Bezos' WaPo Lands in Endorsement Mess & CA's $750M Offer to Win Hollywood

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0:27Good morning, Brew Daily Show. I'm Neil Freiman. And I'm Toby Howell. Today, California Governor Gavin Newsom is placing a big bet to keep Hollywood in Hollywood. Then, breaking news, McDonald's ice cream machines might break less frequently now, thanks to a key copyright ruling. It's Monday, October 28th. Let's ride.

0:50If you were strolling through New York's Washington Square Park this weekend, you may have encountered a throng of sharp, cheekboned, floppy-haired men who were gathered for a viral Timothee Chalamet lookalike competition. With thousands of RSVPs and a whopping$50 up for first place, Chalamet lookalikes came from afar dressed in Wonka attire and toting peaches to see who channeled Timothee the best. And it turns out they were all competing for second place because guess who showed up to the Timothee Chalamet lookalike contest? Timothee Chalamet himself. Neil, this is exactly what you are supposed to do as an A-list celebrity.

1:26Crash your own lookalike competition. Yes, but it was absolutely chaotic. Police ordered the group to disperse. They hit organizers with a$500 fine for an unpermitted costume contest. At least one person was led away in handcuffs. So all intents and purposes, this was one of the most rowdy Timothee Chalamet lookalike contests that has ever been put on. And Timothee Chalamet, his next movie, he's starring as Bob Dylan in a biopic. Yeah, the biopic, is that how you say it? Biopic. and he's doing his own singing, his own guitar playing, his own harmonica playing. And so I'm officially out on Timothee Salome.

2:00The man is just too talented. Now a word from our sponsor, Bonobos. Neil, did you check my Instagram story yesterday? I did not, Toby. I see you enough as is already. Well, you missed out because I went to a wedding this weekend and you know I had to rock my Bonobos fit. That tuxedo has turned out to be a lifesaver. It really has. But honestly, I have to show up rocking a perfect fit because then everyone will be so distracted by my stylist, Taylor Giddup, to notice the fact that I have zero rhythm on the dance floor. A tuck so good, people overlook your bad dancing. Bonobos is a miracle worker.

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3:20Decisions by two billionaire newspaper owners not to write a story has in itself become a huge story. Last week, both the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post ended their tradition of endorsing presidential candidates, resulting in resignations from high-ranking staff and a spike in cancellations by subscribers. Patrick Soon-Shiong, the biotech billionaire owner of the LA Times, made the decision to end presidential endorsements for his outlet, while two days later, Jeff Bezos made the call for his newspaper, The Washington Post. These moves have sparked a heated debate about the role of newspaper endorsements and the influence of billionaire owners on their outlet's editorial operations.

3:59I mean, historically, you look back at newspaper endorsements, they have been a pretty crucial part of the democratic process. The idea is that you provide this informed opinion to voters. However, that has been changing recently. Fears of increased polarization have led some of these publications to kind of walk back this tradition. And I have seen people from both sides critiquing this. Some people from the media industry said that some readers of these newspapers probably equivocate the editorial board of a newspaper with the actual position of the newspaper itself. And so getting rid of it is actually probably better because it does create this better air of neutrality.

4:40But then the question is, is that neutrality worth it at all? Because we have seen a rash of cancellations of subscriptions. We have seen a rash of high-level people within the organization stepping down. So is that neutrality worth it? That is what these organizations are grappling with at this point. Let's talk about motivations. Why did they do this? Or at least what are their stated intentions? Why did these owners cancel endorsements? The Washington Post, and this did not come from Bezos, it came from The Washington Post editor Will Lewis, said ending endorsements was a return to its roots of not endorsing a candidate.

