches because he called a woman Yummy. 

I’m sorry. I’m a pretty traditional, I’m a pretty traditional woman. I don’t curse. I believe in being respectful of other people’s sexuality. And I gotta say, I don’t find it offensive. I’m, I’m, I’m feeling my feelings right now, checking in. I’m not offended by Tucker Carlson describing a woman as Emmy. Really? You’re pretty sensitive. If you can’t think of something a little more offensive than calling someone yummy, it’s not like he did that on air. He was talking to one of his friends who cares, who cares. Media matters, honestly, doesn’t really even care. They don’t really even care. Leftists don’t really even care. They’re just trying so hard to find something negative about Tucker Carlson. And this is the best they have. one more video here. This one is pretty funny as well. Like I said, I really enjoyed watching all three of these. It just made me like Tucker more Tucker’s talking about his own looks. I don’t know if you guys noticed when he was on air, he always wore the same shirt every single day, day in and day out. These same shirt with a rotation of just a couple of different ties. And so he is talking about assessing his own appearance in this video. Take a look. 

Well, I feel great, you know, I can never, as I can never assess my appearance, I wait for my postmenopausal fans to weigh in on that. Put your FB in my FB. They didn’t want to talk to what they want to control me from afar. Okay? I’m putting the leash on 

You can, f*** it we’ll do it live. I got you baby. 

I love how the end of that he actively makes fun of Bill O’Reilly for Bill O’Reilly’s tantrum. We’ll do it live. We’ll do it live. If you guys haven’t looked up that video, if you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend you take a minute and look it up on YouTube. It’ll be, it’s one of the funniest things that you’ll ever see except Bill O’Reilly, of course, wasn’t intending to be funny. He actually was just being a diva on his set, but totally worth watching. okay, so Tucker Carlson making fun. They’re like, oh, he made fun of post-menopausal people. He accused his fans of being old people. Two things. First of all, the average age of a cable news viewer is about 70 years old, which I think it’s safe to say is post-menopausal. so I don’t know why it’s offensive to recognize that. 

Second of all, anybody who works in the public eye knows that even the people that love you, even your most loyal fans, send in brutal comments about your appearance on a daily basis. <laugh>, I mean, I’m not ex I’ll, I’ll give some examples here, just a couple of examples. I get daily comments about my hair. A lot of you love what my hair looks like. Some of you are like, push it away from your eyes. It’s too long. It’s too curly, it’s too straight. It’s too this, it’s too that your jacket didn’t match your dress, by the way, my jacket dressed today. You guys better not send comments cuz I think it’s totally banging, looking. but I think what Tucker was doing was just kind of jokingly commenting. It’s sort of a technique for letting it roll off your back because the onslaught of criticism, even from people who love you, is is an onslaught. 

It’s there all the time. So I don’t find that to be, I don’t find that to be, none of that is offensive object. It’s not just my opinion. None of that is objectively offensive media matters. Doesn’t believe it’s of it’s offensive. But let’s talk for a second why media matters about why Media Matters posted this. So they said media matters obtained video footage. So what that means is that someone inside Fox News gave this video footage to Media Matters in order to, I suppose, tried to embarrass Tucker to try to tarnish his reputation, to try to bolster their claims. or I guess they haven’t made any claims, but to try to to try to bolster perhaps the claims of other people in leftist media who are accusing Tucker Carlson of creating a toxic workplace in including a former producer who never met him according to Amber Athey at at The Spectator. 

But here’s my opinion, here’s my analysis. So I was thinking about why they would do this, and I think that there’s two things that are worth covering. I know it’s somewhat unpopular or somewhat uncommon even in new media, meaning even in independently owned media endeavors on podcasts to discuss Fox News. Because Fox News for a long time, and this is so true to a certain extent, but Fox News has been thought of for a long time as the pinnacle of conservative media. It remains to this day the largest conservative media organization, the most powerful conservative media organization, the most influential conservative media organization in the country. That is true without question. And so, a lot of people that work in conservative media would never dream of making a comment or analyzing the motives of Fox News for fear of being excluded from being a guest on Fox News or potentially working on Fox News. 

