Morning Wire XX
[0] Vice President Kamala Harris pushes the White House to be more sympathetic toward Palestinians as President Biden signals softening support for Israel.
[1] I think that we have made it clear to the Israelis and they're aware the safety of innocent Palestinians is still of great concern.
[2] Will the Biden administration continue to back Israel in its campaign against Hamas?
[3] I'm Daily Wire, editor -in -chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe.
[4] It's Friday, December 15th, and this is Morning Wire.
[5] After years of pressure, Netflix releases viewership data for its programming.
[6] Why did Netflix finally cave, and what did we learn?
[7] More than 50 % of the viewing in the first six months of the year was driven by Netflix originals.
[8] That's sort of a validation of all the spending that has been done on original programming.
[9] And Argentina's new president is taking dramatic action in the country that has seen tributtal.
[10] triple -digit inflation.
[11] We break down his most aggressive new policies.
[12] Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.
[13] Stay tuned.
[14] We have the news you need to know.
[15] For the first time since the war in Gaza started, the Biden administration has begun to rebuke Israel for their handling of the conflict.
[16] The shift comes amid growing pressure from pro -Palestinian Democrats in Washington.
[17] Here with more on the rising tensions between the White House and Israel is Daily Wire's senior editor, Cabot Phillips.
[18] Hey, Cabot, so a fluid situation here.
[19] Give us some context.
[20] Yeah, so two months ago when Hamas launched their unprecedented terror attack on Israel, President Biden came to the defense of the Jewish state, vowing to support them in their effort to destroy the terror group.
[21] Throughout October and November, Biden stood by that promise, providing billions in military assistance and rebuking those within his own party who questioned his pro -Israel stance.
[22] But over the last week or so, the president and his staff have really for the first time begun to publicly criticize Israel for their handling of the war.
[23] Speaking in an off -camera fundraiser on Tuesday, Biden said Prime Minister Nanyahu, quote, has to change and accused Israel of, quote, indiscriminate bombing in Gaza, warning that their actions were causing them to lose support from the international community.
[24] He also repeated his concerns that Israel would make the mistake of overreacting the way that he said America did following the attacks of 9 -11.
[25] And we've now seen similar messages from key figures in his administration, correct?
[26] Right.
[27] Now, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned to Israel last week that they risked a, quote, strategic defeat in the region if they drive civilians, quote, into the arms of the enemy.
[28] And on Thursday, we heard a similar message from Biden's national security advisor, Jake Sullivan.
[29] During a meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu, Sullivan reportedly called on Israel to pull back on their war effort, saying the country needs to, quote, transition to the next lower intensity phase in a matter of weeks, not months.
[30] Now, for his part, Nanyahu stood firm, telling reporters after the meeting that, quote, Israeli soldiers did not fall for nothing, and we are more determined than ever to continue fighting until the destruction of Hamas and until full victory.
[31] But regardless, the softer messaging from the White House on this issue is really quite different from what we heard from them two months ago when Biden and his team were supporting Israel to do whatever necessary to wipe out Hamas.
[32] Yeah, quite the shift.
[33] And it comes after a growing number of Democrat lawmakers have criticized Israel's war against the terror group.
[34] You're right.
[35] The timing of this messaging shift does not appear to be coincidental.
[36] as we've seen a growing number of Democrats both publicly and privately pushing back on Biden's support of Israel.
[37] They claim the Israeli military is not taking enough steps to ensure the safety of civilians in Gaza and point to unconfirmed reports from Hamas that up to two -thirds of those killed in the conflict have been women and children.
[38] Now, it's worth noting that this is not just coming from far -left members in Congress, but also from within the Biden administration.
[39] According to a new report from Politico, Vice President Kamala Harris has begun pushing back on Biden's position, urging the White House and Biden himself to, quote, show more concern publicly for the humanitarian damage in Gaza.
[40] Harris has also reportedly called on Biden to be, quote, tougher on Nanyahu, and pushed for a so -called two -state solution in the region, something pro -Israel advocates have long said as unrealistic.
[41] So what's behind this shifting message from the White House?
[42] What's driving this?
[43] Well, the biggest factor appears to be shifting sentiments among Democrat voters and, in turn, lawmakers.
