Morning Wire - Disney Shakeup & Iran Protests Turn Deadly | 11.23.22

Episode Date: November 23, 2022

Disney ousts current CEO and brings back the former, protests in Iran take a turn, and overdoses– resulting from drug combinations– are on the rise. Get the facts first on Morning Wire.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Walt Disney company has brought back its former CEO, Bob Eiger, ousting Bob Chapic from the role. We look back at Chapic's tumultuous tenure and why many believe investors and board members made the switch. I'm Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Vickley with Georgia Howl. It's Wednesday, November 23rd, and this is Morning Wire. Protests in Iran have taken a deadly turn with women of all ages being beaten, jailed, and even killed in the streets. How is the scale of the protest evolved since they first began in September? And the fentanyl crisis is getting even more deadly, as overdoses resulting in a combination of drugs have risen significantly.

We look at concerning data comparing this year to years past. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. As inflation continues to plague our economy, how are you protecting your savings? Text Wire to 98989898 and Birch Cold will send you a free info kit on diversifying into gold tax-free. With almost 20 years of experience converting IRAs in 401,

K's into precious metal IRAs, Birch Gold can help you too. Plus, Birch Gold is giving out a free gold bar with any purchase made by December 22nd. But you must submit your claim by Black Friday. Text Wire to 98989898, and Birch Gold will send you a free info kit on diversifying into gold tax-free. Text WIRE to 98989-t today. Embattled CEO Bob Chapic is out at Disney following a tumbling stock price and a number of public battles over political issues. The Media Empire announced late Sunday evening that former CEO, Bob Iger, will be returning to replace him. Here to tell us what led to Chapix ouster and what might happen next in the Magic Kingdom is Daily Wire Culture Reporter, Megan Basham.

So Megan, Chapic is out and Iger is back in. That seems like a surprise. Yeah, it is. It really seemed to shock a lot of Hollywood. And I think the reason is that Disney's board had just awarded Chapic a new multi-year contract over the summer. So people tended to see that as a vote of confidence. But the reality was that Disney's stock price had taken a steady stream of blows. It had lost around 36% of its value in 2022. And the company's streaming division had losses topping $1.5 billion in the last quarter. Because of that, Chappick announced on November 11th that he was going to freeze hiring

and layoffs would probably be coming. And in fact, streamlining operations and trimming fat is really what Bob Chappick was hired to do. He's kind of known for being a focused financial operator. And Disney had been suffering bloat even before the pandemic posed some, we have to admit, historic challenges. There was the shutting down on the theme parks and film and TV productions. Well, Chepic actually weathered those challenges pretty well by most standards. But his wavering on other problems within the company is what seemed to get the better of him.

Now, what problems specifically are you referring to? Well, you know, we saw, of course, the internal unrest over Disney's shifting stances regarding social issues, for example. Specifically, there was Florida's legislation preventing public schools from teaching younger students about gender and sexuality. At first, Chapic said Disney was going to stay quiet about that new legislation and that the company was not going to be political going forward. But when employees revolted, the pendulum kind of seemed to swing in another extreme. leaked tape showed Chapick apologizing somewhat abjectly for that position. He and other Disney executives instead promised that Disney would fight Florida's bill. And on top of that, it would add more LGBT elements to its children's content.

Well, all of that had some concrete financial consequences when Governor Ron DeSantis responded by stripping Disney of its special tax privileges for the Redie Creek District, and that's where Disney World sits. And then, of course, it was just terrible PR for Disney's key customer base, which happens to be parents and kids. One Disney staffer told me on background today, and I'll just quote him, Chapic was weak. I think he had the right impulses early on, but the woke activists and the company smelled the weakness and took advantage of it. Now, why are they going back to Iger, though? I mean, he's retired.

He's 71. Why not bring in someone new? Well, you know, I think given all that instability, the board process, probably felt that it needed a practiced hand back at that tiller. Iger had been Disney's previous CEO for 15 years during a period of really massive expansion that saw Disney acquire a lot of properties including Marvel, Hicksar, 20th century Fox, Lucasfilm, which of course means Star Wars. And frankly, it was Iger who positioned Disney as a more politically progressive company in the first place. A lot of activist employees liked that about him. My sources inside

Disney tell me there's a lot of celebrating going on right now in the Disney Slack channel that's dedicated to LGBT pride. So the feeling could be that Iger is going to quiet all of that internal dissension. But what's clear is Disney is viewing Iger as a temporary solution. In the announcement of his return, the board said that he's only signing on for two years and a key part of his role in that time is going to be, and I'm just going to quote, developing a successor to lead the company. Still, one issue that they're going to face is that Disney remains a massively bloated company that needs to streamline. And Bob Eiger was actually the executive who created a lot of that problem. So it's very unlikely that he's going to make any kind of serious cuts.

And that's something that we're going to want to watch, especially as this most recent move is likely causing a lot of angst amongst investors. Making this switch less than a year after the board unanimously extended Chapix contract definitely gives off something of a sense of floundering, within the operation. Right. Well, it'll be interesting to see what Iger does.

