Latest / The Bill Handel Show / Paramount-Warner Bros. Deal on Hold | Newsom’s Return-to-Office Mandate
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
- 0:04Speaker 1: six FORTYFI.
- 0:12Speaker 2: AM six forty Bill Handle here Taco Tuesday, July twenty
- 0:17Speaker 2: once some of those, some of the big stories were carrying.
- 0:24Speaker 2: There's a Santa career girl, age three, bitten by a
- 0:26Speaker 2: rattlesnake hiding under an Amazon package at her house. WHOA
- 0:35Speaker 2: how about that? And right now they're looking at FedEx
- 0:39Speaker 2: as potential suspects. I think that works. Defense Secretary Pete
- 0:45Speaker 2: heck Sath is going to appear in front of Congress
- 0:48Speaker 2: today and he is going to accuse all of these
- 0:52Speaker 2: Congress people of being woosy boys in not allowing him
- 0:56Speaker 2: to deal with the military as he wants to. Now,
- 0:59Speaker 2: a story about the Paramount Warner Brothers deal, the merger
- 1:04Speaker 2: on hold right now. A federal judge temporarily blocked Paramount
- 1:10Speaker 2: sky Dance's efforts to complete the purchase of Warner Brothers Discovery,
- 1:15Speaker 2: ruling that the proposed one hundred and eleven billion dollar
- 1:18Speaker 2: merger largest merger in history of media. Of course, it
- 1:21Speaker 2: raises serious questions about whether this purchase violates US anti
- 1:27Speaker 2: trust law. So the judge are Seally Martinez Old Queen
- 1:32Speaker 2: out of Oakland granted a request for a temporary restaining order,
- 1:36Speaker 2: not from the government of the United States. Usually when
- 1:40Speaker 2: there is an antitrust action, the federal government can sue.
- 1:45Speaker 2: In this case, federal government is in favor of the merger.
- 1:50Speaker 2: So you have a coalition of twelve state attorneys attorneys
- 1:54Speaker 2: general led by our Attorney General Rob Bonta, to freeze
- 2:00Speaker 2: the deal, asking the court to look at it very carefully.
- 2:04Speaker 2: And so the order pauses the deal for fourteen days,
- 2:08Speaker 2: and what it does is basically slows down everything until
- 2:13Speaker 2: August third. And at that point she's going to consider
- 2:17Speaker 2: emotion for preliminary injunction, and it's complicated stuff. And if
- 2:22Speaker 2: she grants that motion for preliminary preliminary injunction, that could
- 2:27Speaker 2: tie up the deal for months and then there'll be
- 2:29Speaker 2: a trial. And Bonta said, this is a critical test
- 2:34Speaker 2: first win in our case to ensure this Megamurcher never
- 2:37Speaker 2: sees the light of day. History tells the tale of
- 2:41Speaker 2: what happens when a few people have great power over
- 2:44Speaker 2: markets that are central to Americans lives, fewer opportunities for
- 2:49Speaker 2: more people, worse products and services for all people. Of course,
- 2:54Speaker 2: paramount is saying, oh no, it's going to be more competition,
- 3:01Speaker 2: it's going to be better service, it is going to
- 3:04Speaker 2: be cheaper for the American consumer, which I don't understand
- 3:08Speaker 2: at all. You have two companies, for example, that merge
- 3:13Speaker 2: and therefore there's more competition between one company than there
- 3:19Speaker 2: are between two companies. Explain that one to me. And
- 3:23Speaker 2: this is combining two film studios Harry Potter, Batman, Scooby Doo.