5:13The Post generally did not endorse presidential candidates until 1976 when it endorsed Jimmy Carter, but it has made an endorsement in nearly every election since then until this year. And then at the L.A. Times, the owner posted on X that instead of an endorsement, he instructed his editorial board, tried a factual analysis of policies from each candidate and let readers decide who was worthy of the White House. But this coming maybe was a communications issue because the optics around this coming 11 days out ahead of the presidential election did shine a spotlight on their owners and their dealings with the federal government and a potential future Trump administration.

5:50Let's look at Jeff Bezos, who owns Blue Origin, which has a$3.4 billion contract with NASA. The federal government is its main customer. And Bezos founded Amazon, which has a Amazon Web Services cloud computing unit, which competes for contracts with the federal government, upwards of tens of billions of dollars. Remember in 2019, Amazon lost to this$10 billion cloud computing contract to Microsoft. And at the time, Amazon actually filed a lawsuit saying that their loss was the result of Trump not liking the Washington Post reporting and wanting retribution against Bezos, its owner. Yeah, there's such a tangled web of conflicts of interest here, which is why you said even that in trying to not publish a story, they've made it a bigger story in and of itself.

6:42I did look back through history, too, if there is any correlation between endorsements of election outcomes and the actual outcomes themselves. And since 1972, there's only been three instances, 76, 96, and 2004, where a candidate with the most editorial approvals lost the election. So for a while, they have been relatively influential because for the most part, the candidate that the papers endorse end up being the candidate that is elected the president of the United States. So this departure here, it's still just a few news outlets at this point. Washington Post is a rather big one, but we'll see if it kind of continues this path down towards a more neutral approach to editorial endorsements.

7:23If you weren't getting many texts back in your college group chat over the weekend, it's because the new Call of Duty game just dropped. Black Ops 6, the latest installment in the first-person shooting franchise, is probably a big deal for the gamers in your life, but it's an even bigger deal for Microsoft, who after dropping$76 billion to acquire COD maker Activision Blizzard, needs some return from the crown jewel of its catalog to justify the whopping price tag. One thing that makes Black Ops 6 extra notable is it's the first COD to launch day one on Xbox's Games Pass, which is essentially Microsoft's version of Netflix for video games.

8:02You pay between 10 and 20 bucks a month to get access to a catalog of games instead of dropping$60-plus to buy a single game. The catalog became a lot more valuable after Microsoft bought Activision and therefore Call of Duty. The hope is that the blue-chip franchise will boost its Game Pass numbers, even if it might eat into the total sales of the game itself. Neil, it's a bit of a complex calculus here. Right. Microsoft is hoping to transform the video game industry from an a la carte restaurant to an all-you-can-eat buffet with its Game Pass subscription offering, like Netflix for video games.

8:38But there are early signs that people may not want this subscriber count for Game Pass peaked in 2021 during that COVID boom, but it's remained pretty flat since then. Their analysts say they have not seen much growth in the video game subscription space that many had predicted. But Microsoft has huge aspirations for Game Pass. It has a goal of reaching 110 million Game Pass subscribers by 2030, which is a huge rise from the 34 million in February this year. Analysts predict that Call of Duty specifically will add 2 to 2.5 million new subscribers of Game Pass. That is moving the needle a little bit.

9:21It's still a far cry from that 110 million that Microsoft wants, but it is interesting to see whether people, video game players, will want this more buffet approach that has worked really well for Netflix and video TV streamers, but it has remained to be seen whether this can be applied to the video game space. And a lot of people don't think it can be applied to the video game space because if you think about how gamers actually play games, you usually hyper fixate on a couple of titles at a time. You can't be playing 20 games at the same time. One, you just wanna be better at the games that you wanna be better at.

9:55And then two, there's always continuous updates to the games you play. So it does add to the lifespan of the amount of time you can play a game. So do you really want a$20 a month subscription or do you just want to buy the games that you want to play? So there's been some question marks about this model for a long time. And then also another thing working against this sort of streaming model is that really hardcore gamers don't like playing games via cloud gaming because you can see how they look a little over compressed. There's maybe some latency, some lag in those games as well. So if you are truly a hardcore person who loves playing video games, you're not going to want to play these games via a streaming setup.

