Latest / The Breakfast Club / The Ellisons' Trump Payoff, an Intruder Comes for Today Show's Craig Melvin, and R. Kelly's Hail Mary to the White House

Transcript

The Ellisons' Trump Payoff, an Intruder Comes for Today Show's Craig Melvin, and R. Kelly's Hail Mary to the White House · The Breakfast Club

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: A new Paramount shareholder lawsuit alleges billionaires David and Larry
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Ellison cut a secret deal with President Trump to hand
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: him editorial control over CNN.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: This one hundred and ten billion dollar proposed merger, the
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: largest merger in Hollywood history, would extinguish competition.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: And a man slips past security at the Today's Show,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: reportedly looking for Al Roker before confronting Craig Melvin and
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: yelling a racial slur.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: So you actually heard about what I did?
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: And R Kelly is asking President Trump to shorten his
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: prison sentence.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: I didn't do this stuff.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: It's Friday, July seventeenth, from the Black Effect Podcast network.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: I'm Mimi Brown. This is front page and here are
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: the day's biggest stories. Stay with me. A new shareholder
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: lawsuit is raising serious concern about the proposed merger between
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: Paramount and Warner Brothers Discovery. The lawsuit claims Larry and
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: David Ellison made promises to President Trump to help get
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: the deal approved. According to the lawsuit, those promises included
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: up to twenty million dollars in free advertising, a sixteen
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: million dollar payment tied to an earlier settlement, and a
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: promise to make changes at CNN, including getting rid of
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: anchors President Trump doesn't like. Paramount denies the allegation, saying
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: neither Larry nor David Ellison made any deals with the
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: Trump administration or promised any changes at CNN. The lawsuit
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: also comes as California and eleven other states are already
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: trying to stop the proposed one hundred and eleven billion
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: dollar merger, arguing it would give the combined company too
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: much control over the entertainment industry and could lead to
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: higher prices for consumers. Here's California Attorney General Rob Bonta.
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: We're here. I'm here to announce a lawsuit that I've
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: filed and that a coalition of twelve states have filed,
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: challenging the proposed merger of Paramounts Guidance and Warner Brothers
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: Discovery and asking the court to block the merger from
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: moving forward. This one hundred and ten billion dollar proposed merger,
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: the largest merger in Hollywood history, would extinguish competition. It
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: would result in higher prices, lower content quality, and fewer
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: movies and TV shows. As our complaint makes clear, this
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: deal is illegal under the Clayton Act. That is a
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: law that has been on the books for over one
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: hundred years. It prevents mergers that may substantially lessen competition
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: or tend to create a monopoly.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: Pearmount says the merger will help it compete with streaming
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: companies like Netflix and Disney and allow it to produce
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: more movies. The States, however, disagree, and now both lawsuits
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: will move through the courts, and a frightening security breach
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: at the Today Show is now raising new questions about
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: safety inside NBC's New York studios. Police say a man
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: got past security Thursday morning, entered through a restricted area
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: near Studio A, and was reportedly looking for Al Roker. Instead,
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: investigators say he confronted Craig Melvin, lunging at the anchor
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: while shouting a racial slur. Cameras later caught up with
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: the suspect. Let's listen, So you actually heard about.
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: What I did? Hey? Hey, question? Listen? Did you actually
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: hear what I did? Yeah? So what do you do?
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: Not TMC or anything? Are you here?
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: Are you lack a freelance or do you actually work
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: for entertainment hip?
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna work for a newspaper, which one, folks, you're
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: gonna put me in the post. Yeah all right, hey, sir,
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: hold on a second, excuse a post. Listen.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: I want you to tell the paper when they write
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: the article.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: Listen.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well them tell them that I was more offered
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: to us. Craig Melvin later told viewers he's doing fine
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: and thanked everyone who reached out with concerns. No one
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: was injured and the suspect was taken into custody, and
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: NBC says it's cooperating with law enforcement as the investigation continues.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: Melvin is scheduled to be off the air next week,
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: but NBC says that time off was planned before Thursday
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: security breach and is unrelated to the incident. And finally,
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: R Kelly is asking President Trump to shorten his prison sentence.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: The disgraced R and B singer has officially filed a
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: request asking the President to commute his sentence. A commutation
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: is not the same as a pardon. It doesn't erase
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: a conviction. It only reduces the amount of times someone
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: spends in prison. Oh, have a relationship with my kids
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: and I can't do it. R Kelly was sentenced to
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: thirty years in federal prison after a jury convicted him
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: in New York of rocketeering and sex trafficking. He was
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: later convicted in Chicago on child pornography and child enticement
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: charges and received a twenty year sentence, with all but
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: one year running at the same time in his New
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: York sentence, that means he's effectively serving a thirty one
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: year federal sentence. He isn't expected to be released until
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: twenty forty five, when he'll be nearly seventy nine years old.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: Kelly has already lost multiple appeals. Now his best chance
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: of getting out early rests with President Trump, who has
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: the power to grant or deny his request. That's your
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: front Page, I Mimi Brown. This podcast was brought to
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: you by the Black Effect Podcast Network.