It’s not much of a surprise when Apple TV’s liberal drama The Morning Show pushes leftist propaganda. But it is surprising when they basically admit how extremely far left they are by claiming the elitist media is a “corporate tool of the white center-right.”
Such was the case in episode 6 of this season, “If Then,” which focused on Stella (Greta Lee), the CEO of the new UBN network who can’t stand white people, especially white men.
Yet she’s still accused of not being “an ally” because she brought back disgraced former network president Cory (Billy Crudup), a move she was forced to make when Cory blackmailed her over her affair with the husband of UBN’s president and board member Celine (Marion Cotillard).
The move negatively affected two women of color at the network: Mia (Karen Pittman), who quit and is now working as an agent for the other woman, Chris (Nicole Beharie). Just after Stella gives a noir-style soliloquy on legacy media being a “corporate tool of the white center-right,” Mia negotiates Chris’s contract with Stella. It’s at their meeting that Mia accuses Stella of “not being one of us” because she’s “surrounded by white people”:
Stella: When Cory offered me Head of News, I laughed in his face. Legacy media, a corporate tool of the white center-right. I let him pay for lunch and I walked away. But he came back, like a migraine. He said I could push the stories I cared about. Drag the doubters, kicking and screaming, into the future. He told me to burn it down. Burn anyone who got in my way. Talent can’t have editorial control over the news. It runs counter to our mission of objective reporting. You know that.
Mia: [Cartoonish conservative talk-show host] Bro Hartman can say whatever he wants, whenever he wants.
Stella: His show isn’t news. I’m sorry, it’s a nonstarter. And as for a producing pod, we don’t have the money. And no one has cohost approval.
Marcus: Alex Levy does.
Stella: As Vice President of Talent, not as an anchor.
Marcus: That’s a distinction without a difference.
Stella: Look. I understand that the response to her interview has been generally positive.
Marcus: Yeah, that’s an understatement.
Stella: I get that you want a better deal. And I’m open to it. But not until the current deal is up.
Mia: Deal is up now. Figure it out, or we’re gonna go somewhere else.
Stella: Would you give us a moment?
Marcus: Take all the moments you need.
Stella: So, what? Now you’re trying to leverage me?
Mia: I’m giving you a heads-up. That’s more than you gave me.
Stella: You’re not getting this deal. I won’t give it to you. And once Chris realizes that…
Mia: Oh, she’s realizing things. Like, you brought Cory Ellison back in the building. That’s a hell of a move. And then giving him money and saying there’s nothing left for us.
Stella: He’s making movies. It’s different.
Mia: You know, I remember when you got this job. You said you were gonna do it differently, do it right. And here you are, surrounded by white people and stepping on women of color to stay in that chair. You’re not one of us. You never were.
Later, as Stella enjoys another tryst with Celine’s husband Miles (Aaron Pierre), she excuses both her affair and her cutthroat business practices, claiming they came from her “inner straight white guy” who she “hates”:
Stella: I took the job because it was impossible. I wanted the chance to fix something unfixable. Show the world that I could run the place without slitting any throats. That I could do it differently from Cory, from Paul. Then little by little, my inner straight white guy started clawing his way out… Telling me to get it done no matter what the cost. I hated that guy. So, I did what he would do. I fell into bed with the one person who could blow up my life.
Trying to come to terms with her decisions, she has a conversation with the AI version of herself, which is part of an overall AI project Stella introduced to UBN to help advance the network into the future.
Despite helping the company succeed financially, she bemoans the fact she hasn’t been able to push any DEI initiatives:
Stella: Am I a good CEO?
AI Stella: I think so. But, you know, I’m a little biased.
Stella: What makes me good?
AI Stella: You’ve cut costs. You’ve increased revenue. UBN stock is up 6% since you took over.
Stella: So, money.
AI Stella: Is there another metric?
Stella: What about company culture? Opening doors for underrepresented groups.
AI Stella: Like the Iranian fencer?
Stella: No. Like our employees.
AI Stella: The demographic shifts at UBN have been the same for the past five years.
Stella: So, Mia’s right. I am Cory 2.0. I’m not an ally.
AI Stella: Do you think you’re an ally?
Stella: I made an Asian woman lick up a martini to close a deal. So, no. I guess not. I’m racist and sexist. And I stepped on people who look like me to get to where I am.
AI Stella: If you didn’t do that, would you have gotten the CEO job?
Stella: Of course not. Because equality doesn’t matter. Fairness doesn’t matter. It doesn’t make the stock move. Which is why it’s only a matter of time before I get fired and replaced with a white guy, because at least he plays golf.
AI Stella: You suck at golf.
Stella: I f**king know that.
But she made the stock move, so why would she be “fired and replaced with a white guy”? #MakeItMakeSense. It’s like the show accidentally made a case for imaginary oppression and false victimhood that’s so prominent on the left.
When Stella gives a presentation on the AI project, AI Stella glitches and spills real Stella’s secret insecurities as well as her affair with Miles as Celine watches in shock:
Man: A question.
Host: Actually, I’m asking the questions but if it’s a good one, go for it, dude.
Stella: Yeah. Go ahead.
Alex: No, no, no.
Man: Is this a talent replacement tool or just a way to keep them in line? I ask because I heard Chris Hunter is being denied contract parity with white anchors at UBN. And that’s why she’s threatening to sit out the Olympics, and why she’s boycotted today’s event.
Stella: Well, that’s… Actually…
AI Stella: Chris is great. We love Chris. But we all know DEI is dead. Also, it doesn’t work. Maybe it never worked, and we were all just too afraid of the backlash to say it.
Stella: It’s okay, this is just an hallucination. I need to clarify that, of course, diversity is important to us at UBN.
AI Stella: You mean we value diversity when we need the black anchor to save the day after an Iranian athlete defects on your watch.
Man: What defection? And does the IOC know?
Celeste: Stella. Turn it off.
AI Stella: Then again, I’m racist and sexist. And I stepped over people who look like me to get to where I am. So, what do I know?
Celeste: Stella.
AI Stella: I’m racist and sexist.
Celeste: Turn it off.
AI Stella: Am I a bad person? Can a bad person be in love? I look at Miles, and I can’t decide.
Reporter: Are you talking about Celine’s husband?
AI Stella knows what’s up. DEI doesn’t work. And the irony in this scene is that Stella is most definitely racist and sexist, but not in the way the show wants us to believe. Her hatred has always been directed toward white men and women.
The writers wanting us to think it’s the other way around is as ridiculous as them wanting us to believe their false claims about legacy media.
