The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 10.25 Disturbing New Alec Baldwin Details, Zuckerberg's Cowardice Exposed in Leak, FaZe Clan, &

Episode Date: October 25, 2021

I’m losing my voice BUT WE’RE GONNA STILL DO THE DANG THING Use code PHIL for $20 off your first order. https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/PHIL More PDS: https://youtu.be/wWZW59AfRqI  TEXT ME! [phone] Get More Phil: https://linktr.ee/PhilipDeFranco -- 00:00 - An Entire Target Shuts Down A Man’s Pride Rant 02:53 - Affidavit Outlines Events Leading Up to Fatal Event on “Rust” Set 06:10 - FaZe Clan to Go Public with SPAC Merger 07:20 - Sponsor 08:17 - Key Takeaways From the “Facebook Papers” 12:22 - Jan. 6 Rally Organizers Say They Met With Members of Congress, White House -- ✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ An Entire Target Shuts Down A Man’s Pride Rant: https://www.dailydot.com/irl/video-target-lgbtq-pride/ Affidavit Outlines Events Leading Up to Fatal Event on “Rust” Set: https://roguerocket.com/2021/10/25/tragic-rust-accident-details/ FaZe Clan to Go Public with SPAC Merger: https://www.wsj.com/articles/youth-focused-digital-platform-faze-clan-nears-1-billion-spac-deal-to-go-public-11635154201 Key Takeaways From the “Facebook Papers:” https://roguerocket.com/2021/10/25/the-fb-papers/ Jan. 6 Rally Organizers Say They Met With Members of Congress, White House: https://roguerocket.com/2021/10/25/jan-6-rally-organizers-congress-white-house/ ——————————     Executive Producer: Amanda Morones  Edited by: James Girardier, Julie Goldberg, Maxwell Enright Art Department: Brian Borst, William Crespo Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Cory Ray, Brian Espinoza, Maddie Crichton, Lili Stenn, Neena Pesqueda Production Team: Zack Taylor, Emma Leid ———————————— #DeFranco #AlecBaldwin #FaZeClan Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Y'all, are people okay? I woke up this morning and found the most accidental positive video. Like the person filming it is so ignorant and stupid that they then uploaded the video, not realizing they got completely owned. You know, let's walk through it together. So we have a person filming,

I'll refer to them as garbage person A, and they have an issue with Target selling a pride shirt. Oh, I hope they do. Hey, do you guys support the satanic pride propaganda? I, yeah, both. You support it? Satan and pride. You support Satan?

Mm-hmm. So right off the bat, I love this one. I don't know what your name is, lady, but I love you. That I don't have time for bigots energy is just radiating out of you. She's like, yep, love Satan. I'm actually Satan herself. I think that I'm in hell right now dealing with you. What's God going to think of that?

I don't believe in God. Wow. So you think... Did you need help with something? You support the propaganda that's targeting the kids? There's nothing targeting kids. It's all over kids' TV shows. It's all over. They're targeting the kids. Kids can choose to wear whatever they want.

We then see this guy come into frame. It turns out he's the undercover loss prevention. He's like, you gotta get out of here So what we see is garbage person a making his way towards the front Periodically stopping to see if other people support the pride shirt with him slowly realizing that literally no one is on his side here Hey ma'am, do you support this? What did I just say you support pride propaganda? Whoa? Whoa let go man Trespass me I don't care dude You think I care if you trust pass?

I've done this a thousand times. We never said that. Excuse me. Do you guys support this? We do. Do you guys support the propaganda? Yeah. You do?

Yeah. So you can please ignore it. It's satanic, man. Please ignore it. Do you know what the real rainbow stands for? You can just continue. The real rainbow is from God. Hey, sir.

Do you support this propaganda? Ignore him. Ignore him. Ignore him. Yes. Do you support it or no? No, get out of here. He then proceeds to not buy the shirt.

He steps on it and the video ends. So I watched this video and obviously I'm disappointed that this very proud bigot feels very comfortable with putting this out there, but I also feel great because everyone around him was like, who are you? Why? Why are you horrible?

And then also looking at the public reaction since this got posted, going through Reddit comments and just seeing people say the thoughts that are in my head. Comments like, I have some unfortunate news for this ignorant person. Matthew 6, 1, 34. You are practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them. For then you will have no reward from your father who is in heaven. Which was then followed up by, if he could read the Bible, he'd be very upset. Others asking out loud, does this guy have a fetish of being embarrassed in public? Several others noting the same thing I said, that this is an accidentally positive video.

