Former Vice Chairman of NBCUniversal, Independent
Refresh America PAC Chairman Ron Meyer with Mike Huckabee
Refresh America PAC Chairman Ron Meyer discusses the Millennial Generation with Mike Huckabee on Fox News.
www.refreshamericapac.com
About Ron Meyer
Ron Meyer, former vice chairman of NBCUniversal, appeared in an interview published April 1, 2026, alongside his husband Phillip Valdez, discussing their relationship. Meyer recounted meeting Valdez in 2006 at a gay disco club in Studio City, California, called Oil Canary's, at a time when he was 57 and facing eviction from his apartment. He described having "almost given up on meeting anybody" before the encounter. The couple later married twice, with Meyer noting that their second wedding featured disco music because they met at a disco. In the interview, Meyer discussed the couple's approach to finances, stating that they have "never combined our finances, per se, but we share expenses." He said he has given Valdez suggestions on financial matters and health care, adding that he wanted to ensure his own future was secure after many years of being single. Meyer also described their daily routine, including discussing their dreams each morning, and said that Valdez "provides that for me and that is happiness for me."
Transcript (15 segments)
✨ AI-enhanced transcript with speaker attribution
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Narrator0:03
According to a report this week, the NSA posed as Facebook to hack computers with malware capable of spying on users. Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted this message in response: 'The US government should be the champion for the internet, not a threat. They need to be much more transparent about what they're doing, or otherwise people will believe the worst. I've called President Obama to express my frustration over the damage the government is creating for all of our future. Unfortunately, it seems like it will take a very long time for true full reform.' Meantime, a new poll by Young America's Foundation shows that 53% of young people between the ages of 18 and 24 are outraged by the NSA's data collection.
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Host0:48
Joining me now: Young America's Foundation Public Relations officer Ashley Pratt. Also with us, chairman of Refresh America PAC Ron Meyer, and the GenY Guys keynote speaker Jason Dorsey. It's great to have all of you guys here. I want to jump right into this NSA thing, because clearly one of the issues that Millennials are really ticked off about is the spying. Ashley, I mean, this bugs you guys, doesn't it?
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Ashley Pratt1:15
It certainly does. I mean, we are a very tech-savvy generation, and what our Young America's Foundation poll found was that Millennials between the ages of 18 and 24, 53% of them are outraged. When asked, they were given a variety of questions, and one asked what outraged them the most. The top three answers: one was the NSA, the second at 50% was Obamacare and the fact that Obama lied about whether or not you could keep your health insurance, and the third was the targeting of conservative groups. So I think young people, while they may tend to lean more liberal, I think we're starting to see a shift here, and that they're actually leaning more conservative in their views.
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Ron Meyer1:54
Ron, you know, there's one thing that's somewhat of a mystery. I agree wholeheartedly. I'm ticked off the government is spying on this. I don't think they have any constitutional authority to do that. So maybe I'm a Millennial after all. I'm just an older version of it.
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Host2:05
Ron, let me ask you this question. Young people say we want privacy, yet they put everything about their lives out on Facebook and social media. Reconcile that for me.
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Ron Meyer2:16
Well, I think it's one of those things where, you know, when you're texting someone, you're not putting that out there. When you're where you are, sometimes if you check in, you're volunteering it. I think it's all about the Constitution and whether or not you're volunteering information or whether people are actually snooping and finding out more information about what you're doing. I think this is a perfect reason. This YAFF poll really shows why Republicans should be micro-targeting college campuses. We should actually, you know, Democrats micro-target people on social issues. They go and they target them with one. I think this is a perfect example of why we should actually go to college campuses and talk about the NSA, and why someone like Rand Paul is a perfect candidate to do that, because he's been a champion like that. And I think that if we actually do that, we have a chance to really win in 2014 with Millennials and win in 2016. There's some issues we're going to have a hard time with Millennials on. This is not one of them. This is an issue that we should be championing on the right and for conservatives.
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Host3:01
Okay, Jason, do you think?