- 3:28Speaker 2: How much is Scooby Doo worth? Boy, there's billions of
- 3:31Speaker 2: dollars for Scooby Doo. Also Game of Thrones, I mean
- 3:37Speaker 2: that is a franchise, and then that would all be
- 3:40Speaker 2: combined with HBO, CNN, HGTV. If you want to rebuild
- 3:46Speaker 2: your house, it's one hundred years old. And this is
- 3:49Speaker 2: a day David Ellison and his son, actually his son,
- 3:53Speaker 2: they want to finalize this merger and it has the
- 3:56Speaker 2: support of President Trump. Of course it does. And Ellison
- 4:00Speaker 2: wants to complete the deal by September because the deal
- 4:03Speaker 2: between Warner Brothers and Paramount calls for a I think
- 4:07Speaker 2: it's two hundred and something million dollar payout. Late payment
- 4:15Speaker 2: goes to Warner Brothers. The deal doesn't carry so if
- 4:18Speaker 2: it's four months down. It's a billion dollars that's going
- 4:20Speaker 2: to be in penalties. Paramount says, all this does is
- 4:25Speaker 2: simply preserve the status quo. Because Paramount has already pledged
- 4:29Speaker 2: to do in court papers to hold off finalizing transaction,
- 4:33Speaker 2: Then why is it pitching to speed it up. Larry Ellison,
- 4:38Speaker 2: who founded the giant Oracle Massive Corporation, is bankroll super billionaires,
- 4:44Speaker 2: bankrolling his son's ambitions to acquire this second major entertainment company. Now,
- 4:50Speaker 2: this second company once bought now and this is the issue.
- 4:56Speaker 2: And the judge only looked at the film part of
- 5:00Speaker 2: the lawsuit, not the broadcast, none of that, just the
- 5:03Speaker 2: film part, and looked at the company will now own
- 5:08Speaker 2: or now control twenty seven percent of the market of
- 5:13Speaker 2: films that are initially released into about three thousand theaters.
- 5:18Speaker 2: And this is a quote from the judge on this
- 5:20Speaker 2: combined firm market share alone, just the movie part. The
- 5:24Speaker 2: court is persuaded that it can presume the proposed mergery
- 5:28Speaker 2: is likely to violate antitrust laws. It doesn't bode well
- 5:34Speaker 2: for Paramount in its purchase of Warner Brothers. By the way,
- 5:38Speaker 2: both stocks are down, just to let you know, I
- 5:41Speaker 2: think paramount is that it is it's lowest level this year. Okay, Now,
- 5:50Speaker 2: the return to work, the entire subject is really controversial.
- 5:57Speaker 2: One of well, let me put it this way. Gavin
- 5:59Speaker 2: Newsom is up at the top of the governors who
- 6:04Speaker 2: want state workers to return to work. They must report
- 6:10Speaker 2: four days a week under an executive order from Newsom.
- 6:13Speaker 2: Other states allow a lot more remote working. And this
- 6:19Speaker 2: is an interesting issue because Newsom is tougher on public
- 6:23Speaker 2: employees than, for example, Greg Abbott in Texas. Now, greg
- 6:29Speaker 2: Abbott originally in twenty twenty five he had a ban
- 6:32Speaker 2: on all remote work for state employees. Everybody had to
- 6:35Speaker 2: go to work five days a week. Strong opposition from workers,
- 6:40Speaker 2: and so what greg Abbott did is reverse himself. Newsom
- 6:46Speaker 2: also strong opposition. He's not going to back down, and boy,
- 6:50Speaker 2: it has upset a lot of state workers who are
- 6:54Speaker 2: calling the governor scrap that four day a week off
- 6:57Speaker 2: in office policy. And this is the time there renew
- 7:00Speaker 2: labor agreements. Also, these workers that are fighting Newsome on this,
- 7:06Speaker 2: they are allies of the governor. They help them fight
- 7:10Speaker 2: that recall in twenty twenty one, they encourage their members
- 7:14Speaker 2: to vote for him and this is the big issue.
- 7:20Speaker 2: They maintain that remote work is just as effective at
- 7:25Speaker 2: working at home, and they say that was proved when
- 7:29Speaker 2: Newsom ordered them to work from home during COVID. Now
- 7:34Speaker 2: this is where it gets very interesting because Newsom has
- 7:38Speaker 2: said that if everybody returns to work, and we've talked
- 7:43Speaker 2: about that, what ends up happening when everybody's at work, well,
- 7:47Speaker 2: socializing the water cooler philosophy. You talk to people, you
- 7:52Speaker 2: have interaction where if you're remoting, you don't zoom. Meetings
- 7:57Speaker 2: do not have the same effect as in person meetings.
