Morning Wire XX
[0] As several films flopped at the box office this summer, Hollywood's hoping for a big screen revival as we enter the fall Oscar season.
[1] Disney is totally panicking over this film because the box office is shaping up to be a complete and total disaster.
[2] Which films are getting the most positive bus?
[3] I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor -in -chief John Bickley.
[4] It's November 18th, and this is a Saturday edition of Morning Wire.
[5] I emphasize how shocking this is.
[6] A leaked document obtained by the Daily Wire shows that the National Security Agency is embracing hundreds of social justice ideas, including queer theory and white fragility.
[7] And a handful of young American farmers are going viral for traveling to Israel to help out on local farms.
[8] Just doing everything that we can to show support to maybe boost some hope.
[9] We speak to the Israel Cowboys about their volunteer efforts.
[10] Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.
[11] Stay tuned.
[12] We have the news you need to know.
[13] After a year of high -profile flops, most notably at Disney, the box office is still struggling to return to pre -pandemic strength.
[14] But with the holiday movie season upon us, analysts say there's still time for the entertainment industry to turn things around.
[15] Here to tell us more about Hollywood's box office woes and what audiences can look forward to this Oscars season is Daily Wire Culture Reporter, Megan Basham.
[16] So, Megan, before we get into what's coming up, what is the state of the industry right now?
[17] Well, you know, as John mentioned, it is still not great.
[18] There have been some unexpected successes with movies like Barbie and Oppenheimer, but overall, studios are really just not connecting with viewers this year.
[19] And one European outlet aptly put it this way.
[20] They called it a blockbuster graveyard.
[21] So just a few examples of that, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, the Flash, Fast X, Shazam sequel, Mission Impossible sequel, I could go on, but all of those underperformed.
[22] And so as he also mentioned, Disney in particular really crumbled in 2023.
[23] American audiences, at least, rejected Pixar's big movie Elemental.
[24] And then Marvel, which has always seemed pretty bulletproof, showed that it is now developing some serious weaknesses.
[25] So Ant Man and the Wasp, Quantum Mania, that bombed.
[26] And then we saw the worst debut in the studio's history last weekend with the Marvels.
[27] In fact, things have been so bad at Disney overall, CEO Bob Iger admitted during the company's fourth quarter earnings call last week, that he's, and I'm quoting, mindful of the fact that our performance from a quality perspective wasn't up to the standards we set for ourselves.
[28] And then just to wrap up with a little bit more bad news, thanks to all of these strikes that we've seen in the last few months, a lot of big movies have been delayed.
[29] So 2024 is probably not going to be a strong year for Hollywood either.
[30] But we are now moving into Oscars season.
[31] So is there any bright spots on the horizon?
[32] Yeah, I think there are.
[33] When you look at Barbie and Oppenheimer's success, it's clear that audiences are pretty hungry for some original content.
[34] And this holiday season does offer plenty of that.
[35] So the big movie that I've got my eye on, and I think a lot of other people do as well, is Ridley Scott's Napoleon.
[36] There's already Oscar buzz for this one.
[37] And, you know, we just haven't had a historical movie on the epic scale that Scott is known for in some time.
[38] And that comes out the day before Thanksgiving.
[39] And then speaking of Oscar, season and biopics.
[40] Another big one getting a lot of early positive notice is Maestro, and that stars Bradley Cooper as Leonard Bernstein.
[41] We haven't seen much of Cooper for a while, and he is, of course, an Academy favorite, so Netflix is pushing that one very hard.
[42] And then maybe to give Disney a little ray of hope here for the future, they may be able to tee a win up here at the end of the year with Wish, which has very strong pre -sales so far.
[43] It's an original story, though it does tell us how that wishing star that appears in so many other Disney movies came into existence, and this is a clip from that.
[44] So most of these wishes will never be granted?
[45] Yet I still protect them like all the others.
[46] Can't you just give them back instead?
[47] Excuse me?
[48] The wishes you're not going to grant.
[49] You could just give them back.
[50] Then, I don't know, the people can try to pursue them themselves.
[51] So what about smaller indie films?
[52] You know, I'm glad you asked because I will say there's one that I have had my eye on in a major way, and that is Freud's last session.
[53] I saw the trailer for it.
[54] It's based on the Broadway play, and it sees sort of a battle of worldviews between Freud and C .S. Lewis on the question of God.