And it’s kind of the same mindset as the absolute loyalty philosophy that Donald Trump operates under, where if you want to be in Trump’s good graces, then you have to pledge absolute fealty to him. There can’t be any questions, any skepticism, any criticism of any policy, or else you are considered to be disloyal. That same attitude has existed among a lot of conservative commentators in new media towards Fox News, because they have been the pinnacle of conservative media for a long time. And they’ve, they’ve done a lot of good in their time on the air. However, you know me, I don’t pledge guilty to anybody or anything or any institution for any reason, except of course to God. And so I wanna share with you some of my thoughts, some of my some of my speculation about why Fox News would have given this, these videos to Media Matters. 

The obvious first line, or the obvious first level of analysis is, okay, well, they release these videos in an attempt to embarrass Tucker Carlson in an attempt to tarnish Tucker Carlson’s reputation. That’s pretty obvious. That’s, that’s not difficult analysis. The next level question is why and who did this? So let’s start with who did this? Most likely this was sanctioned, right? If this was, if this footage was owned by Fox News, then it wasn’t an accident that it was leaked. It wasn’t a rogue employee who, you know, cut this off the server and gave it to a media organization. That wouldn’t happen. Because if that did happen, then Fox News would come out and condemn that. The way that I think it was, I think it was cnn. my producer Matt can correct me, but remember a year, two years or or so ago, right around the Jeffrey Epstein stuff when I’m trying to think of whose name it was. 

Who was that girl that was just fired? She was fired. It wasn’t cnn actually. Who was that girl that was just fired for having the affair with her co-host? It was her. She was she was talking behind the scenes. Oh, was it Good Morning America. Oh, it was Amy Robach, Amy Robach producer Matt, for the win right here in my ear. It was Amy Robach. Amy Robach was caught hot on set. You guys remember this? Caught on hot set talking about how she had a smoking gun on Jeffrey Epstein. And she was talking about how the network wouldn’t allow her to air that because they wanted to get an interview with William and Kate’s, and if they embarrassed the Royal family by bringing in Prince Andrew at all to the Jeffrey Epstein’s stuff. And this was associated with the story that she had. 

She was claiming that she had, then the network believed that they wouldn’t get that interview that they really, really wanted with the Young Royals. this was recorded on a hot set, and the network did not deliberately give this to another media apparatus. This was an employee that cut this off the server because he or she thought it was a really bombshell story and released it publicly. That’s not what happened here with Fox News and these Tucker Carlson videos. This was not a rogue employee that independently took this footage off server, because if that were the case, then Fox News would’ve condemned it as a breach of the employee’s NDA and and employment contract. And they would’ve, they would’ve said that it was a violation. They would’ve come to the defense of maybe not the content of what Tucker said, if they didn’t want to defend the content, but at least the act by that employee. 

We didn’t hear anything from Fox News in that regard at all. So the next likely scenario is that this release was sanctioned, that somebody gave the A-OK for this footage deliberately to be leaked to media matters in an attempt to tarnish Tucker Carlson. And if that is the case, if someone sanctioned was most likely Irena Briganti. Irena Briganti is someone who’s worked for a long time at Fox News. Megyn Kelly has talked at length about this woman. She’s she’s in charge of the media relations department, but really, she’s a more colloquial way of describing her. According to Megyn Kelly would be the hatchet of Fox News. She not only manages relations regarding Fox News, she allegedly reportedly keeps talent in line by collecting an opposition dossier on them while they work there and using that against them in the media if they cross Fox News executives at any point, in any way at any time. 

