XPost: alt.psychology.transpersonal, rec.arts.movies.current-films,   
   talk.politics.guns   
   XPost: sac.politics, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
   From: leroysoetoro@americans-first.com   
      
   https://nypost.com/2026/03/01/business/how-tampons-in-the-mens-room-   
   helped-derail-the-netflix-warner-bros-deal/   
      
   There were many defining moments featured in the months-long battle for   
   the ownership of Warner Bros. Discovery: Sit-downs to woo President Trump,   
   high-profile Congressional hearings, a brutal bidding war, and a tampon.   
      
   Yes, a tampon.   
      
   During the deal negotiations, while Netflix was wooing skeptical GOP   
   lawmakers that it wasn’t a left-wing company looking to get more powerful   
   by snapping up WBD, a delegation of lawmakers paid a visit to its   
   headquarters, and one was both shocked and disturbed to find a basket   
   containing tampons in the men’s restroom.   
      
   To be clear, there are other factors involved in CEO Ted Sarandos’s   
   decision to cancel his nearly completed purchase of WBD’s studio and   
   streaming service. But the “Tampon Incident,” as it has become known on   
   Capitol Hill, does carry some weight in the unwavering political   
   opposition from the GOP to Sarandos’ ambitions.   
      
   “This is 2026, not 2020,” said one GOP staffer with first-hand knowledge   
   of the matter. “What were they thinking?”   
      
   According to the spin coming from Netflix, Sarandos $73 billion purchase   
   of vast chunks of the company known as WBD came to a grinding halt last   
   Thursday because he didn’t want to get into a bidding war with Paramount   
   Skydance, which had just sweetened a “hostile” offer for the company to   
   $80.5 billion.   
      
   David Ellison’s Paramount is a smallish media company with a big bank   
   account. Ellison’s father is Larry Ellison, the Oracle co-founder worth   
   nearly $200 billion His deep pockets backed his son’s ever more expensive   
   offers for the entire company.   
      
   Sarandos, meanwhile, runs a public company, with a market value that fell   
   a whopping $200 billion during the costly takeover process that his   
   existing shareholders obviously didn’t like. As Sarandos put it: “This   
   transaction was always a ‘nice to have’ at the right price, not a ‘must   
   have’ at any price.”   
      
   Maybe, but price wasn’t Sarandos’s only obstacle. During the 6-month   
   bidding war, many Republicans in congress, state AG offices and of course   
   the White House came to believe that Netflix was seeking to create a   
   monopoly in streaming — an increasingly important way Americans consume   
   entertainment.   
      
   Netflix denied this, arguing it faces competition for consumers from   
   social media and YouTube, though opposition only seemed to intensify in   
   recent weeks. One big worry: Netflix would use the market clout that WBD   
   would give it to further push progressivism in its programming.   
      
   Sarandos has long argued that Netflix programming appeals to all political   
   tastes, but conservative-leaning advocacy groups have produced research   
   that its programming and documentaries more often push themes such as   
   transgenderism, Diversity Equity and Inclusion, and other issues near-and-   
   dear to the cultural left.   
      
   Sarandos and Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, meanwhile, are both big   
   supporters of Democrats and progressive policies. Susan Rice, a top   
   official in the lefty Obama administration and a staunch critic of Trump,   
   sits on its board. It was Rice’s inopportune comments on a podcast   
   attacking companies that do business with Trump that is also said to have   
   cost Sarandos more White House support for the WBD deal.   
      
   Last month, Sarandos was grilled on these matters by a Senate Judiciary   
   antitrust subcommittee headed by GOP Utah senator Mike Lee. Not long   
   after, Sarandos launched a charm offensive on GOP lawmakers and the White   
   House, worried that a close call on WBDs antitrust implications could turn   
   into a rout against the deal if he didn’t tamp down on the political   
   concerns, people close to the matter say.   
      
   His job only got more difficult when a bunch of GOP lawmakers paid a visit   
   several weeks ago at Netflix HQ in Los Angeles, according to three people   
   with direct knowledge of the matter. They were part of a congressional   
   delegation that each year visits various Hollywood studios around the time   
   of the Grammy Awards.   
      
   One attendee was Missouri GOP congressman Jason Smith, chair of the   
   House’s powerful Ways and Means committee, and a lawmaker who is skeptical   
   of Netflix’s spin that it is a politically neutral provider of   
   programming.   
      
   Even more so, according to a source who spoke with him, when during the   
   confab he went to the men’s room at the firm’s offices and noticed the   
   basket of tampons.   
      
   “Let’s just say the chairman was pretty disturbed,” this person added.   
      
   In recent years many tech companies have made tampons available in men’s   
   rooms to promote diversity and inclusivity for trans employees. But   
   conservatives believe such efforts to normalize transgenderism have dire   
   societal effects, in that it proselytizes children into undergoing harmful   
   surgeries, undermines the nuclear family and leads to men competing in   
   women’s sports.   
      
   They also believe these values are front and center in Netflix’s   
   programming, and the Tampon Incident, as it filtered through the halls of   
   congress, became proof the company wasn’t changing its politics.   
      
   A spokesman for Smith declined to comment; a Netflix spokeswoman had no   
   comment.   
      
      
   --   
   November 5, 2024 - Congratulations President Donald Trump.  We look   
   forward to America being great again.   
      
   We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that   
   stupid people won't be offended.   
      
   Every day is an IQ test. Some pass, some, not so much.   
      
   Thank you for cleaning up the disasters of the 2008-2017, 2020-2024 Obama   
   / Biden / Harris fiascos, President Trump.   
      
   Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the   
   The World According To Garp.  Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood   
   queer liberal democrat donors.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)