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Jason Dorsey3:04
I disagree with both of them, by the way. That's okay. I love you and I like you, I think you're both wrong on this. When we talk about Millennials and talk with them, because that's what our firm does, I agree with what Ashley said in the sense of our reliance on technology, but I think it's a misnomer. The perception is that we're tech-savvy, and that's completely false. We actually are tech-dependent. We have no idea how the technology works, we just know we can't live without it. We drop our phone into the toilet, we reach in there, we pull that thing out, right? We lost our life, we got it back. And so when we think about technology, Millennials often don't consider privacy. And so now that you're bringing it to their attention, suddenly it's a hot issue. But to us, that's not the issue. The issue is what can you do with the data. And now with prescriptive analytics, which is not just saving data but actually using data, forecasting it into the future, and using it to affect your behaviors, that to us is the real issue. If you wanted 90% of Millennials to get flipped out, ask them: do you want a third party to be able to use all your data, apply it to your behaviors, and get you to buy something you don't need, get you to vote in a way that maybe you didn't vote otherwise? These kind of issues are the bigger ones that as a generation we're going to have to confront. But at the same time, we can never imagine a life without, as you said, texting and Facebook and Snapchat. You know, I mean, look at the stuff we send on Snapchat. Crazy. It is crazy sometimes.
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Host4:20
Speaking of crazy, there's a girl in New Jersey who sued her own parents. And the reason is because she didn't like the way they were raising her, that she thought they should give her more financial support, and sued her own parents. Does this make Millennials look bad? All right, let me start this time. Ron, I'll start with you, and we'll go around.
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Ron Meyer4:40
Obviously it makes us look bad. I mean, it really sort of reinforces this trend and this rumor that we're all entitled. I think obviously she's disgraceful for what she did. But what I hope people notice is that you can't really work through college anymore. College has gotten so expensive. Under the Obama administration, tuition's up almost 30% under President Obama. Student loan debt is off the charts. You can't work your way through college. So I actually think she's part of a symptom of a greater problem, that young people are actually miserable in this economy, and they can't pay for college anymore. When you graduate, you're probably going to be underemployed. And we have no one, I think, in Washington really reaching out to young people and saying, 'We're going to fight for you.' All President Obama is saying is, 'You guys think you're invincible and you're so dumb, why aren't you buying Obamacare?' Nobody's actually trying to lift us up and say, 'You know what, we actually could use some help from Washington.'
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Host5:26
Ashley, if you could give that young lady some advice, what would you tell her?
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Ashley Pratt5:29
Don't be a knucklehead. Isn't that what Michelle Obama would say? What I would say though is, if you want to truly be independent, which is what she wanted, she wanted to move out, she didn't like what her parents were doing and the rules were too strict in the house or whatever it might have been for her, true independence would have meant that her parents no longer foot her bills, she pays for it herself. This girl honestly bothered me. She is a teen-zilla. And I went home the other day and I got to see my parents, and we were discussing this. And my parents were like, 'You know, not to toot our own horn, but we're happy with how we raised you, because you actually are grateful for what you have. You would have never have acted that way.' And for her to move back home now, and then the lawsuit wasn't even dropped when she moved back home, that's just sad. She's taking advantage of her poor parents who were really emotional about the situation.
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Host6:14
Jason, if I had gone back in my day and told my parents I was going to sue them because they weren't giving me enough money, they'd be looking for me along with Jimmy Hoffa, you know? I mean, I would never be seen again. So I want to know, is there a sense in which young people today need to rehear John Kennedy's message: 'Don't ask what your country can do for you, but what can you do for your country?' Do we need to get that message back to Millennials?
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Jason Dorsey6:37
Yes. So we can all hear the Kennedy message on YouTube, so in case you're wondering for the Millennials watching this. The other piece that's not showing up in the story is that Millennials are actually breaking in half as a generation. It's called a dislocation. We're seeing this in our data. And what it means is you're getting one group represented right here that's saying, 'I'm not part of this entitlement. I'm gonna go out and get a job, and I'll start as an intern and I'll work my way up.' And then you got a whole other group that's not creating that traction. And that is a learned behavior. And as long as her parents can continue to say, 'We'll take care of you, we'll do all this stuff,' guess what? She's not going to change.
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Host7:08
Guys, we got to get all you back. This was terrific. Thank you very much. Great, enlightening conversation. Terrific.