- 8:01Speaker 2: They're just not as good. So the governor says that,
- 8:05Speaker 2: and a lot of us believe that, and I've said
- 8:07Speaker 2: that all the time is in person work, even though
- 8:12Speaker 2: it is much more of a hassle than remote because
- 8:15Speaker 2: you're driving in, you have to shower. Usually the KNO
- 8:22Speaker 2: is nodding his head except for the showering part. And
- 8:26Speaker 2: KNO has a one hour commute. If CONO could work
- 8:28Speaker 2: at home, I'm assuming KNO, you would work at home
- 8:31Speaker 2: in a heartbeat if you could. Yeah, two hour commute
- 8:35Speaker 2: every day. And so it's a remote work and people
- 8:39Speaker 2: have their own hours for the most part, and they
- 8:41Speaker 2: can take a break, be with their kids, etc. Don't
- 8:44Speaker 2: have to pay for daycare, which is out of reach
- 8:46Speaker 2: for so many people. So the argument is that remoting
- 8:51Speaker 2: for a lot of workers is better. The governor says, no,
- 8:54Speaker 2: we want four days a week inside and he comes
- 8:57Speaker 2: up with all those reasons socialization. Well, here's the problem.
- 9:02Speaker 2: Science has looked into this. There are real studies that
- 9:05Speaker 2: have been done and it turns out that opposite of
- 9:11Speaker 2: anecdotal stories that the ability for people to work from home,
- 9:18Speaker 2: the efficiency, the productivity is no different. It's the same.
- 9:26Speaker 2: So the argument that oh, it's socialization is better interacting
- 9:30Speaker 2: with people, the social intercourse makes you more productive, does not.
- 9:34Speaker 2: It is a croc it's just the way people think.
- 9:38Speaker 2: So big fight going on right now the SCIU, which
- 9:45Speaker 2: is the Big Service Employees International Union Local one thousand,
- 9:49Speaker 2: large estate worker union representing ninety six thousand employees. They're
- 9:53Speaker 2: in contract negotiations and they are saying we want remote work.
- 9:58Speaker 2: It saves tax tax payers, employees money, reduces traffic, lowers
- 10:03Speaker 2: emissions without affecting productivity, And point to the studies that
- 10:08Speaker 2: say exactly that Newsome is not backing down. He is
- 10:15Speaker 2: effectively saying too bad. And so at this point SCIU
- 10:22Speaker 2: one thousand or one thousand has donated two million dollars
- 10:25Speaker 2: to current members of the legislature who are pushing for
- 10:29Speaker 2: remote work. And we'll see more now. I like you know,
- 10:35Speaker 2: for example, I see my shrink remotely. I talk to
- 10:42Speaker 2: my doctor remotely, and even talk to my proctologists remotely,
- 10:48Speaker 2: and we do that on an iPad. Now it's as
- 10:54Speaker 2: he asks to look at my issues that iPad gets
- 10:58Speaker 2: a little uncomfortable. I have to tell you, there's no
- 11:00Speaker 2: question about that. But it is far more efficient, especially
- 11:07Speaker 2: when I'm in the waiting room at the at the
- 11:11Speaker 2: hospital at Kaiser, where people are hawking up all kinds
- 11:14Speaker 2: of diseases and flem is flying and they have open,
- 11:18Speaker 2: superating sores that are just pouring out pus and disgusting stuff.
- 11:25Speaker 2: I really should invite you to join me in the
- 11:28Speaker 2: waiting room working for a doctor. Remote work. It seems
- 11:33Speaker 2: to work, okay, Neil A Dodger mentioned.
- 11:39Speaker 3: Indeed, your official home for Dodgers Baseball is AM five
- 11:43Speaker 3: seventy LA Sports. This afternoon, you're back to back world
- 11:47Speaker 3: champion Dodgers take on the Phillies in Philadelphia with first
- 11:51Speaker 3: pitch at three forty Listen on AM five seven ELA
- 11:55Speaker 3: Sports and streaming on the iHeartRadio app live from the
- 11:59Speaker 3: Gallpin Ford Broadcast Booze.