Everyone around him were calm, sane individuals who didn't engage with him and simply removed him from the area. He wanted to be a hero, but everyone treated him like the attention demanding little brat that he is. So yeah, I guess to garbage person A slash douchebag of the day, thank you for accidentally giving me

a little hope in humanity today. You suck, and and yes people always suck But those who don't seem to outnumber you And then we've definitely got to talk about the absolute tragedy coming out of New Mexico on the film set of rust the new Alec Baldwin movie we've got new details thanks to a new affidavit, but let's talk about it So to start with the top-level stuff that you've likely seen already, you had Alec Baldwin firing a prop gun not knowing that it contained live rounds, shooting and injuring director Joel Sousa,

shooting and killing cinematographer Helena Hutchins. As far as some of the specifics, Baldwin was allegedly rehearsing a scene where he pointed a gun toward the camera lens, with Sousa saying that he heard what sounded like a whip and then a loud pop. Sousa also telling investigators that the gun had been described as a cold gun during a firearm safety announcement, meaning that it was not loaded. Adding that the guns on set were typically checked

by the on-set armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, and the assistant director, Dave Halls, who gave guns to the actors. And according to Sousa, after preparing for the scene, which was in a church, the crew took a lunch break elsewhere and he wasn't sure if the firearm had been checked again after lunch. Also saying that after the misfire,

he first noticed Hutchins grabbing her midsection, stumbling back before realizing he had been hit in the shoulder as well. Cameraman Reed Russell, who was near Hutchins grabbing her midsection, stumbling back before realizing he had been hit in the shoulder as well. Cameraman Reed Russell, who was near Hutchins during the accident, telling a similar story. The affidavit saying that Halls grabbed a revolver from a tray set up by Gutierrez Reed, with him shouting, cold gun, when handing it to Baldwin.

But also, it is definitely worth noting that this incident came after the crew had reportedly walked out in protest of unsafe conditions on the film set. With the affidavit noting that about six camera crew workers quit over late pay and safety conditions, so they ended up hiring another crew very quickly. With production on the film set. With the affidavit noting that about six camera crew workers quit over late pay and safety conditions, so they ended up hiring another crew very quickly. With production on the day of the accident

also off to a late start because of related issues. Though you also had Sousa reportedly telling investigators that everyone was getting along and that there had been no altercations to his knowledge. But you had a report from the Los Angeles Times alleging that there were safety concerns from people behind the scenes. Saying half a dozen staffers were frustrated

by several things on the low budget set, including long hours, long commutes, and waiting for paychecks. That report also saying that the standard industry safety protocols were not strictly followed and that at least one worker complained specifically about the gun safety. With sources saying there had already been

at least two accidental discharges of a prop gun, with Baldwin's stunt double allegedly being told a gun was cold and then firing two rounds. With one crew member saying that after that incident, there should have been an investigation into what happened. There were no safety meetings. There was no assurance that it wouldn't happen again. All they wanted to do was rush, rush, rush.

Another source saying that corners were being cut and they brought in non-union people so they could continue shooting. With the Times even reporting that Hutchins herself was advocating for safer conditions for her team. Though in response to all of this, we saw Rust Movie Productions releasing a statement saying the safety of our cast and crew

is a top priority of Rust Productions and everyone associated with the company. And further adding that the team was quote, not made aware of any official complaints a statement saying the safety of our cast and crew is a top priority of Russ productions and everyone associated with the company and further Adding that the team was quote not made aware of any official complaints concerning weapon or prop safety on set though New things keep pouring in right today We saw the Santa Fe New Mexican report that halls who was the ad that called cold gun and handed the gun to Baldwin They had previous complaints filed by a former crew member on previous Blumhouse Projects with the complaint stating that halls had disregarded safety protocols for weapons in the past

But as far as they know nothing had come of the internal complaint and even with all that Halls did not respond for a comment. Then as far as Baldwin he said in a statement There are no words to convey my shock and sadness regarding the tragic accident that took the life of Helena Hutchins, a wife, mother and deeply admired colleague of ours. I'm fully cooperating with the police investigation to address how this tragedy occurred. Now with all of that said as far as what happens from here, we're gonna have to wait to see what comes from the investigations. Obviously there's a lot of talk about criminal

or at the very least civil liability. This has also sparked a massive conversation about safety on sets because this is not the first accident of this nature. With many arguing that we've reached a point with VFX where you can just fake it. But for now we have to wait and see. And while we do that, I'll pass the question off to you.