Megan, thanks so much for reporting. Yeah, anytime. That was Daily Wire Culture reporter, Megan Basham. Coming up, protests and Iran turned deadly as the government cracks down. Are you tired of being

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Daily Wire investigative reporter Mairead Alorty is here with the details for us. So, Marade, what's the latest on these protests? Hi, Georgia. Well, the latest is pretty disturbing. The Iranian government is cracking down extremely hard on these protesters, many of whom are young, teenagers. Protesters are often beaten and detained in jail. Some have been beaten after they were taken into custody. Others have been shot and killed in the streets. Now, Iran has had political unrest in the past. What sparked this round of protests? These demonstrations began after the September death of a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman named Masa Amini. Amini was arrested and

detained by Iran's religious morality police for not wearing a hijab properly. Women who were arrested with her say she was severely beaten by police and she died days later in a Tehran hospital. In the week since Amini's death, some female protesters have publicly cut their hair or refused to wear the hijab during the demonstrations. In fact, the protests have been largely led by women. Essentially, they're demanding freedom from Iran's clerical rule. Now, how large are these protests? These protests are reportedly more widespread than the political protests Iran saw in 2009, 2017. and 2019. Iran has already arrested more than 14,000 people and charged at least 1,000 with crimes in the Tehran province. Protesters have marched in the streets around the country daily since September 16th.

They've scuffled with law enforcement and allegedly set fire to government buildings. Over the weekend, authorities sentenced the first person to death over the protests, convicting the person of enmity against God and spreading corruption on earth, according to state media. According to the group Iran Human Rights, Iran's security forces have killed at least 326 protesters since the demonstrations began two months ago. Also, earlier this month, a majority of Iran's parliament wrote a letter to the judiciary calling for protesters to be taught a good lesson and face harsh punishments, which could include the death penalty. Now, you mentioned that many of the protesters are young. Are the Iranian police dealing with them differently because of that, or are they cracking down just as hard? No, the police seem to be treating the teen protesters just as harshly as the adults.

The average age of the protesters is about 15, and Iran's youth have been particularly harmed in this crackdown, according to lawyers and human rights activists. Authorities have even raided schools and beaten students to death, including a 15-year-old girl. One extremely disturbing development being reported by CNN and the BBC is that many women and girls involved in the women's rights protests appear to have been violently raped in police custody. Police apparently commit sexual violence on protesters as young as 13 or 14 as a way to discourage the demonstrations. So a very violent approach from the Iranian police. Marade, thanks for

reporting. Thanks, Georgia. That was Daily Wire investigative reporter, Marade Allorty. As the fentanyl crisis makes national headlines, an additional layer to the tragedy is now clear. The combination of fentanyl with other drugs such as methamphetamine is creating a new overdose crisis. Here with more information is Daily Wire's Charlotte Pincebone. So Charlotte, the crisis worsens. What's the latest on this? Well, the latest is even more grim. The CDC says more than 150 people die every day from overdoses related to synthetic opioids, including fentanyl. And now there is an increasing amount of overdoses that are being caused by a combination of multiple drugs. Last year, 20% of the total fatal overdoses included in opioid like fentanyl and a psychostimulant like meth. That's according to

to preliminary federal information. But 10 years before that, those combos only made up around 2% of fatal overdoses. But of course, using any of these drugs on their own poses serious health risks and even death. Meth can lead to deadly heart damage, hallucinations, and erratic actions. Last year, around two-thirds of people who died while using psychostimulants also had opioids in their system. But that isn't always intentional. Sometimes the drug they buy is laced or there's cross-contamination where it's made. And are we seeing an increase in overdose deaths across the board? Yes. Federal data shows that last year, around 33,400 deaths involved psychostimulants,

which was an increase of more than 340% from five years before. In the same amount of time, fatalities involving synthetic opioids increased 270%, and total drug fatalities also went up, 71%. As psychostimulant deaths have gone up, so have deaths that also involved opioids. And last year, around 75% of meth-related fatalities in the state of North Carolina also involved fentanyl. Meth and fentanyl use have both surge across the country and are spreading into new regions. For example, drug traffickers are pushing meth into the northeast, and fentanyl availability is increasing in western states where meth once dominated. Now, we've seen that fentanyl is spreading beyond border states, but what are the numbers now on the border in terms of trafficking?

We're just seeing more and more fentanyl smuggled across the border. For example, a Mexican man was recently sentenced to prison for his involvement with an attempted smuggling of meth and fentanyl. The seizure was the country's biggest for each drug for the calendar years 2021 and 2022 as of last month. The trafficking attempt included over 17,000 pounds of meth and about 389 pounds of fentanyl. This month, border officers found 26 pounds of meth and 10 pounds of fentanyl in El Paso in the same smuggling effort. Port director Ray Provencio said that it's not normal to find huge

quantities of two different heart drugs, but dual smuggling is becoming more common. As of October, Border Patrol had seized over 1,000 pounds of fentanyl since the start of this fiscal year. That's a 200% increase from the last year. And while fentanyl seizures are more of a recent trend, the inflow of meth has been a problem for much longer. Well, let's hope we see some progress on this crisis soon. Charlotte, thanks for reporting. having me. That was Daily Wire's Charlotte Pinsbond. Other stories we're tracking this week. The U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Border Patrol say that over 100 migrants were saved from a boat before it crashed into a sandbar in the Florida Keys on Monday, and that an additional

18 migrants from Haiti were also saved. Democratic governor of New Jersey, Phil Murphy, is changing his position against bear hunting. The reversal comes as the bear population has risen in the state and amid a spiking number of dangerous encounters. Thanks for listening to Morning Wire. We created this show to bring more balance to the national conversation. If you love our show and you stand with our mission, consider subscribing, leaving us a five-star rating, and most importantly, sharing our podcast with a friend. That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back later this afternoon with more news you need to know. Hey there, producer Golden here. While today's coffee often comes with hints of soy and social justice, black rifle delivers an entirely different experience.

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