The Philip DeFranco Show - "All Women Are Bi" Scandal Exposes Washington Post Problems, Arizona Cops Let Man Drown, & More

Episode Date: June 7, 2022

Get an exclusive NordVPN deal here https://nordvpn.com/phil It's risk-free with Nord's 30-day money-back guarantee! News You Might Have Missed: https://youtu.be/Q1i9Vo3jamo TEXT ME! [phone] Get More Phil: https://linktr.ee/PhilipDeFranco – 00:07 - Arizona Cops Stand By as Man Begs For Help in Lake 03:03 - Proud Boys Indicted with Sedition in Jan. 6 Insurrection 05:43 - Sponsor 06:32 - Chappelle Donates Proceeds of Buffalo Show to Victims and Families 07:03 - Washington Post Reporter Suspended Without Pay Over Retweet – ✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ Arizona Cops Stand By as Man Begs For Help in Lake: https://roguerocket.com/2022/06/06/tempe-cops-watch-man-lake/ Proud Boys Indicted with Sedition in Jan. 6 Insurrection: https://roguerocket.com/2022/06/07/proud-boys-indicted-sedition/ Chappelle Donates Proceeds of Buffalo Show to Victims and Families: https://twitter.com/etnow/status/1534019819296542720?s=20&t=jRz7R4K62D7VLGAti42taA Washington Post Reporter Suspended Without Pay Over Retweet: https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/06/media/dave-weigel-washington-post-suspended/index.html ✩ STORIES NOT IN TODAY’S SHOW ✩ Music Supervisors in Hollywood Look to Unionize With IATSE: https://roguerocket.com/2022/06/07/music-supervisors-in-hollywood-look-to-unionize-with-iatse/ —————————— Produced by: Cory Ray Edited by: James Girardier, Maxwell Enright, Julie Goldberg Art Department: Brian Borst, William Crespo Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Brian Espinoza, Maddie Crichton, Lili Stenn, Ben Wheeler, Chris Tolve Production Team: Zack Taylor, Emma Leid ———————————— #DeFranco #DaveChappelle #TheWashingtonPost ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sup you beautiful bastards. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco show. I got a great Tuesday show for you today, but first we got to talk about this. In Arizona, a man drowned with police officers just 50 yards away. His distraught wife yelled at the officers, he's drowning right in front of you and you won't help.

Okay, so the main incident happened on May 28th in Tempe, Arizona. It centers around a man by the name of Sean Bickings, whom police described as unsheltered. He was allegedly involved in a disturbance with a woman who he said was his wife at the Tempe Center for the Arts. So some cops show up, they begin talking with him.

We now know he had three outstanding warrants, but police didn't know that at the time. So Bickings decides he's gonna peace out before the cops know. He climbs over a fence, dividing the boardwalk from Tempe Town Lake, leading to this. What are you doing? I'm gonna go for a swim.

I'm free to go, right? I can't swim in the lake, man. You're not allowed to swim in the lake. And in the footage, you can hear the cops discussing it. I'll get that video with the ball. All right. By fall 12, the subject at by fall 11 was running. He jumped in the lake and he's trying to swim away. Are you sure there's like turbines at the base of the dam that could suck him into the lake? It's not as good. With a video that's been released to the public ending there due to the sensitive nature of the remaining portion of the recording, according to police. But we have a transcript that says that two of the officers walked onto the bridge that Bicking swam under, and that's when things went south.

The man starts telling them he's going to drown, which one cop says, no, you're not. The other cop telling him to go to the pylon and hold on, but he's still like, I'm drowning, I can't, I can't. To which one of the cops replies, okay, I'm not jumping in after you. With Bicking's then continuing to plead and beg, saying, oh God, please help me, please help me.

The woman from before also comes over trying to convince the cops to help, and when they don't, she tries to jump over the railing herself, but doesn they don't, she tries to jump over the railing herself, but doesn't end up doing so. And at that point saying, I'm just distraught because he's drowning right in front of you and you won't help.

The cops then try to calm her down, saying a third officer is getting a boat. They continue to argue, and then one of them remarks that Bicking sank underneath the water and has not come up for 30 seconds. With the woman pleading, he's everything I got, I can't lose him, he's going to die, and ultimately Bicking's drowned.

So now with this, the three officers involved have been put on non-disciplinary paid administrative leave as authorities investigate the incident. And while you're having a reaction to this and you think, hey, this is an open and shut case, depending on where you go on the internet, people have different opinions. Some completely at a loss, furious at the officers involved

saying, why didn't they just go in and help him? Saying he died right in front of them and they chose inaction. But on the other side, you have people saying, hey, I understand that it looks bad, but Bickings on his own decided "'to put his own life in danger "'and the officers could have died

"'in the process of trying to save him.'" With retired LAPD Sergeant Cheryl Dorsey saying, -"We're talking about police officers, not lifeguards. And so while the optics are difficult, there's an assumption that the police officers can swim." And the Tempe Officers Association saying, "'Officers do not have water rescue training or have the equipment to help people at risk of drowning.