- 12:02Speaker 2: Okay, a word about what's going on with the Trump administration.
- 12:06Speaker 2: And for those of you that think that I am
- 12:08Speaker 2: anti anti anti anti Trump constantly, I agree with him
- 12:13Speaker 2: on certain points. And there is one issue going on
- 12:16Speaker 2: right now that I agree with what the President is doing,
- 12:20Speaker 2: at least in principle. Now, as I have said, maybe
- 12:25Speaker 2: he goes occasionally too far like all the time. And
- 12:29Speaker 2: this one has to be has to do with the
- 12:32Speaker 2: administration looking at some green card seekers, people that want
- 12:39Speaker 2: to come in the United States and ask for a
- 12:42Speaker 2: green card, and usually the green card is asked for
- 12:45Speaker 2: overseas from whatever country they're coming from. For example, my
- 12:50Speaker 2: parents got their green card in Brazil to come to
- 12:53Speaker 2: the United States. So here's what the State Department is developing.
- 12:59Speaker 2: They're developing a policy saying that immigrants who moved to
- 13:03Speaker 2: the United States have to be able to support themselves.
- 13:09Speaker 2: And I agree with that because again, let me go
- 13:13Speaker 2: back to my parents. Okay, they applied for a green
- 13:16Speaker 2: card to coming the United States as resident aliens. Green
- 13:19Speaker 2: card holders, which by the way, the card is now pink,
- 13:23Speaker 2: and they were asked they had to prove that they
- 13:26Speaker 2: were not going to be on the public dole and
- 13:29Speaker 2: they were going to add to the United States versus
- 13:33Speaker 2: taking away, in other words, their space. They're coming in
- 13:36Speaker 2: had to be positive for the US. And one of
- 13:40Speaker 2: the things is do you have enough money to support yourself?
- 13:43Speaker 2: Do you have a job? They didn't and they had
- 13:46Speaker 2: no money. However, the Counselor office weighs various other factors,
- 13:52Speaker 2: and my parents came in with two very good skills,
- 13:56Speaker 2: my mother being a dentist, my dad being an electrical engineer,
- 14:00Speaker 2: and there was no problem getting in the United States,
- 14:02Speaker 2: although my mother was not allowed to practice dentistry in
- 14:06Speaker 2: the US because they didn't honor foreign dentistry diplomas and certifications,
- 14:12Speaker 2: and my dad couldn't get a job as an electrical
- 14:15Speaker 2: engineer because the language was a real issue for my dad.
- 14:19Speaker 2: He was here for fifty five years and sounded like
- 14:21Speaker 2: he got off the boat yesterday afternoon. However, their skill
- 14:24Speaker 2: set allowed them to come into the country where the
- 14:28Speaker 2: United States said, okay, my dad started digging ditches. By
- 14:31Speaker 2: the way, when it came to the United States. That's
- 14:34Speaker 2: the only job he had, and my mother became a
- 14:37Speaker 2: lab technologist and did it for free for a while,
- 14:42Speaker 2: just to be able to walk into a hospital and
- 14:45Speaker 2: say I want to get higher. She ended up working
- 14:47Speaker 2: for the county and my dad ended up being a
- 14:50Speaker 2: union electrician. So they did just fine, nice middle class existence.
