Get woke, go broke: Pious, political Oscars crashes, loses tens of millions of viewers https://thehill.com/opinion/civil-r...litical-oscars-crashes-loses-tens-of-millions The year was 1998. The venue: the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles for the 70th annual Academy Awards. The movie everyone was buzzing about on the red carpet was “Titanic,” which shattered box office records and made Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet the late 20th century version of Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh and director James Cameron the next Steven Spielberg. The great Billy Crystal served as host of the show, marking his sixth time on television's biggest stage outside of the Super Bowl. America was immersed in the telecast on ABC, with more than 57 million people tuning in. Fast forward to 2021. The venue: Union Station in Los Angeles and the Dolby Theatre. There was no movie anyone was buzzing about. No household-name stars were nominated unless Anthony Hopkins – who won his last Oscar 30 years ago – counts. There wasn't even a host for the show, because the Academy thought it was a great idea to eliminate the position for reasons unclear when a raw, unfiltered talent such as Ricky Gervais would have been just the person to lift our spirits. America was apathetic about the telecast on ABC, with just 9.85 million people tuning in. Think about that number for a moment: That's 47 million fewer people tuning in than 23 years ago. Oh, but there are streaming options sucking away viewers, you say. But that can’t explain such a large drop off. As recently as 2014, 40 million Americans watched the Oscars, or 30 million more people than on Sunday. So, what drove this stunningly horrific number? For starters, the Oscars is much like late-night "comedy" these days, where viewers can tune in to see Stephen Colbert or Seth Meyers or Trevor Noah make poignant arguments about abolishing the filibuster or the Supreme Court. Humor? What's that? Escapism? A foreign concept. The acceptance speeches at this year's Academy Awards were also a hoot. "Today the police will kill three people. And tomorrow the police will kill three people," said actor Trayvon Free after winning Best Live Action Short Oscar. "And the day after that, the police will kill three people because on average the police in America every day kill three people, which amounts to about a thousand people a year. And those people happen to disproportionately be Black people." Besides the speech being utterly depressing to give at what is supposed to be a celebratory awards show, it also leaves out one very key element: An overwhelming majority of people who die at the hands of police – George Floyd notwithstanding – are armed at the time. Free doesn't bother sharing that part, no doubt leading some viewers, particularly younger ones, to believe that cops are just playing target practice with unarmed victims on a daily and nightly basis. Regardless of the argument, many Americans don't want to hear about anything political at the Oscars. “Increasingly, the ceremonies are less about entertainment honors and more about progressive politics, which inevitably annoys those in the audience who disagree," reads a New York Times story. "One recent producer of the Oscars, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential metrics, said minute-by-minute post-show ratings analysis indicated that 'vast swaths' of people turned off their televisions when celebrities started to opine on politics.” The tone was set from the very beginning by Regina King, who kicked off the fun by talking about the Derek Chauvin guilty verdict for the killing of George Floyd. "I have to be honest, if things had gone differently this past week in Minneapolis, I may have traded in my heels for marching boots." Piers Morgan put it perfectly in The Daily Mail: "The Oscars had one job after the whole world had endured a year of hell with the coronavirus pandemic: make us feel better," he explained. "The fact it made us all feel slightly worse by the end is an almost miraculously bad achievement worthy of winning an award itself." In focusing on all-things woke, the show's producers screwed up, especially what was supposed to be a climatic finish with the announcement of winner of Best Actor. "And the award goes to: Anthony Hopkins for 'The Father.'" If you're wondering what the classy Hopkins said in his acceptance speech last night, keep wondering. He – like so many stars – didn't attend. A Zoom link to his home in Wales may have been helpful, but that didn't happen. Turns out, according to his agent, the 83-year-old was fast asleep. Hopkins wasn't alone. Most of America was likely asleep at that point of the show as well. Go woke. Go broke. Professional sports leagues like the NBA are learning this the hard way. In the same year that 57 million tuned into the Oscars, 37 million watched Michael Jordan’s Bulls win their sixth championship in Utah. Last year's NBA Finals with LeBron James, the wokest of woke players, was watched by 5.6 million when the Lakers clinched the title. That's more than 30 million viewers... gone. Can the Oscars ever be appointment viewing again? Don't bet on it. Because when an awards show is indistinguishable from a congressional floor speech by AOC or a CNN town hall, most of the country will continue to say, "Thanks, but no thanks."
Go broke? Compare sports revenues than to now. Can't compare Oscars ratings back than and now with all the other viewing options available now that didn't exist back than.
