Sean Fennessey thinks there is an “inherent conflict” with The Ringer podcasts streaming non-exclusively on Netflix.
While talking on the “Talk Easy With Sam Fragoso” podcast Sunday, Fennessey – who is the head of content at The Ringer and co-host of “The Big Picture” podcast alongside Amanda Dobbins – spoke out against their parent company Spotify putting their podcast on Netflix. He pointed to a conflict of interest when they could be talking about Netflix films but that at the end of the day it was above his pay grade on that decision making.
“I think there’s an inherent conflict with the work that we’re doing,” Fennessey said. “I don’t think it totally makes sense for a show that’s covering films released by Netflix to be licensed non-exclusively to Netflix – but it wasn’t my decision, so we’re working within that reality.”
That was not the only gripe Fennessey had with choices made at The Ringer. He was also asked about “The Bill Simmons Podcast” – another podcast at the company hosted by Bill Simmons, who also founded The Ringer – now being sponsored by ChatGPT. That was news to Dobbins who looked over to Fennessey in the middle of the interview in shock.
The pair was then asked about Simmons using ChatGPT to get “reviews” from an AI Roger Ebert on movies they’re talking about that the legendary film critic never got around to reviewing. Suffice it to say, Fennessey is not a fan.
“I don’t like it. I’ve told Bill I don’t like it,” Fennessey said of the ChatGPT bits involving Ebert. “It’s not my decision. It’s something that he’s done. I think Chris [Ryan] and I have both, when presented with ChatGPT Ebert, we’ve said ‘Eh, that’s not cool,’ you know. I wouldn’t want that done for me after I died, and I wouldn’t want to be represented in that way, and I revere Roger Ebert. I’m thinking very critically about AI and trying to not be an alarmist and trying to be thoughtful about what’s coming, while also having a clearer moral view of what it means and how it’s going to impact us.”
You can watch Fennessey’s full interview in the video above.