[44] In the early days of the conflict, Americans in both parties overwhelmingly supported Israel, polling data reflected that.
[45] And support for Hamas and the Palestinians was more isolated, mainly among young people and far -left progressives.
[46] But as the war has gone on, more and more Democrats of all stripes have shifted against Israel.
[47] For example, a Wall Street Journal poll this week found that 42 % of Americans overall say they're more sympathetic to Israel, while just 12 % say they're more sympathetic to the Palestinians.
[48] But among Democrats, those numbers look very different.
[49] Just 17 % say they side more with Israel compared to 24 % who backed the people.
[50] Palestinians more.
[51] Among Republicans, those same numbers are 69 % to 2%.
[52] So very clear party split there.
[53] While a number of prominent Democrats like Chuck Schumer have stood resolute in support of Israel, the growing dissent among voters on the left is once again putting President Biden on the political tightrope on what is now becoming an increasingly polarizing topic.
[54] Yeah, we'll see which way he leans in the coming days.
[55] Kevin, thanks for reporting.
[56] Anytime.
[57] For the first time in the company's history, Netflix announced it will start releasing ratings data, information it previously kept confidential.
[58] The industry is calling it a major step in viewing transparency, but some are asking, why now?
[59] Daily Wire culture reporter, Megan Basham, is here now with more.
[60] So, Megan, before we get into what Netflix first ratings report revealed, I think the big question is, why are they doing this now after being so resistant for years?
[61] Well, you know, I think there's a number of reasons.
[62] So one, their hand has been forced somewhat by the recent Hollywood strikes.
[63] In the past, CEO Ted Sarando said that Netflix was keeping that viewing data private to protect creators.
[64] This was what he said during Netflix's third quarter earnings interview, and that took place just this past October.
[65] Part of our reason for not publishing early was part of our promise with creators.
[66] At the time we started creating original program, our creators felt like they were pretty trapped in this kind of overnight ratings world and weekend box office world defining their success and failures.
[67] And as we all know, a show might have enormous success down the road and it wasn't captured in that opening box office.
[68] So part of this was the relationship with talent, not just the business aspects of it.
[69] But a lot of writers and talent felt that not having the information, in fact, allowed streaming platforms to avoid paying them what they're worth.
[70] So the new union contracts require streamers to provide those viewing metrics, at least to them.
[71] Now, technically, this is not the first viewership rankings.
[72] For example, they've had top 10 for a little while now.
[73] I know some people would comment that those rankings seem a little fishy sometimes, but they also released sometimes piecemeal data.
[74] So I'm thinking of things like Birdbox, where they announced really large viewership numbers.
[75] Yeah, they did, but a lot of critics pointed out that those numbers seemed inconsistent, and they were so broad that they could be biased because no one was able to vet them independently.
[76] If Netflix said 30 million people watch something, you pretty much had to take their word for it.
[77] So a number of companies stepped into that gap, and they started providing analysis based on a variety of metrics.
[78] Parrot Analytics was one of those.
[79] Samba TV was another.
[80] And of course, Nielsen, which is the industry standard for broadcast ratings, they started to release some streaming rankings as well.
[81] So this was really unavoidable because traditional broadcast ratings are increasingly becoming less important.
[82] To give you just one example in August, Nielsen found that streaming captured about 40 % of all TV usage, and that was a record high.
[83] So Sarandos seems to be acknowledging that if Netflix didn't offer some detailed metrics of its own, the media was going to continue to rely on some of these outside companies.
[84] So what we may be seeing here is an attempt to rest some control of the ratings narrative back from them.
[85] So this is what he told Bloomberg a couple of months ago.
[86] Streaming itself is not that exotic anymore.
[87] And every other segment of the business does have, you know, Nielsen ratings or box office reports or the New York Times bestseller list, all those things.
[88] So we're heading towards that for sure.
[89] To a time we'll be fully transparent on viewing data.
[90] And now Netflix says it will be releasing these quote -unquote engagement reports twice a year.
[91] And I think we could probably see some other platforms follow with something similar, very soon because it's going to be hard for them to avoid it now that Netflix has set this standard.
[92] So that's the why.
[93] What did we actually learn from this report?
[94] Well, they put out a lot of analysis on hours viewed.