- 14:56Speaker 2: So that made sense. And what Trump is is doing
- 15:01Speaker 2: is saying, if you're applying to come into the United States,
- 15:05Speaker 2: you must prove that you have the financial wherewithal so
- 15:12Speaker 2: you don't go on the dole. So we don't so
- 15:15Speaker 2: the resources of the United States are not going to
- 15:17Speaker 2: be used to support you at all. Now that makes sense,
- 15:21Speaker 2: I mean to me, it's very logical. And a lot
- 15:25Speaker 2: of countries insist before you even go in as a tourist,
- 15:29Speaker 2: do you have enough money? How much money are you
- 15:32Speaker 2: bringing with you? They do not want poor people coming
- 15:36Speaker 2: in and ending up staying in the country and taking
- 15:40Speaker 2: up the resources of the taxpayer. The only issue with
- 15:45Speaker 2: the administration is if you want to come into this country,
- 15:50Speaker 2: apply for a green card, the amount of money you
- 15:55Speaker 2: have to have and the amount of money you have
- 15:59Speaker 2: to pay the US government clear fi AM six forty
- 16:07Speaker 2: Bill Handle Here it is Tuesday morning, watching a high
- 16:10Speaker 2: speed car chase right now? Whoa going on? This range
- 16:14Speaker 2: rover was doing north of one hundred up to one
- 16:18Speaker 2: hundred and twenty one hundred and thirty miles an hour
- 16:19Speaker 2: on the ten Freeway. He got off. Oh, police just
- 16:22Speaker 2: in a pit remover and they've just gotten out of
- 16:27Speaker 2: the cars and in they go hauling him out at gunpoint.
- 16:33Speaker 4: There's six four officers on him and four other officers
- 16:37Speaker 4: surrounding him. He's down on the ground, face down, and
- 16:40Speaker 4: they're now cuffing him.
- 16:41Speaker 2: Yeah, he was doing almost one hundred miles an hour
- 16:44Speaker 2: on surface streets.
- 16:46Speaker 4: Yeah, he got off the ten and on San Gabriel
- 16:48Speaker 4: was going one hundred miles per hour. He finally hit
- 16:51Speaker 4: somebody and then that sent him careening into the center
- 16:54Speaker 4: media and gave the CHP an opportunity to catch up
- 16:58Speaker 4: to him and do a Pittman over on.
- 17:00Speaker 2: Him, and they opened the door and just hauled him out.
- 17:04Speaker 2: And he was I mean up to one hundred and
- 17:05Speaker 2: twenty one hundred and thirty miles an hour on the freeway.
- 17:08Speaker 2: It was an open lane. What's they're wanted for? It's
- 17:11Speaker 2: a murder suspect. Oh yeah, yeah, well yeah, not that
- 17:17Speaker 2: it matters in terms of being charged. And there's no
- 17:20Speaker 2: one on the streets. As he was hauling down the freeway,
- 17:25Speaker 2: it seemed like there was just an open lane. How
- 17:27Speaker 2: do you have an open freeway at eight o'clock in
- 17:31Speaker 2: the morning in southern California.
- 17:32Speaker 4: Well, he hit the ten east bound, so he was
- 17:35Speaker 4: going against traffic. He hit some pretty strong traffic at
- 17:38Speaker 4: the at the interchange, but then he was headed east
- 17:41Speaker 4: and so that's where he hit some open space. And
- 17:44Speaker 4: then when he was on Saying Gabriel Boulevard, he was
- 17:47Speaker 4: driving in the center lane, you know, the turn lane,
- 17:50Speaker 4: and just that's when he just opened it up and
- 17:52Speaker 4: was going up to one hundred miles an hour.
- 17:54Speaker 2: Wow. Anyway down he is on the ground in this
- 17:57Speaker 2: one of those stupid moves. A few things shouldn't want
- 17:59Speaker 2: to do is number one, try to outrace the police
- 18:03Speaker 2: in a car in slow speed or high speed chase.
- 18:06Speaker 2: The other thing you don't want to do is rob
- 18:08Speaker 2: a bank because it's kind of hard not to know
- 18:12Speaker 2: who you are when they're you know, fifty six cameras
- 18:15Speaker 2: on you and fingerprints all over the place. So there
- 18:19Speaker 2: he is. Isn't it very happy? They're hauling him up.
- 18:24Speaker 2: Black underwear, you can see that, and shorts, Okay, tennis
- 18:32Speaker 2: shoes or those black sox noses that are high top
- 18:35Speaker 2: tennis shoes. White T shirt.
- 18:37Speaker 4: They're now saying that he's not necessarily a murder suspect,
- 18:40Speaker 4: but that he was involved in some sort of a
- 18:43Speaker 4: road rage incident and that involved a weapon.