And this includes tarnishing the reputation of almost every Fox News personality who has left Fox News for almost any reason. it’s kind of crazy to think about this. If you haven’t heard Megyn Kelly’s broader descriptions of this woman, it might be worth going to Megyn Kelly’s podcast and listening to it. Fox News does this deliberately. This is sanctioned by the executive team, this woman’s work, which still doesn’t answer the question of why are they doing this to Tucker Carlson? It might answer, okay, it’s been done deliberately and maybe who was in charge of doing this, but the why, why would Fox News release this? Especially when these videos are nothing when they’re, they’re, they’re nothing. They’re nothing Burger. that’s a more interesting question, right? That’s a more interesting question. And it shows for one that they’re at this point acting in a way that is out of touch with their fan base. 

A lot of Fox viewers are Fox viewers at this point because of Tucker Carlson. And every reaction that you will see to these videos online because they were released online, not on a cable news channel, is almost overwhelmingly positive from conservatives. Conservatives think they’re hilarious. These videos are a hoot. Tucker Carlson is a really funny guy, and there’s nothing offensive about the things that he said, even in a workplace environment that to pretend that there is just tells me that you’re a snowflake, right? They’re out of touch with their fan base. But on a broader level than that, Fox News does release negative stories or plants, negative stories after talent, especially higher level talent leaves perhaps in order to communicate to the conservative media sphere as a whole. That there is nothing beyond Fox News. And this goes back to what I said a couple minutes ago when I said, well, Fox News for a long time has been thought to be the pinnacle of conservative media because they are the largest and the most powerful and the most influential conservative media organization in the country. 

And Fox wants to protect that reputation. And part of the way that they do that is trying to destroy talent when talent is on its way out. so that existing talent and talent that doesn’t work there yet believe that there’s nothing left for them beyond Fox News, that if they leave Fox News, it’s over, their career is over. And that’s been an effective strategy that Fox has employed over the past several decades. There are many Fox personalities who were very prominent, very popular at Fox. They left Fox for sometimes obvious reasons, sometimes undisclosed reasons, and that was it. They were done. There was no more employment in conservative media, especially on camera after Fox News. And that’s something that Fox wants to protect. If Tugger Carlson goes on to do what I suspect he will do, and that is go independent and create his own media empire, a streaming deal, a podcast, you know, in the likes of what Megyn Kelly has done or what Dave Rubin has done, or what Glen Greenwald is doing on Rumble. 

Like all of these media personalities that have built these independent empires, what we’re doing right here, you and I together then Fox News has lost their monopoly on conservative media. And that’s something that scares Fox News to the point that they perhaps release these videos to try to tarnish Tucker Carlson to diminish the influence that he will inevitably have in whatever he attempts to do next. So, again, speculation. Yes, this is my analysis, and I know a lot of people are, I know I’m gonna get a lot of texts after this from people in the industry that are like, Ooh, be careful what you say about Fox. You know, you know the ramifications of that. And you know, I don’t care about that. I don’t care about that. I don’t pledge fil to any person, anything, any institution besides God in my own family. 

This is just my objective analysis. This is, I saw these videos, I thought they were hilarious. I don’t think they tarnish Tucker’s reputation at all. I see the reaction from conservatives, especially on Twitter. It’s overwhelmingly positive. I wondered, okay, well who gave these videos to media matters and why? What could be the motive of this? That’s what went on in my head today, and I thought I would share that with you. I’m interested in your takes, though. So send me, send me your messages, send me your emails right into me. Go to LizWheelerShow.com/Locals, or LizWheeler.com and go to that comment section. Go to that contact form and let me know what you think. out in Hollywood, out in Hollywood, the writers are striking. The Writer’s Guild of America officially went on strike yesterday against the Alliance of Motion picture and television producers. 

