GOP Senator Grills Netflix Boss On Why His Platform Hosts ‘The Wokest Content in the History of the World’

Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) grilled Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos on his platform hosting the “wokest content in the history of the world” during a Tuesday congressional hearing.

Sarandos faced questions from senators on Tuesday as his streaming company is awaiting approval to acquire Warner Bros Discovery. Schmitt used his time to take issue with messages posted by Netflix to social media and to accuse Sarandos of pushing the “wokest content in the history of the world.”

Schmitt noted multiple posts made by the company following the killing of George Floyd by police officer Derek Chauvin in May 2020 in Minneapolis.

“Okay, in the wake of the George Floyd riots, on June 20th, Netflix posted on its page, ‘To my white friends, guilt, shame, embarrassment.’ What does that mean?” Schmitt asked.

Sarandos said he was unaware of any such post and called such statements a mistake.

“As I said, sir, we have no political agenda. Posting something like that would be quite political. Right, I would agree. Yes, and I would hope that wouldn’t happen again,” the Netflix boss said.

Schmitt also took issue with Netflix content engaging in “race swapping,” arguing it was one example of the company pushing DEI policies.

The senator said:

Both you and Netflix both have made a habit of promoting DEI and wokeness. I’ll just give a few examples. Netflix content is synonymous for the modern phenomenon of race swapping both historical and real and fictional characters. Just a few examples: Netflix made black Vikings, Netflix changed Cleopatra from Macedonian to Black, Achilles changed from Greek to Black, Netflix overtly sexualizes children in its Cuties film related to pre-teen girls. You mentioned earlier that you can block for titles. I’m not sure blocking the word “cuties” would shield kids from the over-sexualized content in cuties, so I’m sure that’s sufficient enough. Netflix continues to push sexual and gender theory on kids.

He asked whether Sarandos stands by these content decisions.

“Sen. Schmitt, we have a great deal of programming on Netflix for all left, right, and center. We have state-of-the-art tools for parents to manage what their kids see on Netflix. You can block anything. What you just described is exactly how it works. You block that title,” Sarandos pushed back.

Schmitt continued accusing Netflix of having a major left-leaning bias.

“The question before this committee, and you come before Congress, why in the world would we give a seal of approval or a thumbs up to make you the largest behemoth on the planet related to content? It seems as though you have engaged in creating not only a monopoly of content potentially, but the wokest content in the history of the world?” the senator said.

Sarandos argued Netflix’s customers are a mix politically and their general feelings about the company are similar to how they feel about the state of the country at a given moment.

“If you ask a Netflix member today, or a consumer today generally, how they view Netflix, I think that a proof point that we might be doing the right thing is they talk about Netflix in the exact same terms as they talk about the country, about 40% conservative, about 40%, liberal, and about 20% don’t know,” he said.

Watch above via CSPAN.

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