[55] And Anthony Hopkins plays Freud, and Matthew Good, who I personally love, plays Lewis.
[56] And here's a bit of that.
[57] Why would you come here to see me if you disagree so passionately with my views?
[58] You've insisted all your lives that the very concept of God is ludicrous.
[59] Yes.
[60] Trash between garden safety.
[61] Ah, but I did not say whose side ever saw.
[62] So I can't wait for that one.
[63] It comes out on December 22nd, and maybe to wrap, I'll say, to me, that seems like a great Christmas choice for grownups.
[64] Megan, thanks for reporting.
[65] Anytime.
[66] That was Daily Wire Culture Reporter, Megan Basham.
[67] A new Daily Wire investigation reveals that the National Security Agency produced an internal document with hundreds of diversity, equity, and inclusion terms that critics say are politically divisive and inappropriate for an agency tasked with national security.
[68] Here were the details of the reporter who broke this story, DailyWire's Spencer Lindquist.
[69] So Spencer, tell us a bit about this leaked document.
[70] So this document is titled DEI Glossary.
[71] And now that's a reference to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
[72] And it contains definitions of nearly 330 terms over 34 pages.
[73] It was published internally by the NSA in May of 2022, but this is the first.
[74] time that it's been released publicly.
[75] The glossary has every DEI -related phrase you can think of, including some that listeners will probably be familiar with, like white fragility.
[76] The glossary also includes settler colonialism, with a definition that specifically calls out, quote, white European occupation of land in what is now the United States.
[77] Other terms include decolonization, whiteness, white privilege, and structural racism.
[78] So a heavy influence from critical race theory, the left -wing theory.
[79] Yeah, that's right.
[80] but that's just the beginning.
[81] It gets even more controversial from there.
[82] For example, includes, quote, the gender -neutral pronouns of Z and Zer, and the term transmisogyny, which they call the, quote, intersection of transphobia and misogyny.
[83] Then there's also drag queen and drag king and heterosexual privilege, but maybe the most telling term is female -bodied.
[84] Now, that definition includes a caveat, which reads, this term is very problematic as it genders bodies non -consensually and plays into cis -sexism.
[85] A definition for the term male -bodied includes a similar disclaimer.
[86] Then it goes on to include other questionable terms like demigender, demi -boy, and demi -girl.
[87] Pansexual is also defined, and in that case, the glossary says the term deliberately rejects the gender binary and derives its origin from the transgender movement.
[88] Now, look, I think a lot of people would be very surprised to find the NSA producing a document like this.
[89] How exactly did we confirm that this is, in fact, an authentic NSA document?
[90] So I spoke with Representative Michael Waltz.
[91] He's a Republican from Florida's 6th Congressional District, and he sits on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
[92] He was able to confirm the authenticity of this document.
[93] Waltz told me that he was shocked by this document and emphasized just how concerning it is that this material is coming out of the intelligence community.
[94] This isn't some kind of diversity document in, say, the Small Business Administration.
[95] This is the NSA, the National Security Agency, one of the most powerful intelligence agencies in the world that the world has ever seen.
[96] Walt says that America's intelligence agencies should be focused on serious national security concerns, not getting sidetracked on political agendas.
[97] I believe you're going to see a decline in readiness of these entities.
[98] We are seeing a record low and a crisis in recruiting, across the military, America is going to be less safe.
[99] Our military is not focused on lethality.
[100] They're focused on diversity and climate.
[101] What's the purpose of this document?
[102] Are NSA employees responsible for using these terms?
[103] Are there HR implications for whether people are sufficiently on board with these concepts?
[104] So it's not exactly clear yet what the actual intent behind this document is.
[105] Right now, it appears that it might be a style guide for internal reporting.
[106] That being said, it's fair to say that there are likely, First Amendment implications if these concepts are perceived to be compelled.
[107] Waltz warned that citizens might be deterred from working for these agencies if they perceive it'll be an ideologically coercive environment.
[108] Well, who wants to put their life on the line that has said that?
[109] And does that then lead to questions of whether those inherently flawed institutions should have true oversight over a very powerful intelligence agency and a very powerful military?
[110] Well, Spencer, thank you for digging into this and bringing us this report.
[111] Thank you.
[112] That was Daily Wire Reporter, Spencer Lindquist.
