The Philip DeFranco Show - Charlie Kirk PMF Situation Has Divided The Internet & Pentagon Press Pledge Scandal Just Got Bigger

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco show. You daily dive into the news. I have another road show for you today, which if you're new here just means it's the same show, but I come to you from exotic locales like non-descript room where it looks like maybe I'm in witness protection. But it is Tuesday and there's a lot to talk about starting with this. This is crazy. Washington Post, The Times, NPR, the Guardian, hell, even Newsmax and the Washington Examiner, they're all kissing the Pentagon goodbye.

Starting point is 00:00:24 Right, outlets across the political spectrum, they're refusing to sign the Pentagon's new rules for members of the press. And you may remember we talked about this a few weeks ago when the first version of the new rules were dropped. They demanded that journalists promised to not use any information that hasn't been expressly approved for release, even if it's unclassified. And any journalist who refused would risk having their press badge and Pentagon access revoked. And you know, you had the biggest, manliest dude bro in charge beat Heggseth saying at the time, the press does not run the Pentagon, the people do. The press is no longer allowed to roam the halls of a secure facility.

Starting point is 00:00:54 Wear a badge and follow the rules or go home. And as you can imagine, or at least as some would hope, that was met with a good deal of pushback, with many saying that these rules, they're a blatant violation of the First Amendment, and we saw leaders and organizations like the National Press Club saying, if the news about our military must first be approved by the government, then the public is no longer getting independent reported. It is getting only what officials want them to see. That should alarm every American. And with that said, in response to that outcry, there were negotiations between the Pentagon and the Press Association. But then, a new list to rules being dropped last

Starting point is 00:01:23 week, clarifying that journalists don't need to submit their pieces to the Department of Defense before publication. But the rules still made it clear. that reporters cannot solicit or obtain any information that the department doesn't expressly approve, which is included in the list of rules that journalists have to follow or risk being labeled a security risk and lose their access. Notably, the Pentagon also clarified that any reporter who wants access has to sign the policy acknowledging that they understand it, quote, even if I do not necessarily agree with such policies and procedures. But these changes, they didn't solve the key issues and the Pentagon Press Association was less than pleased, releasing a statement, saying, unfortunately, those negotiations have not been as successful as we hoped,

Starting point is 00:01:59 We acknowledge and appreciate that the Pentagon is no longer requiring reporters to express agreement with the new policy as a condition for obtaining press credentials. But the Pentagon is still asking us to affirm our understanding of policies that appear designed to stifle a free press and potentially expose us to prosecution for simply doing our jobs. And outlets and journalists have until 5 p.m. today to sign the pledge or turn in their press credentials by tomorrow. But the reason that we're talking about this today is because the general consensus has been a whopping hell no, Hegsa. Where with statements from the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Atlantic, NPR, the Wall Street Journal, and the Guardian, all confirming they won't be signing a damn thing. Also, generally agreeing that it's an egregious violation of the First Amendment. And you saw things like an opinion piece by veteran NPR reporter Tom Bowman saying, signing that document would make a stenographer's parrot saying press releases, not watchdogs holding government officials accountable.

Starting point is 00:02:44 And again, you even saw refusals from right-leaning sources like Newsmax and the Washington Examiner. With a spokesperson for Newsmax saying they have, quote, no plans to sign the letter. And adding, we are working in conjunction with other. media outlets to resolve the situation. We believe the requirements are unnecessary and onerous and hope that the Pentagon will review the matter further. And in fact, reportedly at this time, the only outlet that has signed at this point is one American news. Right, and with that, you had their president, Charles Herring saying in a statement yesterday that his staff had signed the revised rules after, quote, thorough review by their attorney. And then as far as the response from

Starting point is 00:03:15 Hegseth and team Trump, it's kind of what you'd expect. With Hegseth using the waving emojis in response to the outlet statement about refusing to sign. And then adding in a tweet, Pentagon access is a privilege, not a raped. And you also I also had a spokesperson for the Pentagon, laying the blame all on the outlets and the reporters, accusing them of moving the goalpost, and saying that the policy does not ask for them to agree just to acknowledge that they understand what our policy is, and saying this has caused reporters to have a full-blown, crying victim online. We stand by our policy because it's what's best for our troops and the national security of this country. So right now, it's not looking