And maybe you’re thinking, well, I don’t really care what happens in Hollywood. I don’t really care what Hollywood does to itself. And I totally feel you on that. Hollywood writers have gone on strike. It’s officially the Writer’s Guild of America. It’s actually a labor dispute. Is what’s happening more officially. The Writer’s Guild of America is striking against the Alliance of Motion picture and television producers. And maybe you’re thinking blah, blah, blah, no one cares, Liz. This has implications that impact our entire country and the economy of our country and the security of our country. So let’s walk through a couple of thoughts that I had about this. First of all, this is how the Writer’s Guild of America announced their strike. They tweeted the board of directors of the W G A West and the Council of the W g A East acting upon the authority granted to them by their memberships have voted unanimously to call a strike effective at 12:01 AM Tuesday May 2nd. 

They tweeted this at 11:38. so what is that, 23 minutes prior to when the strike would begin? They say the decision was made following six weeks of negotiating with Netflix, Amazon, apple, Disney, NBCUniversal, paramount Plus and Sony under the umbrella of the AMPTP, they say throughout our negotiating committee. Although our negotiating committee began this process, intent on making a fair deal, the studio’s responses have been wholly insufficient, giving the existential crisis writers are facing, picketing will begin tomorrow. The existential crisis writers are facing. Hold on to that phrase cuz we’re gonna come back to that phrase, but I wanna just journey back for a a couple minutes. A lot of us are gonna remember the last time that the writers staged a strike here, because yes, this is something that they do and they do again because they’re Hollywood and they’re leftists. 

But the last time that this happened, a couple of funny things happened. First of all, almost immediately after the writers announced yesterday that they were gonna go on strike, Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert and Seth Myers, their shows shut down. They immediately said, Nope, we’re not gonna continue with our productions because we don’t have writers. I gotta tell you guys, I laughed so hard when I saw this cause I was like, oh, these are supposed to be the funniest guys in the business, aren’t they? And they can’t go on air for even just a little while without having a writer. I don’t have a writer. I don’t have a, I don’t have someone writing my lines. I get up here and I talk because I know what I’m talking about and I know what I wanna say to you. We have this conversation, but these guys can’t even go a week on a writer’s strike, a day one show on a writer strike. 

No, they have to call it off. contrast that to the last time the writers did a strike. Conan O’Brien, who may, I don’t agree with him on all his politics, obviously, but I think without a doubt, he is the most talented late night host on air. He’s the most talented cuz he’s actually funny. He actually is talented, contrasted with the others. The last time that the writers went on strike, Conan had, well, ostensibly had nothing to say sitting up there on his desk, right? So he is sitting up there, he’s just kind of spitballing with the audience. He’s trying to entertain people without having sketches and skits and one-liners and jokes and stories and narratives and all the stuff that writers do prepared. And what he does instead, as he entertains his audience by spinning his wedding ring on the desk in front of him, and well creating a contest with himself to see how long he could keep the ring spinning. And I gotta tell ya, I watched this whole video earlier, just in preparation for this show. And this is so much more entertaining. This is hilarious. It’s so much more entertaining than any of the other shows that this writer strike have gone off air. Take a look at this. 

I think that was in Blazing Saddles. All right, here we go. Susie, are you ready to time this? We’re going for 41 seconds. If we do it, this will be television history. Susie, you ready to go? I’m ready. Okay. You excited, Susie? 

Yes. Good luck. 

Not a genuine bone in her body. Hang on, try and get a good spin. If I don’t, I’ll start all over again. Band, I hope you’re ready. Here we go. And that’s a good spin. That’s a good spin. 

Oh yeah. Stop. Cut. 

The ring is spinning closer and closer to the edge of the desk, and Conan puts his face down, levels the ring to blow it backwards without 

Stopping, its spinning. 

Hold on. 

Hold Susie Santa, what was the time on that spin? That looked like a good spin to me. 

36 seconds. 

36. I thought I had it Pender. What was that sound you made when I lost

It’s hard enough without writers to lose a ring spin, but then to have a horse laugh at me, ultimate indignity, 

Forget, trust me, there’s time to do it again. 

Let’s not be in a rush to do it right away. 

