Money Talks, Woke 'Batgirl' Environmentalism Walks
"Cut the crap." That's what the money men have started to say to the Leftist ninnies who have gotten used to telling them what to do. It's getting fun to watch.
The best example is the ruthless work being done by David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery. Upon taking the reins of the newly created entity -- a product of the merger of the two corporations -- Zaslav wasted no time pulling the plug on the company's $300 million CNN+ streaming service just three weeks after it had launched! Everyone could see that CNN+ was off to a rocky start, but the quick hook was clearly meant as a company-wide warning to anyone who thought he/she/it wasn't expendable.
Since then, Zaslav has made it known that he wants CNN to get back to its hard news roots, rather than indulging in the fanatical progressive bilge that has characterized its programing for many years. The other day he fired one of the faces of the network, Brian Stelter, and cancelled his show Reliable Sources, known mainly for reliably repeating the Democratic Party's every talking point.
Stelter: so long, Tater.
Zaslav also sent shockwaves through the entertainment industry when he cancelled the release of Batgirl, a multimillion dollar superhero flick (of course), because it was way overbudget and test audiences were hating it. Zaslav's options were to either write a blank check for rewrites and reshoots or else just to put the whole project down as a tax write-off, guaranteeing it would never see the light of day. He chose the latter. And that despite Hollywood's shrieking that it was a "bad look" to cancel a superhero movie with a minority woman lead. But that was the point -- for Zaslav, the race-swapping, female empowerment angle meant nothing. He only cared about whether it would make money, and the answer was no.
Similarly, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon made waves recently when he spoke in defense of investing in oil and, especially, natural gas. Speaking to a gathering of journalists and investors Dimon asked rhetorically, “Why can’t we get it through our thick skulls" that American oil and gas production can help us hit emission reduction targets, and thus ultimately is good for the environment. Continued Dimon, "because of high oil and gas prices, the world is turning back on their coal plants. It is dirtier.”
Of course, environmentalist policies and anti-fossil fuel ESG investing trends are a big reason for those high prices. And, as Joan Sammon has discussed here at The Pipeline, Dimon's own company has been one the biggest proponents of the ESG fraud. Still, in this instance, he's absolutely right -- our present energy crisis, which can be blamed as much on our ruling class's fanatical devotion to so-called renewable energy as on Russia's war in Ukraine, has left countries throughout the world searching desperately for reliable alternate energy sources, and the one they've landed on is coal, the consumption of which is projected to return to 2013 levels by the end of the year. Transitioning from coal to natural gas, made possible by the fracking revolution, has led to America leading the world in emissions reductions since the turn of the century. The transition from natural gas to wind and solar has, in practice, meant the triumphant return of coal.
Look what's back.
Environmentalists quickly responded to Dimon's statement by claiming he cared more about his company's investments than the environment. But the obvious response is -- why can't it be both? Dimon knows that his company has been transitioning away from the resource sector mainly to appease the activist class, which is bad for both his bottom line and emission reduction targets. When the economy is booming, he can afford to indulge them. But in the face of an impending recession, he has to start speaking some hard truths, even if it pisses off some culture warriors.
Keep it up boys, its good for the crybabies to be told "no" every once in awhile.