10:36So I don't know. It's definitely a tough thing here. Call of Duty is the franchise that you want. It is the goat of all AAA video game franchises. So if they can't make Game Pass subscribers increase when releasing Call of Duty, then I don't know if it will ever work. So this is definitely an inflection point in Microsoft's gaming journey. There's only$76 billion riding on it. But yeah, Call of Duty is, I just want to mention this, it is one of the most successful entertainment properties that has ever been released. It's brought in over$30 billion in lifetime revenue, which is more than any other shooting series and most movie franchises outside of Marvel.

11:17Yeah, it is a big eminence. I've actually never played a Call of Duty game. It's so bad. Or maybe it's good. Who knows? The next tale of a daring escape to come out of Hollywood might not actually be in a movie, but will be the story of the film industry itself. Yesterday, California Governor Gavin Newsom proposed a$750 million tax credit package to benefit the state's film and TV industry with the hopes of helping Hollywood get its mojo back. It would double the incentives the state currently puts towards Tinseltown and reestablish California as one of the more generous places to make a movie in the country.

11:54Despite its reputation as the epicenter of entertainment in America, other states have quietly lapped Cali when it comes to the film incentives they offer. 38 states offer some sort of sugar for filming in their backyards, led by Georgia, who has offered$5 billion in film tax credits since 2015, and New York, who has chipped in$7 billion, compared to just$3 billion for California. Neil, the region and the film industry has had a tough go of it recently, still reeling from the dual actor in Rider Strikes from last summer. Is this package the way it can get its movie magic back? Well, there's no question that there has been an exodus of TV and film production out of Los Angeles due to various factors.

12:34In Q3, film and TV production was down 5 % year over year, which may sound like a slump, but then think about what happened in Q3. The year before, there was no production happening at all because there were two strikes going on. So the fact that you declined 5 % over a year in which there wasn't anything going on is truly raising alarm bells in the California statehouse. So they're proposing more than doubling this tax credit from$330 million to$750 million to compete with states like Georgia, which is really eating Los Angeles' lunch for when it comes to production. And you're also competing with not just other states, but other countries as well.

13:14Canada has taken a huge bite out of L.A.'s entertainment industry. Really, any country is upping their tax incentive game to lure film production. U.K., Ireland, you know, the UAE is shelling out tons of money as well because they see it as a good return on investment. That if you bring in filming crews, then they have to spend money and it starts to trickle down effect on the local economy, which is essentially what California is banking on and what it has seen dried up over recent years. Yeah, that is how Gavin Newsom and co. have to sell this as a package that will trickle down. Government officials have said that tax incentives for film and television productions do end up benefiting local economies.

13:56Because think about it, creating a movie, you also are employing electricians, hair and makeup, ironically, hotels, dry cleaning, dining out. Like these are all industries propped up by it. But then some economists have voiced skepticism warning that you actually get a very poor return on investment with this. Studies have shown that tax revenue generated by film incentive programs only comes to about a quarter or even a dime of every dollar invested. So in some cases, they're saying it even costs taxpayers money. So California is dealing with a massive ballooning budget deficit. And here they are increasing tax credits or potentially increasing tax credits to the film industry.

14:33But you can't let it die. It is synonymous with the state. It is a big part of their economy, so they're kind of in a rock and a hard place right now. Meanwhile, because of these tax incentives, when you go to the movies, you might see some weird settings for places because filmmakers are going to the lowest cost area to film. And Paddington is coming out in the U.K. this month. The next Paddington film opens. Everyone knows that Paddington is from Peru, but actually this was filmed in Colombia, which has raised hackles at the highest levels of the U.K. government. Gladiator 2 was filmed in Malta specifically because of tax incentives.