Yes,it can.Netflix had 53 million subscribers in 2014,it has over 200 million today.Disney+ has over 100 million.There is also Halu,Amazon steaming and Paramount streaming.
Put politics aside..... there were hardly any movie theaters open for people to see the movies the Oscars were giving out awards to... Most people were watching streaming shows this past year. I did not watch the Oscars this year not because of the politics but because I did not watch any new movies at all this year and did not know anyt of the ones nominated at all.... Oscars create buzz for movie goers and movies are often released and re released for Oscar voters but with almost 0 movie theaters open or limited capacity it was a shitty year for movies overall.
WOKE COKE: Soda giant's radical diversity plan in question after top lawyer resigns amid intense backlash Coca-Cola pauses aggressive diversity plan after chief lawyer resigns Pause comes after Coke’s former general counsel Bradley Gayton abruptly resigned last month https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifesty...ive-diversity-plan-after-chief-lawyer-resigns Coca-Cola has paused its controversial diversity plan — that included penalties on outside law firms if they failed to meet racial diversity quotas — after intense backlash. The pause comes after the orchestrator of the plan, Coke’s former general counsel Bradley Gayton, abruptly resigned last month after less than a year on the job and as criticism of the quotas mounted. Some questioned whether Gayton’s policies violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which says employers can’t treat people differently based on their race. Scott Leith, a spokesman for Coke, said Gayton’s replacement, Monica Howard Douglas, is now reviewing the plan. "When there is a leadership change, it takes time for the new leader to review the current status of the team, organization and initiatives," he said. "Monica is fully committed to the notions of equity and diversity in the legal profession, and we fully expect she will take the time necessary to thoughtfully review any plans going forward." In January, Gayton made headlines when he unveiled his plans to penalize outside law firms that failed to meet new diversity quotas by slashing their fees or cutting ties with them altogether. Under the plan, any law firm seeking to do business with the company was required to commit that at least 30 percent of billed time would be from "diverse attorneys," and at least half of that time would be from Black attorneys. "The hard truth is that our profession is not treating the issue of diversity and inclusion as a business imperative," Gayton wrote in January, unveiling the plan. "We have a crisis on our hands and we need to commit ourselves to specific actions that will accelerate the diversity of the legal profession." But Gayton’s sudden resignation last month has thrown the plan into doubt, with outsiders criticizing the plan and urging Coca-Cola to walk it back. Legal defense foundation Project on Fair Representation published an open letter to Coca-Cola last week warning that Coke’s outside counsel "racial quota requirements" are "unlawful." In a meeting with Coke’s global legal team, Douglas, the company’s new general counsel, said that Coca-Cola was "taking a pause for now" but would likely salvage some parts of the diversity plan, Law.com reported. Coca-Cola hired Gayton in September 2020 after spending nearly 30 years as the top lawyer at Ford. Despite his departure from Coke as general counsel, he still has a relationship with the company. He signed a new contract to serve as a consultant to Coca-Cola CEO James Quincey. In that position, he’ll be making a hefty $12 million over the next year. That included a $4 million sign-on fee and a monthly consulting fee of $666,666, according to an April 21 securities filing. It’s unclear how Gayton will be able to impact the company’s outside law firm diversity plan in his new position. t’s hardly Coke’s first stab at being woke. In February, employees were urged to be "less white" as part of the company’s alleged diversity training. The "Confronting Racism" course in question was offered by LinkedIn Education and allegedly utilized by the soft-drink titan. "In the U.S. and other Western nations, white people are socialized to feel that they are inherently superior because they are white," reads one of the slides, allegedly sent from an "internal whistleblower" and posted on Twitter by YouTube commentator Karlyn Borysenko. Another slide suggests "try to be less white" with tips including "be less oppressive," "listen," "believe" and "break with white solidarity." The tweet that shared images of the course went viral. More recently, Republican lawmakers have criticized Coke for embracing Democratic-party positions. The Atlanta-based outfit made headlines in April for denouncing a Georgia state law that critics said blocked black people and other people of color from voting. GOP lawmakers in turn blasted the company and others that issued statements on the law, telling the corporations to stay out of politics and accusing them of hypocrisy.
I don't drink soda either. I have not for several years. In my opinion soda is basically a choice between dying of diabetes (regular) or cancer (diet). But this is only my opinion -- not a proven fact.
I think there is a serious link between sugar and diabetes/cancer, as well as other "western" diseases like Alzheimer's.