OZY - Daily Dose

10 MUST READS TODAY

Wednesday
March 20, 2019

1	Politics & Power

Politics & Power

The Former Chick-Fil-A Manager Paving the Crossroads of Conservative Media

Can Gaston Mooney’s Blaze Media go head-to-head with Fox Nation?

Gaston Mooney sat in the Louisiana living room of Phil Robertson, trying to get the Duck Dynasty reality TV star to join his recently formed conservative media empire. “He’s in his recliner, doesn’t have his shoes on, because he’s Phil, he’s authentic,” Mooney says. “He had just gotten done praying with a drug addict, trying to help minister to him, and he turns and says, ‘Hey, what do we have to talk about?’”

It was a little bit of a “pinch-me moment,” Mooney says. But it’s one the 35-year-old Blaze Media president is well prepared for. Since helping CRTV and TheBlaze join forces in December — a partnership that united the media projects of pro-Trump conservative Mark Levin and (former) Never Trumper Glenn Beck — Mooney has led Blaze Media in its competition against the Fox News digital arm Fox Nation to become the go-to source for conservatives online.

2	Fast Forward

Fast Forward

The Fentanyl Epidemic’s Other Victim: Mexican Poppy Farmers

Mexico is staring at an opium bust that could make its poor poorer and drive up violence and migration.

Juan remembers the first time he went to a poppy field as a young child with his dad. His father was taught how to farm the crop by Juan’s grandfather. Now Juan’s in his mid-50s, and his son has taken charge of the hectare of poppy plants that the family manages, an hour’s drive by all-terrain vehicle from their village in the mountains of Culiacán, Sinaloa.

Two or three times a year, the paste harvested from these plants is bought by middlemen working with the Sinaloa cartel that used to be run by Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. They process it into heroin and send it north to the U.S. to feed the demand from addicts. But a changing tide in the drug trade is threatening what — ethics aside — is a tradition and way of life for humble farmers across Mexico.

3	Need to Know

Need to Know

Kevin Tsujihara and the Weinsteins That Bind

The first Asian-American CEO of a major film studio sees his career journey end in scandal.

Quiet and courteous. Those were the first two adjectives The New York Times used in 2014 to describe Kevin Tsujihara, the Japanese-American executive who had risen to CEO of Warner Bros. Entertainment the previous year. Hollywood didn’t know what to do with this humble son of egg distributors in the San Francisco Bay Area, absent the flash, the histrionics, the showboating that so often defined executives in this land of hedonistic pleasure and artistry.

Tsujihara was thriving, though, landing $450 million in financing for 75 new movies, the holy grail of a new Harry Potter franchise and two notable battles with a film studio titan. Yet his professional demise — which came to fruition with the 54-year-old’s resignation from Warner Bros. on Monday after leading the company to its most profitable year ever in 2017 — was already in writing as well. The film studio titan he jousted with? None other than the brash and vulgar Harvey Weinstein, who it turns out had more in common with Tsujihara than expected. And that half a billion in financing? It came from Brett Ratner, who has been accused of sexual misconduct by at least six women, and his business partner James Packer, the Australian billionaire who acted as a sexual fixer the night of Tsujihara’s career-ending sin.

4	Immodest proposal

America, Stamp Out This Four-Letter Word Via Reality TV

Fed up with Americans abusing the word “like”? It’s high time we made a game out of it.

Flashback

This School of Assassins Was a US Foreign Policy Debacle

The institution gave rise to some of the continent’s greatest human rights abusers.

6	Rising Stars

Meet the Woman Bringing E-Commerce to West Africa

Entrepreneur Rania Belkahia talks about her backers, ambitious growth — and when your customers have no postal address.

Good Sh*t

Slip Sliding Away? Here's How to Ice-Proof Your Shoes

After a brush with America’s scariest hike on an icy day, this reporter reflects on ways to slip-proof your shoes.

8	The Huddle

These Point Guards Can Slay the March Giants

What’s the recipe for success come tourney time? Start with a point guard who runs the show.

9	Immodest proposal

Earn Your Right to Buy New Clothes

When fashion is linked to one of the biggest environmental disasters in the world, consumers are responsible for stemming the waste.

10	Fast Forward

Why People Are Flocking From California to Arizona

As people exit the Golden State in growing numbers, the Grand Canyon State is becoming an attractive alternative.

You Should Know This


Forget Milan. African Fashion Is Taking Over the World.

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