What are your thoughts regarding this shooting? Whether it be just about the tragedy in general, the potential liability we may see, and or if Hollywood's going to change. Then, in incredibly interesting business news, I think it's very telling of the times, we should talk about FaZe Clan, an organization that back in 2010 started as a few kids

posting trick shot videos to YouTube, and now it is going to have a $1 billion valuation. With FaZe Clan now announcing that they will be going public at a merger with a special purpose acquisition company, right, a SPAC. FaZe Clan is reportedly raising $120 million through private investment and public equity, while the SPAC is roughly $170 million

that could be used for the deal. It's all expected to close first quarter of 2022, and upon completion, FaZe Clan will be listed on NASDAQ with a ticker FAZE. And here's the deal, whether you love them, you hate them, you didn't know about FaZe Clan until I started talking about them today, this is massive. It's easily the biggest creator economy deal

that we've ever seen. The company is in general the perfect merging of homegrown digital talent as well as mainstream stars in sports, music, and more. With the addition of that mainstream talent really showing the impact that FaZe Clan can have on the culture. Yeah, whether this is a success or a failure,

it's gonna change our landscape. Like, just look out for this for the next one to three years. Especially because if you were blown away by the meme stock craze, we have all these retail investors, everyone going, I love GameStop, I love AMC. What happens when you have a company that has as many fans as FaZe Clan does going public?

Time will tell. But for those that are familiar with FaZe Clan, what do you think is gonna happen? From that, I wanna take a quick second to thank the fantastic sponsor of today's show, SeatGeek. Now most of you know I've worked with SeatGeek for a long time now, and I'm so excited to be working with him again.

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So remember that Facebook whistleblower, Francis Haugen, who turned over thousands of internal documents to federal law enforcement earlier this year, really damning documents that led to congressional hearings? Well, now thanks to a collaboration between 17 different major news outlets, we know a lot of information, some of it damning, some of it interesting.

Just so you don't have to go through 17 different massive pieces, I'm gonna try and consolidate this for you. So among the things we saw, we saw Bloomberg and The Verge reporting that Facebook is struggling to retain its hold over teens. With internal documents saying that since 2019, teen users on the app have fallen by 13%

with the company expecting another drop of 45% over the next two years. With Facebook data scientists saying that aging up is a very real issue for Facebook, right? As the app's average age continues to increase, that could disengage younger users even more. Further explaining, most young adults perceive Facebook as a place for people in their 40s and 50s.

Young adults perceive content as boring, misleading, and negative. And I would argue those people are absolutely correct. I don't know the last time I went on Facebook and I was like, oh, I'm really happy about this choice. You also had the New York Times reporting that Facebook actually struggled internally about whether to throw out the like and share button.

Also, on the note of moderation, the Financial Times reported that Facebook employees urged management not to exempt notable figures such as politicians and celebrities from moderation roles. We also learned in 2019, researchers for Facebook asserted that the platform's core product mechanics were allowing misinformation and hate to flourish, even directly saying the mechanics of our platform

are not neutral. You also had The Atlantic, Wired, and The AP finding that terrorist content and hate speech continues to spread easily on the platform. And while many of y'all who watch this show, right, when we talk about these issues, you think, okay, how does this affect me as an American? How does this affect me as someone from Canada, the UK, or usually an English-speaking country? What they found is that this is an even bigger international issue.

In part, that's because Facebook is short on moderators who speak local languages and understand cultural contexts. Right, and finding that Facebook's AI-driven solution, I think the technical term is complete dog shit at catching harmful content in different languages According to reports as little as 6% of Arabic language hate content on Instagram was detected by Facebook system another report indicating the quote of material posted in Afghanistan that was classified as hate speech within a 30-day range only 0.23 percent was taken down automatically by Facebook's tools also in countries like India There are 22 recognized languages, but Facebook's AI is only trained in five of them. Then in regards to human trafficking, which I think is one of the few things

we can all get on the same page on, right? We're all against that, I hope. We have the Atlantic reporting that really the only way to get Facebook to address this is to attack them. The documents appearing to confirm that the company only took strong action against human trafficking after Apple threatened to pull Facebook and Instagram from its app store.

Prior to that, Facebook initially took some action, but it didn't disable or take down related profiles. And actually, because of that, the BBC would later uncover a broad network of human traffickers. From there, Facebook would take additional action. But according to their own internal documents, domestic servitude content remained on the platform. Also, since Mark Zuckerberg constantly talks about freedom of speech, we should definitely mention this part. According to the Washington Post, Zuckerberg personally made a decision last year to have Facebook agree to demand set forth by Vietnam's ruling communist parties,

demands which censored anti-government dissidents. Right, it was that or get knocked offline in the country. So as the post notes, "'In America, the tech CEO is a champion of free speech, "'reluctant to remove even malicious "'and misleading content from the platform. "'But in Vietnam, upholding the free speech rights "'of people who question government leaders, too expensive,

"'the company reportedly earning more than $1 billion "' in annual revenue from the area with a post adding Zuckerberg's role in the Vietnam Decision which has not been previously reported exemplifies his relentless determination to ensure Facebook's dominance Sometimes at the expense of his stated values actually y'all this is where I'm gonna stop with this story for now though This is not the end of what the documents reveal Are you've more and more information being compiled by Politico, CNN, NBC, and a host of others. What's being found in this, I mean, this could fill a docu-series, and I imagine we will see one soon.