Like that’s actually more entertaining than any of the late night shows that are currently, that are currently shutting down their production because they don’t have writers. Because Kona O’Brien is actually a genuinely talented, wicked, funny guy. I thought that was so funny. but that of course does not play into play into what we’re talking about. I just saw that video, wanted to show it to you. I do wanna talk about the larger implications of this writer’s strike, though. it’s a terrible time for Hollywood to have to weather a writer’s strike because many of their productions, most of their productions shut down during the Covid lockdowns. They were not able to produce their shows and their movies, just like the rest of us weren’t able to go to work because the government officials in charge of our states had locked us down and prohibited us from going to work. 

Or you know, making a living Hollywood was not an exception to that rule. So for Hollywood to have to weather that again, is a really, is a really big deal. Because what happened during Covid is the streaming services saw their business go way up because why people were at their homes. People were people were watching Netflix and Hulu and all of that during COVID instead of going to theaters instead of, instead of well watching stuff on TV because there wasn’t anything new on TV. It was all just reruns of stuff. So in a sense, Hollywood is self-destructing now because instead of competing in this marketplace, they’re just giving away their market share. Who are they giving away their market share to? We’ll talk about that in just a second. But in general, if you look at, if you look at our economy, our entertainment that we produced used to be our number two export that shocks a lot of people. 

But it used to be something that not only made a lot of money for Hollywood stars, the reason it made a lot of money for Hollywood stars, for, for movie stars and actors and actresses and directors and producers, is because of the consumer base, which wasn’t just here in the United States. It was all around the world. It was all around the world. Now, I don’t know if it’s the number two export anymore but it used to be, it’s, it’s still considered in the entertainment industry, if you’re an actor, an actress, if you’re a director or producer, even if you’re famous in another country, you haven’t really made it in entertainment until you’ve made it here in the United States until you’ve made it in Hollywood. We were the world leader in entertainment, which you can argue that Hollywood has been a destructive force because they’ve always been a propaganda arm. 

That’s a valid argument to make. One that I would probably agree with to a certain extent, but it’s also, Hollywood has also allowed us to have, I don’t wanna call it a monopoly, because it isn’t, it isn’t rooted in corruption, but we have owned the market on entertainment around the entire world, which ultimately is a force for good. Because American values and American standard of living in movies that we export all around the world have shown other countries what it is to be American. Again, you can make an argument that there’s always been propaganda inserted into movies. That’s true. I mean, Hollywood during the Ronald Reagan years was literally, literally rife with communists. However, I don’t think that that diminishes the good that Hollywood has done right now, Hollywood by doing this, is putting that putting our leadership, America’s leadership in the entertainment industry, the global entertainment industry at risk. 

Mark my words. Hollywood is going to have a very hard time recovering from this. It might just seem like a labor dispute. It might just seem like a writer strike. But Hollywood is going to have a hard time regaining their status as the world leader in entertainment because of this strike. The reason for this strike, let’s talk about that for a second. The reason for this strike is because Democrats are Democrats. It’s because liberals are entitled brats. It’s because the Hollywood the Hollywood, the people controlling Hollywood are so far to the Left, they’ve become woke. And this has obviously impacted the way that they do business. These writers are acting entitled to certain demands from studios and refusing to work unless they get these demands. But what are these demands? What are, what are, what are they actually, what’s the dispute here? Where’s the line of disagreement according to deadline reporting, the primary sticking points in negotiations between the Writer’s Guild and these studios are quote, mandatory staffing and quote, the duration of employment. 

So what that actually means, translated into just regular every day. What does this mean? That means that writers want to want a guarantee of a certain number of writers on every project and a certain length of time that they will be employed per project. Even if, say, a project only needs five writers, they want a guarantee of 10 writers on every project. Just, just an arbitrary number I’m pulling. And even if a project only takes two weeks to write, they want guaranteed salary for two months. They’re demanding mandatory staffing and duration of employment, and studios are saying, no, we’re not gonna do that. So what this is, is you might think, well, that’s a really stupid reason to actually have a strike. That’s a stupid reason to have a standoff. And you’d be, it’s absolutely a stupid reason to, for Hollywood to self-destruct the way that it is. 