15:07So it really is reshuffling the geography of filming, which will play out on screens as you go to the movies. Up next, take a sip of coffee and hang tight. Winners of the weekend is coming your way. The spirit of innovation is deeply ingrained in America. And Google is helping Americans innovate in ways both big and small. From improving emergency response times to protecting against cyber attacks, local, state, and federal governments are innovating with Google AI. This is a new era of American innovation. Find out more at g.co slash American Innovation. Lowe's knows how to help make your home holiday ready for less.

15:49Get Select Style Selections Vinyl Flooring for just$1.99 per square foot and have it installed before the festivities begin. Our team can help you every step of the way. See a Lowe's Red Vest Associate or visit lowes.com slash holiday install to get started. Lowe's. We help. You save. Basic install only. Date restrictions apply. Subject to availability. Install by independent contractors. See associate for details. Contiguous U.S. only. Welcome to Winners of the Weekend, the segment where Toby and I share two things that caught a Jaden Daniels Hail Mary. I won the pre-show espresso art competition with a beautiful tulip, so I get to go first.

16:29And my winner is food recalls. Feels like there have been so many recalls in the past few months that the next time you walk into a supermarket, the shelves will be completely empty. The trend continued on Friday when Costco said it was recalling certain packages of its Kirkland smoked salmon product, which I've eaten, over possible contamination from listeria. It was the third time Costco has been impacted by a product recall in two days. And it follows a slew of other scary headlines, a deadly listeria outbreak stemming from boar's head deli meats this summer, an E. coli outbreak from onions on McDonald's quarter pounders and numerous other recalls affecting grocery stores from ready to eat chicken to frozen waffles.

17:11So here's the big question. Is our food getting less safe? Are outbreaks and recalls getting more common? Before we get there, it's important to distinguish between a recall and an outbreak. An outbreak, like in the case of Boar's Head and McDonald's, indicates when people have fallen ill from a foodborne disease. A recall, on the other hand, doesn't mean anyone has gotten sick from the product. They happen because of the detection of potential contamination. There hasn't been a jump in outbreaks recently. Recalls have ticked higher this year, but not to abnormal levels. They're about in line or below pre-pandemic trends.

17:44So, Toby, what explains all the headlines? Yeah, it's an interesting scenario because on the one hand, you don't want there to be too many food recalls because that means there is contaminated food out there. But on the other hand, it does mean we are getting better at catching them. Government agencies are using more advanced testing. One is called a culture independent diagnostic test that are just a lot more sensitive to some of these pathogens that we are trying to detect. Also, the CDC and the FDA are trying to digitize better to better track these outbreaks. as they happen. So better testing does usually lead to more of these popping up.

18:21But our food supply chain is getting a little bit more complicated. There are more steps that contamination can potentially infiltrate and get into the food supply. So potentially that is leading to it as well. A lot of people eat processed foods too, and processed foods are more likely to attract these pathogens. So two things are happening at once. Maybe this food supply chain is getting more complicated but also just get getting better at identifying these recalls when they happen right and then among all countries the u.s ranks near the top for food safety and good news when it comes to that mcdonald's quarter pounder outbreak those burgers if you love them are coming back to the roughly 900 restaurants this week which is roughly a fifth of the company's total u.s footprint after that deadly e coli outbreak which was linked to onions from a single supplier, a farmer in, or a farming operation in California.

19:17I think they're just bringing them back without the onions. So those onions are still contaminated. They've been recalled and will not appear in your quarter pounder. But McDonald's is bringing those burgers back to those affected outlets. My winner of the weekend is everyone with a bit of a sweet tooth. Next time you roll up to a McDonald's craving an ice cream cone, the notoriously fickle machines might actually be working. The U.S. Copyright Office recently granted a key win to third parties, allowing them to diagnose and fix commercial equipment, including the machines that make you both McFlurries and McFurious, because of how often they are broken.