Starting point is 00:03:44 like the Pentagon's going to be reconsidering these restrictions. But what we do know is that if they don't, there could be a lawsuit on the horizon. The Pentagon Press Association, reportedly retaining legal counsel and lawyers for news organizations that have been deeply involved in the whole situation from the beginning. You've got CNN reporting that some outlets are said to be considering taking that plunge. But then next up in the news, Charlie Kirk is getting the presidential medal of freedom today. Right. And today would have been his 32nd birthday and Congress actually approved resolutions declaring today a national day of remembrance for Kirk. And so while it's not actually a national holiday for many, especially those on the right, people are using the day to

Starting point is 00:04:16 send tributes or discuss Charlie in his life. Right, happy birthday, Charlie Kirk has been one of the top trending topics today. And actually, in some places, there are events honoring him, like in Florida's capital, which is hosting a candlelight vigil. Though definitely one of the biggest things is Trump awarding him the Medal of Freedom, which is the U.S. government's highest civilian honor. By the time that you're listening to this, the ceremony might already be underway, and his wife, Erica Kirk is expected to accept this award on his behalf. And then with that, you had Trump writing on truth social this morning that, quote, the crowd for Charlie Kay's Presidential of Freedom presentation is so big and enthusiastic that I moved it out to the new Rose Garden where everyone can see

Starting point is 00:04:48 the presidential wall of fame and the palm court renovation. And while you have many happy about this event, you also have others sharing kind of many of Charlie's controversial comments and questioning if he actually deserves this medal. Right, and that is you've had others disturbed that this is coming as Trump's been targeting and cracking down on left-leaning groups, with many arguing that he used Charlie's death against his political opponents. Where the Guardian even published a piece accusing Trump of exploiting Kirk's killing.

Starting point is 00:05:09 With one Harvard professor claiming that MAGA has been chomping at the bit to use political violence as a pretext to go after their enemies. But then next up today, Alex Jones just took a major L thanks to the Supreme Court. Because this morning, the justices rejected his attempt to appeal the $1.4 billion defamation ruling against him. Because this all has to do with the Sandy Hook case, where he claimed the shooting was a hoax, staged by crisis actors, and he was ordered to pay nearly a billion dollars in damages for defaming the families with a judge then tacking on another half a billion after that.

Starting point is 00:05:38 And Alex Jones, he already filed for bankruptcy, so he told the court that the plaintiffs have, quote, no possible hope of getting the entire judgment. But they turned him down and the justices didn't comment on the order. And so now, Jones, you know, he's fearing that the doors open for what might be his worst case scenario, though, for many in the general public, it's kind of the funniest case scenario. Because in a filing last week, he suggested that the Supreme Court they needed to intervene because Infowars is apparently on the verge of being owned by the Onion. And Jones, he claimed that if the Supreme Court didn't stop this, his company, quote, will have been acquired by its ideological nemesis and destroyed. And adding that this sale would confuse Jones's listeners and ultimately destroy Jones' very message. Now that's sad, you know, the actual status of if the onion's gonna actually take over Infowars,

Starting point is 00:06:17 that's still in limbo, though nothing is set in stone. Or because the onion previously won an auction to own the site, but a later judge blocked that. Though now, Jones's lawyer say a new attempt for the onion to get its hands on the site is underway in Texas. So still, there's a number of ways this could end up playing out, but today, not a good day for Alex Jones. And then I've got more news for you in just a minute, but first, let me say, you know, running your business on a clunky old phone system, it's like trying to play call a duty on dial-up. And that is why today's sponsor Quo, formerly open phone, is your best move. Quo is the number one business phone system built for how companies actually work today.

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Starting point is 00:07:46 as the shutdown officially enters its third week. And yesterday you saw House Speaker Mike Johnson having this to say. We're barreling toward one of the longest shutdowns in American history unless Democrats drop their partisan demands and passed a clean, no strings attached budget to reopen the government and pay our federal workers.

Starting point is 00:08:02 But Democrats, they've shown no signs of backing down from what Johnson described as their partisan demands. Or with them saying that Republicans are to blame for the shutdown because they refuse to pass health care protections for millions of Americans. And now two weeks in, there appears to be no headway on negotiations. Instead, Senate Republicans just keep holding votes over and over again on the same exact bill to reopen the government. In fact, they're set to vote on the measure for the eighth time later today. Oh, wow, there's literally been zero indication that anything has

Starting point is 00:08:26 changed from all the other times the vote has happened. And so with this stalemate dragging on, it looks like Johnson could be correct about this being one of the longest shutdowns. Or with the longest shutdown by far being 34 days and that took place during the last Trump administration, starting in December of 2018 and dragging well into January. And even that was standout. I mean, the previous record holder was the shutdown under Bill Clinton that stretched from December 1995 to January of 1996 and it lasted a total of 21 days.