- 18:49Speaker 2: Wow. Okay, let me go back and finish this up. Wow.
- 18:54Speaker 2: You know what, we have time to finish this up
- 18:56Speaker 2: because I sort of lost the omph on this, so
- 19:01Speaker 2: I'll take I'll take the story up about green card
- 19:03Speaker 2: applicants again tomorrow, and they're just searching him, putting their
- 19:09Speaker 2: hands in his pocket. He seems to be enjoying that
- 19:11Speaker 2: a lot and asking the cops to keep their hands
- 19:15Speaker 2: in his pocket. That's probably not true, by the way.
- 19:18Speaker 2: This is play by play from me, and I just
- 19:22Speaker 2: wanted to point that out. Okay, a couple things before
- 19:25Speaker 2: we bail out of here and then go on to
- 19:28Speaker 2: rich on Tech at the top of the hour. If
- 19:32Speaker 2: I'm gonna suggest that before the summer is over, before
- 19:37Speaker 2: September fourth, you experience the pageant of the Masters under
- 19:42Speaker 2: the Stars, on the Gunda Beach. These are real people
- 19:45Speaker 2: transforming themselves into iconic works of art. And there is
- 19:49Speaker 2: nothing like this anywhere on the planet. It is that
- 19:54Speaker 2: unique and if you've never seen it, it is so
- 19:57Speaker 2: worthwhile going. And if you just think it's works of
- 20:00Speaker 2: art and people being involved, oh man, you have no
- 20:03Speaker 2: idea where this goes full orchestra and it is just
- 20:07Speaker 2: something to see. Tickets start at just forty two dollars
- 20:11Speaker 2: and it's right up until September fourth. I go every
- 20:13Speaker 2: year and it is that spectacular Google pageant of the
- 20:18Speaker 2: Masters in Laguna Beach. That's the easiest way of doing it.
- 20:21Speaker 2: Pageant of the Masters in Laguna Beach. Okay, there we go,
- 20:28Speaker 2: So we are done with the high speed chase. One
- 20:31Speaker 2: of the things about high speed chases, or even low
- 20:33Speaker 2: speech chases, the police stay way back. It used to
- 20:37Speaker 2: be they would just jam up there and people would
- 20:41Speaker 2: these cars would go through intersections and you'd have these
- 20:43Speaker 2: massive accidents. There were a couple of cases where they
- 20:47Speaker 2: went through the intersection and the police followed through the
- 20:52Speaker 2: same intersection and people were hurt and hit not by
- 20:56Speaker 2: the perpetrator, not by the suspect, but by the police cars,
- 21:01Speaker 2: and lawsuits ensued and big, big money was paid to
- 21:06Speaker 2: the victims of innocent victims of the car chase where
- 21:11Speaker 2: the police who were legitimately going after the suspect who
- 21:15Speaker 2: was going in insane speeds, and so policy was changed completely,
- 21:20Speaker 2: certainly in Los Angeles, where the police have to really
- 21:24Speaker 2: pay attention to what is going on in front of them,
- 21:28Speaker 2: and if you have civilians that are at risk at all,
- 21:31Speaker 2: that has to take precedent over the car that they're chasing.
- 21:37Speaker 2: And so you see, in this case, it was fairly
- 21:40Speaker 2: easy because there was no traffic there and they were
- 21:43Speaker 2: able to do the pit remover, the pit maneuver, but
- 21:46Speaker 2: they didn't do it. They didn't do it until it
- 21:50Speaker 2: was safe and no one else know it would be hit. Okay,
- 21:54Speaker 2: coming out Rich on Tech and we'll do that for
- 21:58Speaker 2: two segments, and that's our Tech segment, and that's what
- 22:01Speaker 2: we do on Tuesday. Love these segments. We'll be right back.
- 22:04Speaker 2: This is KFI AM six point forty. You've been listening
- 22:08Speaker 2: to the Bill Handle Show. Catch my show Monday through Friday,
- 22:11Speaker 2: six am to nine am, and anytime on demand on
- 22:15Speaker 2: the iHeartRadio app.