We didn't even touch on how much Facebook downplayed its role in the insurrection, how the employees internally were calling for action. But as Axios, I think, kind of fantastically sums up, "'While the individual revelations are dimming, "'collectively the reports paint a picture "'of Facebook as a brutish corporate actor "'that prioritizes its business over safety.

And I think that while Facebook has continually denied this and continues to deny this, these claims quote, "'We get harder to do so when dozens of reports "'are published simultaneously based off "'of its own leaked internal research.'" And honestly, who knows when this all ends? Because I mean, even this last Friday, we had another whistleblower

submitting an affidavit to the SEC. And then, you know, I briefly mentioned January 6th, but we have big news that's now being reported about January 6th. And that's because two people who helped plan the pro-Trump demonstrations on January 6th took place ahead of the insurrection. Reportedly told Rolling Stone in an article published

yesterday that members of Congress and the White House helped plan the protest. According to the report, the two people identified only as a rally organizer and a planner who have both now begun communicating with congressional investigators, told the outlet that they participated in dozens of planning briefings ahead of the protests in that quote, multiple members of Congress were intimately involved in planning both Trump's efforts to overturn his election laws in the January 6th events that turned violent.

With the rally organizer explicitly saying, I remember Marjorie Taylor Greene specifically. I remember talking to probably close to a dozen other members at one point or another or their staffs. Both saying that a number of other Congress members were either personally involved in the conversations or had staffers join in. This including representatives Paul Gosar, Lauren Boebert, Mo Brooks, Madison Cawthorn, Andy Biggs, and Louie Gohmert. Though notably not all of this is new, right? It's not the first time we've heard allegations

that some of these people were involved in the rallies. As Rolling Stone notes, Gosar, Green, and Boebert were all listed as speakers at the wild protest at the Capitol on January 6th, which was arranged by Stop the Steal organizer, Ali Alexander. Additionally, Alexander said in a now deleted live stream back in January that he personally planned the rally

with the help of Gozar, Biggs, and Brooks. With Biggs and Brooks having previously denied any involvement in planning the event, though Brooks did speak at the Stop the Steal protest. Gozar, for his part, has remained quiet for months, but has tagged Alexander in numerous tweets, including one taken at the January 6th rally. But now he's still not speaking on the matter.

Even as Rolling Stone reported that both sources say, quote, he dangled the possibility of a blanket pardon in an unrelated ongoing investigation to encourage them to plan the protest. With the outlet also claiming that it, quote, separately obtained documentary evidence that both sources were in contact with Gozar and Boebert on January 6th, though it did not go into further detail.

Now notably, a spokesperson for Greene is denied that she was involved with planning the protest, but so far no other members have responded to the report. But also beyond members of Congress, the outlet reported that the two sources also claim they interacted with members of Trump's team, including former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who they describe as having had an opportunity

to prevent the violence. The two also describing Meadows as someone who played a major role in the conversation surrounding the protest. And with all of that said, as far as what happens from here, you have the two sources telling Rolling Stone that they plan to share their information with congressional investigators,

and they're expecting to testify publicly. We've also seen notable responses from members of Congress, including AOC, tweeting, any member of Congress who helped plot a terrorist attack on our nation's capital must be expelled. This was a terror attack. 138 injured, almost 10 dead. Those responsible remain a danger to our democracy, our country, and human life in the vicinity of our capital and beyond. But they're also retweeting Jameel Hill, our country, and human life in the vicinity of our capital and beyond. But they're also retweeting Jameel Hill who wrote, the call was always coming from inside the house. But I'm also old enough to remember when AOC

said she didn't trust folks to help her to safety because she feared it was an inside job. But y'all called her paranoid. This was an active coup that needs to be prosecuted thoroughly. But yeah, for now, that is where we are. We're gonna have to wait to see what happens if these stories can be corroborated,

confirmed, if any other information comes out. But y'all, ultimately, that is where this story. We're gonna have to wait to see what happens if these stories can be corroborated, confirmed, if any other information comes out. But y'all, ultimately that is where this story and today's show ends. Of course, I'd love to hear from you, whether it be this last story, the first one, anything in between that stood out to you. Let me know what you're thinking in those comments down below.

With that, of course, as always, my name's Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love yo faces and I'll see you tomorrow.