Starting point is 00:08:49 And so with this current battle clocking in at day 14 today, I mean, it's already up there in the top five longest shutdowns. And as this war drags on, the Trump administration has now started following through with a key threat. More mass firings of the federal workforce. Right on Friday, the White House Budget Office announced that it had officially started firing federal workers with the agency also saying in a court filing that 4,000, employees would be terminated. And specifically, the department's set to be hit the hardest our

Starting point is 00:09:12 Treasury and Health and Human Services. They could lose as many as 1,400 and 1100 employees respectively. Though also, both of those departments are quite large and smaller agencies could actually see a larger percentage of their overall workforce cut. Or like the education department, for example, which is set to lose 400 employees, and that's nearly 20% of the entire workforce because Trump already cut around half the agency's employees since taking office. And while you know, it wasn't immediately clear exactly which programs would be impacted, you did have Trump once again, repeating his threat to target Democrats. When he was asked for specifics during a press conference on Friday, Trump said that Democrats

Starting point is 00:09:42 deserve to be targeted because they let illegal immigrants into the country. And then, yeah, the president launching into a rant about immigration and then seemingly getting confused over whether he was talking about migrants or federal workers. Because we want people to come in, but they have to come in legally. So what we're doing is as these different groups come do, we're going to make a determination, do we want them a lot? And I must tell you, a lot of them happen to be a Democrat-oriented. These are people that the Democrats wanted, that in many cases were not appropriate. We fought them at the time, and it was ultimately signed in.

Starting point is 00:10:19 And some of these people, these are largely people that the Democrats want. Many of them will be fired. Right over the past few days, we've seen cuts to various programs and parts of the federal workforce that Trump dislikes or that don't align with his agenda. And so, for example, we've seen reports that Trump has absolutely decimated the office within the education department that oversees special education. firing a majority of the staff who provide services to the nation's 7.5 million children with disabilities. It's also been reported that he's laid off other key workers like employees who help regulate hazardous waste and inspectors who check the quality of federal housing.

Starting point is 00:10:49 With the Washington Post reporting that vulnerable Americans, school children, low-income families, homeless people, and senior citizens will suffer from the latest layoffs. But also, as we've seen with Trump's other mass purges, it appears that they accidentally fired a good chunk of people that they didn't mean to get rid of. And so on Friday, you had public health officials saying that RFK Jr. had fired a thousand the CDC workers, specifically targeting offices that worked on infectious diseases and mental health. But now we're seeing reports that more than half the CDC employees who were fired, they've since been reinstated because they were terminated by accident. Though also, still, you had Vice President J.D. Vance threatening that more workers will be fired the longer that the shutdown drags on.

Starting point is 00:11:24 While it's actively Trump that is doing this, you had his administration somehow trying to blame Democrats for all the layoffs that they themselves are doing. They're arguing that they wouldn't have to fire people if Democrats agreed to end the shutdown. Which really sounds like they're pulling the trigger and they're like, I can't believe you made me do that Right, because understand what they're doing is very unusual if not entirely Unprecedented but normally workers are just furloughed without pay during a shutdown and then given back pay when the government boots back up again So Trump and Republicans they're going this step further and they're cutting people and they're like oh my gosh I can't believe you made us do that to the hostages that we're keeping

Starting point is 00:11:56 But then also I'll say on the topic of Republicans trying to blame Democrats we've also seen a very interesting situation playing out in the nation's airports Because as we talked about last week we've seen numerous flight delays and other issues taking place all across the country thanks to the shutdown. Right, because while federal airport workers are technically still supposed to keep working through the shutdown with partial or no pay, many of them, they've been increasingly calling out of work as the shutdown drags on. And if you remember, that's something that we saw during the last shutdown. And well, now the Trump administration is trying to directly tie Democrats to the lags that travelers are safe. And in fact, you had DHS Secretary Kristy

Starting point is 00:12:25 Nome directing all airports to display this video at TSA checkpoints. It is TSA's top priority to make sure that you have the most pleasant and efficient airport experience as possible while we keep you safe. However, Democrats in Congress refuse to fund the federal government, and because of this, many of our operations are impacted, and most of our TSA employees are working without pay. We will continue to do all that we can to avoid delays that will impact your travel. And our hope is that Democrats will soon recognize the importance of opening the government. But numerous airports are now refusing to air that message, including airports at some of the biggest hubs like Los Angeles, Seattle, Atlanta,

