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CNN 10
Disney Buys 21st Century Fox; A "Net Neutrality" Decision; The Work of the Natural History Museum
Aired December 15, 2017 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: I`m Carl Azuz for CNN 10.
If you don`t like me hearing say, "Fridays are awesome", you`re going to get a break. This is our last show of 2017, and we will be back with
jingle bells on Thursday, January 4th.
First story is about a major media business deal in the U.S. Disney plans to buy 21st Century Fox. The deal is significant partly because of its
size. These companies are known worldwide and they`re two of the biggest players in Hollywood.
Disney owns the Disney Studios, stores, theme parks and cruise line. It owns TV channels like ESPN and it has part of the Internet streaming
service Hulu. Under the Fox umbrella, there are sports networks, the FX networks, National Geographic, hundreds of international channels and also
part of Hulu.
And streaming entertainment is the big reason why Disney is spending $52.4 billion on Fox. It wants to expand its content online to better compete
with rival companies like Netflix. In fact, Disney is taking its products off Netflix as Disney prepares to launch its own Internet streaming
service. What`s not part of the deal: Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network and Fox Sports. They`ll be separated and formed into a new
company.
When will all this happen? The deal is expected to take at least a year to go through, if it goes through. If first has to be approved by the U.S.
government, which will consider whether the new company would have too much control over the market and what consumers pay.
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission voted yesterday to relax the government`s rules concerning "net neutrality". The vote was 3-2, with
three Republicans voting to repeal the rules and two Democrats voting to keep them in place. The repeal won`t take effect immediately. That should
happen sometime next year.
And what it means is that Internet service providers like Comcast and Verizon will no longer be prevented from speeding up or slowing down
Internet traffic from specific Websites or applications. They`ll also be allowed to prioritize their own content. But if they do any of this,
they`ll have to show publicly that they did and then the government will decide whether it`s fair or not.
Perspective on whether this is a good or bad thing depends on whom you talk to.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JON SARLIN, CNNMONEY PRODUCER: If the Internet is a highway, vehicles or content providers can`t pay more to use a special fast lane. Think of it
this way: all content is created equal in the eyes of the Internet provider. That`s the basic tenet behind net neutrality. So, if the
Internet is neutral, then the Internet provides are treated basically like public utilities. Comcast or AT&T, they couldn`t slow down or speed up
certain content. But if net neutrality ends, some companies are going to be stuck in that slow lane.
The rules that made the Net neutral were put in place during the Obama administration.
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT: This set of principles, the idea of net neutrality, has unleashed the power of the Internet and given innovators
the chance to thrive.
SARLIN: But now, things are going in a different direction. Ajit Pai is now the chairman of the FCC. He`s a former lawyer for Verizon.
AJIT PAI, FCC CHAIRMAN: Entrepreneurs are constantly developing new technologies and services, but too often, they`re unable to bring them to
market for consumers because outdate rules or regulatory inertia stand in the way.
SARLIN: To him, repealing net neutrality will lead to innovation, that will get the government out of micromanaging the Internet. The Internet
providers will have more money, they`ll then invest more in infrastructure and we`ll have faster streaming.
But while deregulation certainly has earned the phrase of the telecommunications industry, on the other side of the coin, you have tech
companies and consumer advocacy groups. The open question now, will repeal of net neutrality leads to innovation or to a traffic jam?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ (voice-over): Ten-second trivia:
Which of these Smithsonian museums was the first to open?
Natural History Museum, Museum of American History, Air and Space Museum, or Museum of the American Indian?
Having opened in l910, the Natural History Museum was the first on this list to be opened in the public.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: I was under a green dome on the National Mall in Washington D.C. The Natural History Museum has its own insect collection. Remember the
ones you had to collect and pin for science class? This place has 30 million.
Today`s "Great Big Story" takes us behind the scenes at the Museum of Natural History, where 99 percent of its artifacts are actually kept.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have sound speeds down rolling. Ready?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Roll picture.
DR. KIRK JOHNSON, DIRECTOR, SMITHSONIAN NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM: The Smithsonian`s National Museum of Natural History has over 144 million
objects like this narwhal tusks.
My name is Kirk Johnson. I`m in charge of all of them.
Ninety-nine percent of the collections are behind the scenes. These are the people that work with them.
This is Carla Dove in the division of birds.
CARLA DOVE, VERTEBRATE ZOOLOGIST, DIVISION OF BIRDS: Here in the division of birds, we have somewhere around 620,000 museum specimens, and that
represents about 85 percent of the diversity of birds in the world.
You look at these specimens and you realize that this is where the science is really going to start. We`re using our collections to identify birds
that collide with airplanes and help us improve aviation safety.
JOHNSON: Dr. Bob Robbins, curator of butterflies and moths.
DR. ROBERT ROBBINS, CURATOR OF LEPIDOPTERA: I have been professionally employed as a lepidopterist and worked some butterflies for about 35 years.
This is the essence of my being, is to know everything about butterflies. There`s a whole world out there that unless you look very closely, you
don`t see and it`s an interesting world. It`s a fascinating world and it is full of practical value for human beings.
JOHNSON: This is Ellen Strong, curator of mollusks.
DR. ELLEN STRONG, RESEARCH ZOOLOGIST, CURATOR OF MOLLUSCA: What I love about this collection is its breadth. We estimate that we may have as many
as 20 million specimens. We are preserving a record of past life on this planet, of present life on this planet, and preserving that for the future.
I take that responsibility very seriously and providing access and caring for the specimens for posterity,
JOHNSON: Dr. Jeff Post, curator of the national gem and mineral collection.
DR. JEFF POST, CHAIR, DEPARTMENT OF MINERAL SCIENCES: Minerals in this collection go from something that formed maybe the last few tens of years
to others that form more than three billion years ago. We know right now there are more than 5,000 minerals that make up the Earth. And in our
collection, we probably have more than half of those. Each one`s a little piece of the puzzle and you try to put all these things together and
hopefully eventually understand the big picture of how the earth works.
JOHNSON: And Floyd Shockley, collection manager for entomology.
DR. FLOYD SHOCKLEY, MUSEUM SPECIALIST, ENTOMOLOGY: We have just a little over 35 million specimens in the collection, a third of all insect life on
earth is represented by at least one specimen or collection. When you look at a collection the size of ours, you`re starting to get to a point where
you can ask really big questions -- the questions related to global climate change, habitat destruction, and you can only answer those big questions
when you have a lot of specimens collected over a long period of time, from a lot of different species.
JOHNSON: To understand the Earth and living things in the Earth, you need to collect those things and preserve them and study them and that helps you
when you need food or when you have a disease, all that stuff arcs back the fact that we have samples of the whole planet here and that`s how we
understand the planet.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AZUZ: It`s very merry Christmas Island for carcinologists. Those are folks who study crustaceans and this is part of the annual red crab
migration on Christmas Island in the Southern Indian Ocean. They come from rainforests all over the island, moving in unison toward the beaches where
they relish their eggs. If they have to cross a road, the road is closed. And this can disrupt traffic with tens of millions of crabs doing this
every year in fall and winter.
They rock out to hits like Rudolph the red crab reindeer, crabble of the bells, rock crabbing around the Christmas tree and here come Santa claws.
They may not always get home in time for the holidays but you can`t take a sleigh ride when your journey has 10 legs.
I`m Crabrl Azuz. Thank you for making 2017 our most watched year ever. We wish all of you a merry Christmas and a happy Hanukkah, happy holidays, and
we look forward to seeing you on January 4th, 2018.
END