And so with this, I put out a poll this morning saying, hey, do you think that the police are wrong for this? And 79% of people said yes. But that was one poll in one place. And so I wanna pass the question off to y'all right here. What are your thoughts regarding this story? Are the officers involved here in the wrong? Yes, no, why, why not?

Then we got major news involving the January 6th insurrection right before the public hearings began on Thursday. With yesterday, five members of the Proud Boys, including the group's former leader, Enrique Tarrio, being indicted on charges of seditious conspiracy in relation to the attack. This is big for a number of reasons,

including the charge of conspiring to use force to overthrow the government or prevent the execution of US law is very rare and very serious. With that charge carrying a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and understand this is an addition to the other charges that these guys are facing. Also, despite typically being rare, this marks the second time a far right group has been hit

with sedition charges after 11 members of the Oath Keepers and their leader were charged back in January. But of the Proud Boys, you have the department saying in its press release of the five defendants, directed, mobilized and led members of the crowd onto the Capitol grounds and into the Capitol, leading to dismantling of metal barricades, destruction of property, breaching of the Capitol building,

and assaults on law enforcement. And adding that during and after the attack, Tarrio and his co-defendants claimed credit for what had happened on social media and in an encrypted chat room. With that last part being very notable because Tarrio actually wasn't in Washington, D.C. on the day of the attack

because he had been ordered to leave the city by a judge days earlier after burning a BLM banner. But authorities have still said he led the advanced planning and remained in contact with other members of the Proud Boys during the insurrection. While right now it's not entirely clear what evidence led to these new charges, according to the Washington Post,

they show prosecutors pulling together a wider picture of organization within extremist groups that share overlapping, if not common goals. The investigations have exposed hints of coordination among groups, even as the FBI and Justice Department are expanding their investigations into the political orbit of former President Donald Trump. And so it's gonna be very interesting to see what information comes from all of this,

because remember, like I said, the House Committee investigating the insurrection is set to hold public hearings for the first time. But the committee is saying last week, the committee will present previously unseen material documenting January 6th, receive witness testimony, preview additional hearings, and provide the American people a summary of its findings

about the coordinated multi-step effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and prevent the transfer of power. With Representative Liz Cheney saying before this upcoming hearing. It is extremely broad, it's extremely well organized, it's really chilling. And so this public hearing is gonna be very interesting

to watch unless you're on Fox News, because it's now being reported that Fox News will not be carrying the January 6th hearing. And instead we'll have the live primetime coverage on Fox Business. But then after it plays live back on Fox News at 11, they'll do a two hour recap reaction, which is some people saying this is Fox News

trying to just frame this situation how they want. While others have said it could just be a conflict of interest because literally two out of the three people in the Fox News primetime lineup, their text messages on the day of the insurrection with the White House chief of staff are part of the fucking thing that's being talked about. Though many see this move by Fox News

as an attempt to suppress the truth. With the Republican representative and member of the committee, Adam Kinzinger, tweeting, "'If you work for Fox News and want to maintain your credibility as a journalist, now is a good time to speak out or quit. Enough is enough.'" And then, you know, cybersecurity is no joke.

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plus one additional month for free. What are you waiting for? That's nordvpn.com slash phil and it's all risk-free with Nord's 30 day money back guarantee. Then in a quick little today and awesome story, Dave Chappelle, I know a lot of people got a lot of feelings. Some love him, some hate him.

But reportedly in the wake of the Buffalo shooting, he decided, hey, I'm gonna book a show in Buffalo. All the proceeds are gonna go to help the victims. With reportedly some of the Buffalo shooting, he decided, hey, I'm gonna book a show in Buffalo. All the proceeds are gonna go to help the victims. With reportedly some of the victims' families learning about this donation as they were at the show. And so it seems like a ton of money was raised by this booking of a 3000 person venue. And I know some people are gonna dismiss this as PR,

but my mindset, and this is no secret, my mindset is good is good. Those who are suffering right now, who have been given some help are getting some more. And then retweets are not endorsements. You ever see that in someone's Twitter bio and you're like, that is, that's not gonna protect you if shit actually hits the fan.

Like no one's gonna see you retweeted something and be like, wait, let me check, let me check the bio. Oh, he might not have meant it. Especially because God created quote tweets that allow you to retweet something and comment at the same time. But random aside aside, at the center of this story, you have Dave Weigel, a veteran politics reporter

at the Post that you may have heard of, the Washington Post, and a retweet. Because last week, Weigel retweets this joke from YouTuber Cam Harless saying, "'Every girl is bi, you just have to figure out "'if it's polar or sexual.'" Weigel retweets it at some point, and then another Post reporter by the name

of Felicia Sonmez, she calls out Weigel, tweeting out, "'It's fantastic to work at a news outlet "'where retweets like this are allowed,' as well as personally calling him out in an internal company Slack channel, tagging him and saying, "'I'm sorry, but what is this?' And adding that the retweet sent a confusing message

about what the post's values are. But that, of course, prompting others to chime in. And then the post chief spokesperson told the press, "'Editors have made clear to the staff "'that the tweet was reprehensible, "'and demeaning language or actions like that "'will not be tolerated.'" With all of that leading Weigel to remove the retweet the tweet was reprehensible and demeaning language or actions like that will not be tolerated.