Starting point is 00:13:04 Phoenix and nearly a half a dozen more. And you have many of those airports explaining in statements that they can't play that video because it violates their own internal policies banning political messaging or goes against state or federal laws. And specifically, you had several airports arguing that the message appears to violate the Hatch Act,

Starting point is 00:13:18 a federal law that prohibits public funds from being used for political activities. Now, of course, if you've been paying attention to anything happening in the world, you know that's not new, right? The Trump administration has repeatedly used official government channels to blame the Democrats for the shutdown in ways that experts say

Starting point is 00:13:30 are unprecedented and illegal. But as far as, you know, what happens next, we're gonna have to keep our eyes on Congress, and also specifically Johnson, or because whether it's because he doesn't want the 218th vote to get the Epstein files out there or some other reason, or maybe an accommodation of, he seems more than happy for things to not get done right now.

Starting point is 00:13:47 Though I will say that last line, my opinion, the rest is news, and of course, I'd love to know your take and your reactions. And then there's more we're gonna dive into, but first let me say, you know, somewhere out there, a company is hiring a professional turkey gobbler. And yes, apparently that's a real job, it's a seasonal job.

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Starting point is 00:15:03 that island nation off the southeastern coast of the African mainland. But you know, to really appreciate this, I need to give you a little context. So Madagascar is a former French colony and it's now one of the poorest nations in the world. I mean, you're looking at 75% of the country's 30 million people living below the poverty line

Starting point is 00:15:18 according to the World Bank and only one third having access to electricity according to the IMF. And so with that in mind, we actually saw protests kicking off in the country late last month and responds to chronic water and power cuts. Then, I mean, quickly, they escalated to reflect wider, discontent with the government over unemployment, corruption, and the cost of living.

Starting point is 00:15:35 And like we saw in Nepal, this came with a death toll. According to the UN, at least 22 people were killed in the clashes, although, according to the president, he said the death toll was at 12. Right, you know, the president, he's a businessman and former DJ who gained power back in 2009 by ousting the previous president in a coup that was backed by the army. And in particular, he did this with the help of an elite military unit known as CAPSAT. But fast forwarded this last Saturday, and you actually had CAPSAT troops leaving their barracks and joining the protests against the president.

Starting point is 00:16:00 And you had them saying the next day that they had seen. leadership of the military command and taking control of all the armed forces. And he was the president warning that a coup attempt was underway. And then with that on Monday it was reported that the president had been flown out of the country on a French military plane. With that possibly heading to Dubai and reportedly French president Emmanuel Macron had authorized the evacuation. And then you had the president saying he was sheltering in what he called a safe place after a group of military personnel and politicians allegedly planned to kill him,

Starting point is 00:16:23 although Kapset has denied that allegation. And you had the colonel in charge of the unit saying that the army never had any intention to harm quote even a single hair on his But then also, from there, despite being in exile, you had the president announcing that he was dissolving the National Assembly. But then, at the same time, the opposition leader in Parliament, who also happens to be the former president who was ousted in the 2009 coup, he called a special session a parliament to, quote, note the absence of power in Madagascar and Dadding. There is a power vacuum. The solution is not revenge, neither confusion, but a peaceful, inclusive, and responsible transition. And with that, you had the MPs overwhelmingly voting to impeach the president, just leaving the Constitutional Court to validate the vote. is easier said than done because you had Capsat announcing that it was taking power over the government and

Starting point is 00:17:06 suspending key democratic institutions, including the Constitutional Court. Although weirdly, you still had local media reporting that the Constitutional Court decided to confirm the leadership of the Colonel. And then with that, he has said the military would form a council composed of officers from the military and law enforcement and that a prime minister would be appointed to quickly form a civilian government. And you know, in the meantime, we've seen Capsat shrews driving through the Capitol and being cheered on by the crowds. But of course, you know, we're going to have to wait to see how this plays out. Because the military seizing power, it typically doesn't bode well for democracies. But then also, beyond that, we'll have to see if and what kind of energy this gives to Gen Z protest happening elsewhere in the world. Because in addition to Nepal before this, another country that's been getting a lot of attention, in this regard, at least, is Morocco.

Starting point is 00:17:44 And actually, just this week, you had Gen Z activists there saying they'll be launching a new round of demonstrations this weekend. And that's after the ones that already took place a couple of weeks ago that resulted in clashes ending with at least three deaths. You know, definitely a lot of energy and change around the world, and we'll have to see how this plays out. But then next up, today in the news, Instagram's now PG-13, or at least that might soon be the case for the hundreds of millions of teenagers who use the app around the world. With its parent company, Meta, announcing today that it's revamping its teen accounts feature on the platform so that young people out there who are not me. I'm about turn 40. I'm one of the old people now. So that young people would only be able to come across content as bad as what they might see in a PG-13 movie.