But this is what I, what I meant when I said this is Democrats being Democrats. Democrats are entitled brats. They think that they are owed something because they want that thing instead of letting the market drive the market drive what they are paid based on the quality and value of their work. That’s the, that’s the ultimate problem with the left here. And so what’s what’s happening to sum this up is the leftists in Hollywood are sacrificing American leadership in entertainment for the silly woke demands of the entitled brats who make up the Writers Guild of America. We have seen the decline of Hollywood happen in our nation for decades now. And sometimes conservatives celebrate this because Hollywood is so leftist. Hollywood is, there’s such propaganda for increasingly neo-Marxist ideology. but when I say, said before that Hollywood’s gonna have a hard time recovering from this strike, I wanna show you a couple of a couple of statistics that substantiate what I’m saying. 

So if you use the Oscars, for example, as an indicator of the prominence of Hollywood, whether Hollywood is still viewed as the pinnacle of entertainment or whether people have lost interest in Hollywood, if you use the Oscars, and as an indicator over the past 20 years, ratings for the Oscars, people watching the Oscars on television have gone from 40 million viewers. That’s a whole heck of a lot of people to just under 20 million viewers. That means if it was a steady scale on a graduated scale, that’s a, they’ve hemorrhaged over a million viewers of the Oscars every year for the last 20 years in 2014. By the way, it’s not actually the steady scale. In 2014, they had 43 million viewers watching the Oscars, and now they have under 20 million people who watch. So the Oscars isn’t the only indicator, but it is one indicator because it used to be the event of all events. 

 some people are gonna say, okay, but that’s not because of the decline of Hollywood. That’s just because streaming has become so popular. People don’t necessarily tune into network TV to see, to see the Oscars. That’s not true, because if you look at some other events that are just broadcast on cable or on network TV those ratings have not similarly declined the way that the Oscars have. You can look at sports, for example. Look at the Super Bowl over the same amount of time, super Bowl ratings have remained mostly static, aside from a little bit of little bit of an erratic period when, when the NFL was getting really woke with Colin Kaepernick and Black Lives Matter and all of that. But in fact, the Super Bowl ratings have, aside from that, trended upward in the same amount of time. 

So it’s not that people who previously watched the Oscars just turned to streaming services and no longer watched television because the same would apply to the Super Bowl if that was true. And the same did not apply to the Super Bowl. So we have something else at play here. at the same time, you can see, you can look back to the 1994 strike of Major League Baseball, right? Look at the World Series. The World Series was canceled, right? This unthinkable thing happened. The World Series was canceled previously. The World Series drew 30 million viewers, 30 million Americans, 30 million people tuned in to watch the World Series. And that was before the 1994 strike. And afterwards, that viewership never returned. That viewership never returned. Why? Well, perhaps because the this this strike, the cancellation of the World Series people at home, you and I thought, well, if you don’t take your own championship seriously enough to seriously enough, if you would, if you’re willing to cancel it, why should, if you don’t care about it, why should we care about it? 

Right? But it never recovered after that strike. Never by contrast. You can look at other sports here. You don’t just have to look at at the Super Bowl or the World Series, you can look at other sports. NBA, the NBA’s viewership has always been a little bit contingent on whether there’s general excitement in the population about specific teams. But overall, it’s remained fairly static. The NHL viewership has remained fairly static. Again, there’s always little, little ups and downs here. Golf, if you control for Tiger Woods, who of course is the anomaly, then golf viewership has remained pretty static. So look at the World Series. They had a strike canceled the World Series, and their viewership never recovered. And you look at the Oscars, and over the past 20 years, specifically after the last writer’s strike, you saw this enormous decline in viewership. 