But all of that leading Weigel to remove the retweet and calling it an offensive joke and saying, "'I apologize and did not mean to cause any harm.'" Meanwhile, you have Harliss, the guy who put out the initial tweet, kind of just perplexed by everything saying, "'It's weird to see someone else apologize "'for something that you tweeted.'"

But despite the apology or rather because of it, this ended up blowing up into a full out shit storm this weekend. With the third Post reporter, Jose Adel Real, saying Weigel's retweet was terrible and unacceptable, but adding, Rallying the internet to attack him for a mistake he made doesn't actually solve anything. We all mess up in some way or another. There is such a thing as challenging with compassion.

So then he and Sonmez argue back and forth, leading him to temporarily deactivate his account. And then Sonmez tweeting, When women stand up for themselves, some people respond with even more vitriol. With all this leading to Sally Busby, the Post's executive editor, to send a memo to the newsroom Sunday morning, reminding staffers to treat each other with respect and kindness, both in the newsroom and online. And adding, when issues arise,

please raise them with leadership or human resources, and we will address them promptly and firmly. But that seemingly only threw more fuel on this fire, with some as tweeting that afternoon that Busby's comments only provided fodder for even more harassment against her. With then Del Real reactivating his account and saying that the whole fiasco had caused

an unrelenting series of attacks intended to tarnish my professional and personal reputation. Prompting Samiz to criticize him again, also going on to tag Busby in another post, editors saying she had reached out to them but didn't hear back. With then other staff at the post joining into the discussion talking about sexism and racism in the workplace.

And then come Monday, somehow the story escalated even further with the post reportedly suspending Weigel without pay for a month. And while the outlet has been reluctant to comment on the matter because it involves personnel, an out of office message said that Weigel would return on July 5th, which then upgraded this shit storm to a shit hurricane making landfall.

With the reactions to this news ranging from, "'Good, the Washington Post is saying "'this is what our culture is'," all the way to the other side of people saying, what the fuck is this insanity over correction? People saying things like, I'm sad that all of us who subscribe to the Washington Post for their journalism

won't get to read Dave Weigel's coverage of the primaries taking place this month because the paper has put optics and politics before ethics and fairness. It's a disservice to readers. With the CEO of the Babylon Bee, a conservative satire outlet saying, Dave, I'm offering you three months salary

to retract your apology, repost the joke and quit. Have some respect for yourself. Like I said, at the same time, you have people attacking Weigel and defending Sánchez like Katie Martin who said, when I first saw Felicia Sánchez criticizing that sexist retweet, I thought she was right, but it wasn't a big deal.

The horrific backlash to her totally justified criticism, including ongoing harassment by her male colleague, proves just how right she was about sexism at WAPO. With another writing, sure sign of a serious misogyny problem, definitely on social media, but I think in our culture generally too. And one more saying, as a young journalist who's also been extremely open

about being a survivor of sexual assault, it means so much to me to see Felicia Sanmez standing up for others. Extremely disappointing, but not surprising to see how many men will continue to dig their heels into misogyny. And then Yitzanmez herself making numerous tweet threads about all this saying,

for years, post employees have been raising concerns of unequal treatment of employees from different backgrounds or of stars versus everyone else. Not just when it comes to social media use. But they're going on to say that she left for China back in 2013, partly because of how the newsroom handled employee concerns. Then saying she came back in 2018 and three months later was barred from covering sexual assault, which made her relive her trauma for the next two years. Yitzham is having claimed that it was because of her being outspoken about her own history of assault. So with that, she sued the Post and former top editor for sexual discrimination, which the court ended up dismissing,

though she is appealing the ruling. You also have people pointing out this is not the first time Sanmez and Weigel have been involved in a controversy together. With many pointing out that back in 2020, when the news of Kobe Bryant's death was breaking, she shared an article about past rape allegations against Bryant, which got her a massive wave of backlash

on social media, leading her to delete the tweet and the post, put her on administrative leave. With Weigel's involvement here being that he actually signed a letter defending Sadmez and even celebrated her leave being reversed, which is why you add a number of people who are defending Weigel saying, "'Sadmez's latest attack is essentially a stab in the back.'"

And so I know that we started with a retweet, we ended up with this massive situation, so I'm gonna try and ground this story with a question. I'd love to know your thoughts on any aspect of this. Do you think the Washington Post did the right thing by suspending Weigel for a month without pay? Was it the right move? Was it the wrong move?

If you thought it was the right move, is the one month overkill? Is it too little, just right? Any and all words, I'd love to hear from you. And ultimately that is the end of today's show. Not because there's not more news to talk about, but because the American healthcare system sucks. And I had to schedule to see this specialist

three months in advance, and they only had time while I was filming. So, you know, fun. But that said, thank you for watching, liking, being a part of that conversation down below. If you need more news, I got you covered right here, but my name's Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in.

I love yo faces and I'll see you tomorrow.