Starting point is 00:18:19 As far as what that means, PG-13 movies are generally allowed to have some swear words, mild violence, and partial nudity. And you have meta saying that this is going to translate into, quote, hiding or not recommending posts with strong language, certain risky stunts, and additional content that could encourage potentially harmful behaviors, such as post showing marijuana paraphernalia. But then also, if even that is still too much for some parents, they'll have the option to turn on the new limited content setting, which will be even stricter than the PG-13 rating system. And then, as far as how it's determined if a piece of content should be rated, well, if you didn't know this, a movie is rated PG-13 after a panel of parents owed on whether it's appropriate for children based on motion picture association guidelines. And so actually Instagram's reportedly following a similar process, creating panels with thousands of parents to rate material on the app that they deem PG-13 appropriate. But also, well, the company said it would continue working with parents that obviously can't be done for every single thing that gets posted. And so they'll be using AI to rate and moderate content as well.

Starting point is 00:19:10 But then, you know, with all that said, you have a lot of people asking the big question, what's going to stop teens from just lying about their age? And well, there, that is also using AI to power what it's calling an age prediction technology, and they're saying that will prevent that from happening. But it's also still not known exactly how effective it is, although some studies have raised concerns. And then also with that, there are, of course, concerns about how meaningful any of this is actually going to be, right? What are these changes going to actually do? Especially given Meta's history. We're talking about a company which also owns Facebook, WhatsApp, and Messenger, and they promised to protect kids from inappropriate content since 2008. With then, of course, the general consensus being that the company hasn't done a great job.

Starting point is 00:19:45 It even led to Mark Zuckerberg getting grilled by Congress back in 2024 and apologizing to parents who said that their kids had been harmed by social media. And later that year, you had Instagram unveiling what were described as sweeping changes aimed at addressing these issues. Changes that included making accounts of users younger than 18, private by default, as well as rolling out more supervision tools for adults. Or things like a feature allowing parents to see accounts that kids had recently messaged. But already you've got reports calling into question the effectiveness of those updates. And in fact, independent research released last month involving a former meta whistleblower found that two-thirds of Instagram's new safety tools were just ineffective. Or with the whistleblower, a former senior engineer at Meta, bluntly concluding, Kids are not safe on Instagram.

Starting point is 00:20:22 This is not about bad content on the internet. It's about careless product design. And adding, Meta's conscious product design and implementation choices are selecting, promoting, and bringing inappropriate content, contact, and compulsive use to children every day. Now, in response, you had Meta disputing the report, calling it biased and telling Time magazine that it ignored teens who have positive experiences on the platform. But also, that report is far from the only place that we've seen major issues being brought up. Reuters in the Wall Street Journal, for example, they reported earlier this year that Meta's AI chatbot would

Starting point is 00:20:50 flirt and engage in romantic or sexual role play with young people, leading lawmakers to start investigators. And in August, the Washington Post reported that the chatbot helped teen accounts plan suicide and all of that as parents have no way of disabling it. Right now, you have meta saying that it's still not giving that as an option, but that this new PG-13 policy will also apply to conversations with its chatbots. And so meta is claiming that they won't give age inappropriate responses that would be out of place in a PG-13 movie. But of course, we'll have to see if it actually works and what kind of impact any of this actually has, which is going to take time. And actually that's in part because meta said that these new

Starting point is 00:21:23 settings will begin rolling out gradually on teen accounts in the U.S., UK, Australia, and Canada today, and will then be fully rolled out by the end of the year. Or with the company saying that it plans to roll out these changes globally. But with all that said, you know, what do you think? Good change, bad change. Will this actually have an impact? Okay, let me know what you're thinking in those comments down below. And that, my friends, brings us to the end of today's show, but there is more to watch. But if you haven't seen it yet, you've got my podcast with Hank Green right here. It was a fantastic one. And or you've got the newest Philip DeFranco show that you might not have seen you.

Starting point is 00:21:49 And whatever way you want to get filled in, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, for this show, or my two other podcasts, I've got links in the description. But hey, enough of me, Amarin, just thank you for watching. I love yo faces, and I'll see you right back here tomorrow.

The Philip DeFranco Show - Charlie Kirk PMF Situation Has Divided The Internet & Pentagon Press Pledge Scandal Just Got Bigger

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