[113] As many of the able -bodied men in Israel have been called to war or to volunteer in the war effort against Tamas, much of the work on farms has been abandoned.
[114] So, a group of American Christians from Montana and Arkansas have traveled to Israel to keep the local farms running.
[115] Daily Wire reporter Cassie Dillon traveled across Israel to meet up with the U .S. volunteers who are attending to local farms while the owners are away.
[116] Cassie, I've seen videos of these men and women.
[117] and wearing cowboy hats and plaid and working the farms.
[118] Tell us about them.
[119] Gladly.
[120] So they're being called the Cowboys, and their videos are going absolutely viral here in Israel.
[121] I've got a chance to speak with several of them as they picked peppers in a greenhouse in Judea and Samaria, also known as the West Bank.
[122] I'm Ezekiel Strain.
[123] I'm from Montana, and we're here picking peppers.
[124] I heard that you left your day job to come out to Israel.
[125] So talk about what you do at home and why you left.
[126] Yeah, so I do many.
[127] mainly farming, haying, and have a few cows and some horses.
[128] I actually left several hundred tons of hay are still on the field back home.
[129] But when I heard the war broke out, I mean, this was the important thing to do for me. And when you woke up on October 7th and you saw what happened, what went through your head?
[130] Well, it was sad.
[131] It was sad to see.
[132] But I wanted to help in any way I could.
[133] So, yeah, I came right away.
[134] Joshua Waller organized the trip.
[135] He's the director of operations for Hayao Bell, an organization that has been bringing Christian Zionists to Israel to help with agriculture for the last 20 years.
[136] But he says his mission took on a new meeting after the October 7th attack.
[137] As soon as the war broke out, we called them and said, hey, we need help immediately.
[138] One of the cowboys left 900 bells of hay in the field is still sitting in the field and came immediately.
[139] So these guys responded, I mean, really, they're honestly heroes.
[140] It's not just a made -up story.
[141] These guys are really legit cowboys.
[142] that dropped everything to come help Israel.
[143] If they weren't here, these peppers wouldn't be getting picked like they are today.
[144] If they weren't here and the war didn't happen, who would be picking these peppers?
[145] It would be going really slow, just with the locals, whoever they could pull together to be harvesting.
[146] So today we have picked an enormous amount of fruit.
[147] There's no way this farmer would be where he's at right now.
[148] Luke Hustler came from Arkansas, saying that it was his faith that drove him to come and give an extra pair of hands.
[149] I think it's important for Christians and people of the nations to show solidarity with the Jewish people.
[150] in Israel, and so that's what we're doing here.
[151] Yoseb stream from Montana, who has been to Israel in the past, says he was not deterred by flying to a country at war because he thought he could make a difference.
[152] I feel like it's really important to just help out when people need it most, and this seems like the time they need it.
[153] I mean, people say you should wait, wait until it's safer, but it's not, there's no reason to wait.
[154] If this is when they need us, this is when we're going to come, and that's kind of the way we look at it in Montana.
[155] How long are you staying for?
[156] I'm going to be here at least a month.
[157] might extend it a little bit depending on what's done, what's happening.
[158] John Plotker from Montana said he came because he wanted to show solidarity through actions.
[159] I think that nowadays people support a lot with their lips and they say they support, but not a whole lot of people actually stand up for what they think.
[160] And so when I was given the opportunity to come, I wanted to come.
[161] Can you talk about what it's been like to go viral and what people of Israel are calling you?
[162] Yeah, I guess they're calling us cowboys.
[163] and it's funny because they all have the certain image of what a cowboy is, you know, drink and cuss and whatever.
[164] But it's all those aren't necessarily true.
[165] But I just want to be here and help.
[166] And I'm honored to that I can even encourage.
[167] I didn't expect to be able to encourage the Jewish people on this level.
[168] And I'm humbled by it and just glad that I can.
[169] Well, it's really inspiring to hear how people will travel across the world to Linda Han.
[170] Cassie, thanks for talking with all of them and with us.
[171] Absolutely.
[172] Thanks, John.
[173] That was Daily Wire reporter Cassie Dillon reporting from Israel.
[174] That's all the time we've got this morning.
[175] Thanks for waking up with us.
[176] We'll be back later this afternoon with an extra edition of Morning Wire.