One of the more messed up aspects of day-to-day American life (speaking from the perspective of an Australian where we have a decent publicly-supported healthcare system) is that everyday people's healthcare is generally tied up with their employment. As such, if you are a woman who requires a medical procedure like an abortion, you need to run it through your employer's health care policies.
Progressive US media entertainment companies have been quick to step up to ensure staff that they will be supported - even those that will need to now travel interstate to be able to get the procedure.
You can find details about what companies like Paramount, Disney, and Netflix are providing their employees in terms of support at the Variety article below. Notably:
Netflix said it offers employees and their dependents up to $10,000 in travel reimbursement for cancer treatment, transplants, gender affirming care, or abortion through its plan, while Warner Bros. Discovery said it has expanded its healthcare benefits to cover employees who must go to other states to access abortion and reproductive care.
Most of the companies are all offering similar access. It's a complicated issue for HR departments for a number of reasons politically/culturally as they deal with staff across the country. But from a logistical standpoint, to provide healthcare access and support to their staff, allowances need to be provided for cross-country, interstate travel.
What I am going to be interested in seeing is what Fox will do for its staff. As we have seen in recent years throughout the pandemic, this is a company that every day broadcasts all manner of harmful messaging on air via Fox News that it doesn't practice in day-to-day employment within its corporate offices. While Fox was saying no to masks, it had much of its workforce remote working or in offices wearing masks and socially distanced.
More companies have issued statements since the below Variety article was published, but it gives a good indication as to the complexity of what is being offered and why.
Jennifer Maas
- Season 2 of The Head (seen on HBO Max in the US and SBS in Australia) has been greenlit for a second season thanks to a deal between Mediapro Studio and Hulu Japan. Read: Dark Horizons
- Foxtel's Brian Walsh made some very pointed comments about the outdated (near catatonic, I'd suggest) Logie Awards. Read: Mediaweek
- General Hospital fared well at this year's Daytime Emmy Awards. Read: TV Insider
- Expect a huge number of announcements about future Marvel productions at Comic-Con in July. Read: Radio Times
- The Duffer Brothers will George Lucas a retcon into Stranger Things to change Will's birthday. Read: Dark Horizons
- Speaking of the brothers and Stranger Things, they continue to vaguebook the upcoming Stranger Things spin-off. Read: Deadline
- Staff at The AV Club recount Disney Channel TV movies that made them realise they were queer. Read: The AV Club
- Woke has been cancelled after two seasons by Hulu. The name of the show absolutely did it in - a terrible creative decision. Read: Deadline
- Thanks to the success of The Boys TV series on Amazon Prime Video, Dynamite is out of print on collections of the comics and won't have them back in print until later this year. Read: Bleeding Cool
That's it for today. Hopefully we can start tomorrow's newsletter with something less glum.