[95] And Netflix says that that's a more accurate measurement than simply how many views a particular movie or series has.
[96] And they say this report represents 100 billion hours viewed of their 18 ,000 titles between January and June.
[97] So that encompasses 99 % of all the company's viewing.
[98] And that first report found that Jennifer Lopez's The Mother was the most watched movie with about 250 million viewing hours.
[99] Yeah, a lot of viewing hours.
[100] And the Knight Agent was the most popular series with its first season netting a little over 800 million viewing hours.
[101] Wow.
[102] So not Squid Game, not Stranger Things.
[103] I never would have guessed those.
[104] Yeah, maybe because those are somewhat older titles.
[105] All right.
[106] Well, Megan, thanks for reporting.
[107] Anytime.
[108] time.
[109] Javier Malay officially took office as president of Argentina on December 10th.
[110] Since then, he's instituted aggressive reforms in an attempt to pull Argentina out of a years -long economic tailspin.
[111] Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce is here to discuss Malay's first days and what's at stake for Argentina.
[112] So Tim, what has President Malay done since being sworn in?
[113] He's only been in office a few days, but already he's taken more decisive action than a typical politician may take in years.
[114] But then that's the kind of action Malay campaigned on.
[115] And supporters of the president say that's what Argentina needs to rescue the economy from triple -digit inflation and the threat of a tenth default.
[116] Malay's new economy minister, Luis Caputo, outlined the government's approach on Tuesday.
[117] The new administration will start work on the inflation problem immediately by devaluing Argentina's currency the peso by 50%.
[118] That will bring its value closer to parity with other currencies.
[119] The government will also drastically cut spending that includes disbanding half of the government's 18 current ministries, slashing subsidies for energy and transportation, and canceling any public works projects that haven't broken ground yet.
[120] And after all that, the government estimates that those cuts will amount to about 3 % of Argentina's GDP, which is just a fraction of the cuts Malay promised on the campaign trail.
[121] So some very aggressive cuts to spending, maybe more to come.
[122] what about the other side of the ledger with revenue?
[123] What is he doing with taxes?
[124] Those are going up, at least in the short term.
[125] The government will raise the tax rate on goods coming into the country from 7 .5 % to 17 .5 % and extend a tax of 15 % already on goods flowing out of the country.
[126] I should note that while Malay's austerity measures are severe, he is increasing spending in a couple areas.
[127] The government plans to increase benefits given for children and welfare for the country's poorest citizens.
[128] Now, these are extreme austerity measures.
[129] Is it even politically viable to follow through on this?
[130] That depends on how much Argentinians are willing to take, but also Malay was pretty candid during his campaign that austerity would be painful.
[131] He told Argentina that he would tackle the country's bloated government and runaway spending head on.
[132] He also said that with the pit Argentina has dug itself, short -term pain is the only option to a healthier country.
[133] Now, how are markets responding?
[134] On the economics side, it's been pretty positive.
[135] The way the bond market has responded suggests some growing confidence in Malay's approach.
[136] The price of Argentina's bonds has surged about 25 % in the last week and over 40 % since he was elected president last month.
[137] So that could be a sign that people are willing to buy Argentina's debt and are more optimistic that they won't default.
[138] The International Monetary Fund, which Argentina owes $43 billion to, was optimistic as well.
[139] It said in a statement that it welcomed his bold initial actions after recent setbacks on the loan under the previous government.
[140] The IMF also promised to work expeditiously with Malay's government, which is supposed to pay the IMF $2 billion in January.
[141] Now, what about dollarization?
[142] Malay said he wanted to move Argentina off the peso entirely.
[143] Has he made any progress on that?
[144] Yeah, that was one of Malay's most controversial ideas during his campaign.
[145] And no, he hasn't moved on that yet.
[146] But it is only his first week, and dollarization to pull it off effectively would take some time.
[147] National Security spokesman John Kirby was actually asked about that on Thursday.
[148] He didn't have an answer.
[149] Well, it sounds like a rocky road ahead for Argentina, but hopefully they can be successful.
[150] Tim, thanks for reporting.
[151] Thanks for having me. That's all the time we've got this morning.
[152] Thanks for waking up with us.
[153] We'll be back this afternoon with more of the news you need to know.