So when I say Hollywood’s going to have a difficult time surviving this, I’m being very serious here. Hollywood is going better, be very careful if they wanna survive because they don’t have a monopoly on entertainment anymore. They don’t have this pillow to be idiots and expect peop expect us to still tune into the products that they produce. Because Hollywood now has com has competitors like YouTube, right? They have competitors like Joe Rogan’s podcast. They have competitors like all the new media, the stuff that we produce, that we consume, people will just turn elsewhere if they disregard us to the point that they’re willing to shut down production over silly woke entitled Brat Demands. Hollywood is going to have a hard time recovering for this. And again, maybe you’re thinking, well, I don’t care what happens to Hollywood. I don’t, I don’t, I don’t agree with Hollywood’s politics. 

I think that they’re a destructive force. And all that may be true except for the fact that entertainment is one of our largest exports. It’s the part of the backbone of our economy and it’s part of how we spread American messages around the world. It’s how we, it’s how people in other countries know what’s happening in our country. It’s how know what American values are and what American standard of living is. and the results of these leftists, these liberals, these Democrats striking these writers striking over silly woke demands, the result of this entitled nonsense is America becomes less dominant in one industry globally. That’s not good for our country. That’s bad for our country because someone else or something else will step in to fill that vacuum will step in to fill that market demand. And I guarantee you it’s not gonna be content that that is favorable to America. It’s not gonna be content that increases wealth in our country. It’s going to serve the ideology and the agenda of some other country. And it’s at the same time going to fill the pockets of powerful people outside of the United States of America. 

It is not good. Not good. What is happening over silly woke demands no less Bud Light. I wanna touch on this quickly before we ran outta time. Bud Light announced that or Layton announce we saw Bud Light’s not exactly going to put out a press relief bragging about this statistic. Bud Light sales have dropped 26% in the week that ended in April 22nd, 26% in that week. The previous week their sales had dropped 21% and the week before that, their sales dropped 11%. So what this tells us is this boycott is just getting started. It’s not losing its legs, it’s not petering out. It’s not waiting for the storm to pass. This boycott means business. This boycott, this is such wonderful news, and I’m not, I’m not sitting here celebrating that Bud Light, Anheuser Busch is being devastated. I don’t want to see them devastated. 

I don’t want to see a business go under unnecessarily. Anheuser Busch has lost 8% in sales overall for the year. And this is just in this short amount of time since this, since this began, since they gave that partnership, that sponsorship to transgender TikTok Star, Dylan Mulvaney. But the point of recognizing how enormous these numbers are, 26% drop in sales in the week ending in April 22nd, is to recognize that this is the playbook. Conservatives, we must recognize this is the playbook. This is what we must do when a company goes woke. We must leverage our power as consumers to devastate that company so that that company and every other company in our country watching, knows the consequences of embracing neo-Marxist ideology. This is one of the most powerful things conservatives have done in a long time. I am so proud of every conservative who not only engaged in this boycott, but rejected the Republican establishment narrative, telling them that, oh, Anheuser Bush has given, you know, half a million dollars to some Republican candidates and some Democrat candidates in the last election cycle. 

No, no. We said, no, no, we’re not gonna sell little children’s body in our country to Marxism for half a million dollars in one election cycle. This is the playbook. If we replicate this playbook, we actually stand a chance of fighting back against ESG, against corporate wokeness against the radical leftists who actually hate us. It’s not cancel culture either. Cancel culture is digging up tweets from when someone was in high school and trying to make sure that they’re fired from their jobs because of something they said when they were an idiot. 15 year old. This is not cancel culture. This is not trying to ostracize a conservative for being a conservative. Have a medical provider fired because he won’t commit abortions. Have a cake baker take into court because he won’t use his free speech to create an art piece, a cake that glorifies something, celebrates something that is he’s opposed to religiously. This is not cancel culture. This is using our power as consumers, using our money and our voices to vote for the values that we want to be the foundation of our nation. Keep it up. Thank you for watching. Thank you for listening. I’m Liz Wheeler. This is The Liz Wheeler Show.