19:53So why is the Copyright Office getting involved in this at all? Well, technically, the software that runs on the ice cream machines is copyrighted work, and the law states that only the manufacturer of the equipment can bypass the digital locks to provide maintenance. But the new so-called right to the repair was won through an exemption filed by a consumer advocacy group last year asking the Copyright Office to allow someone other than the manufacturer Taylor to fix them. Neil, this is finally some good news for McDanks. It is because this, when you read into what the heck is going on, why, according to McBroken.com, which tracks broken McDonald's ice cream machines, nearly 15 % across the U.S.

20:34are currently broken, including 32 % in New York. When you look into those numbers, you're like, wow, McDonald's really can't fix their machines. But actually, this is a problem that is because of a monopoly, because of this one manufacturer, Taylor, is blocking people, regular people who actually operate these machines, the McDonald's franchisees, from actually fixing it because of their copyright. So they have this monopoly over this. You have to pay their service workers to go in. And it's part of this broader right to repair movement where advocacy groups are pushing against manufacturers to open up their tech and allow regular people to get in there with their Allen wrench.

21:14And I'm sure it takes a lot more than an Allen wrench and a screwdriver to actually fix these machines. We've seen wins when it comes to Apple allowing people to fix their own iPhones. There's been a lot of pressure on John Deere as well. So this continues the momentum of the right to the repair movement to allow regular people to fix machines that had previously you had to take to a technician that had been licensed and pay a bazillion dollars. My thought was always, why is McDonald's still using this manufacturer? Because everyone knows that McDonald's action machines are always broken. But the reason is it really is just historical precedent.

21:50They've been using these same machines dating back to a partnership all the way back in 1956. Ray Kroc had a handshake agreement with Taylor Machines, and they've just been using them ever since. You do want to create a consistency across your franchisees as well. You don't want one franchise using this machine, another one using this machine. So it is easier to just let the momentum and inertia of Taylor just continue to carry on. But I would be drilling into some other machines out there, see if we can get some that just don't break down because I'm a McDonald's ice cream fan. I hate when I can't get a McFlurry because the machine is broken.

22:24OK, it is Monday. So here's your preview of the big events of the week ahead. If earnings season were a Thanksgiving meal, the turkey is about to be served. The five most valuable corporations in the United States, Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta, Apple and Amazon, are reporting their earnings this week. Given that these tech giants account for nearly 25 percent of the S &P 500, it could cause some volatility in the market, depending on what they report. And of course, it's 2024. So investors will be dialed in on how their AI investments are panning out. We are in such a top heavy market right now where you have five companies essentially accounting for a quarter of this S &P 500.

23:04So these weeks are almost as important as any government data reports, any jobs reports that come out. Looks like the consensus is that growth is still there, but it might be slowing a little bit. Speaking of the jobs report, that is coming out on Friday for what will be the previous month, October, with the one we're in right now. And it's going to be really wacky, actually, because of those two hurricanes and the Boeing workers strike. So it might come in lower than you would be expecting. But it's going to be very hard to understand anything about the labor market because of those huge shocks to the system.

23:37We could see a decline in employment figures in October, which is something that we haven't seen in a long time. It's been since December 2020, which was obviously when we saw resurgence of COVID-19. So we have a very long streak on the line here. It is so weird. Like, you just don't know because of all these external factors going into this jobs report. And election day is just over a week away. And former President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are hitting the swing states hard. Remember, there are only seven toss-up states that are going to determine the election. Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan in the north, and Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona, and Nevada in the south and west.

24:15And according to the most recent polls, the race is just extremely, extremely tight. To baseball we go. The World Series shifts to the Bronx tonight with the Los Angeles Dodgers up two games to nil against the Yankees. And because of those back-to-back Yankees losses, ticket prices have fallen 28 % for tonight's game at Yankee Stadium, but it still costs you at least$1 ,000 to get in. So are we going, Neil? That's what I need to know. It's like perfect fall baseball weather. But I don't know. Shohei Otani is supposed to play, and he had a bit of an injury scare. I think that's going to make the ticket prices go back up.