The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 10.30 Deadspin Backlash, Shane Dawson Conspiracy, Contaminated Juul Claims, Epstein, & More

Episode Date: October 30, 2019

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Sup you beautiful bastards, hope you're having a fantastic Wednesday. I'm Jack from Jack's films. And let's just jump into it. Another Wednesday, another host that we're having to fire Jack's films. He kind of nailed the intro, but then he just kept saying Mimi big boy for 20 minutes.

But despite Jackson, fortunate firing, if you'd like to listen to our brand new podcast together on my conversation with podcasts, one, you can listen to it on the audio platform on your choice using that anchor link down below, Apple Podcasts, Google, whatever, you get it. Or if you actually wanna watch that podcast, I just uploaded that video to youtube.com slash a convo with

right before I uploaded this video. So you can head over there, enjoy, subscribe, upload a brand new podcast there every Wednesday. But with that said, buckle up, hit that like button, otherwise I will punch you in the throat and let's just jump into it. And the first thing we're gonna talk about today are updates and big allegations against Juul.

What I imagine was expected was going to be the largest news around Juul, where reports that the company would be cutting 500 jobs by the end of 2019. Right, a very meaningful cut to a company that has an estimated workforce of around 4,000, a company that is currently under a lot of scrutiny and under fire.

But the really big news are the allegations coming from Siddharth Breha. He's the former senior vice president of global finance for Juul, and he filed a lawsuit against the company on Tuesday. A lawsuit that claims that Juul shipped out one million contaminated e-cigarette pods. Breha claiming that the company retaliated against him

when he brought up concerns over the shipment. Also, according to reports, there was another instance where Breha says he was worried when the company in February 2019 wanted to resell pods that were at one point almost one year old, saying he protested their resale and urged the company to at least include an expiration or best buy date or a date of manufacture on the packaging,

with a report going on to say that the lawsuit claims that then CEO Kevin Burns shot down that idea saying, "'Half our customers are drunk and vaping like mofos. "'Who the fuck is going to notice the quality of our pods?' Now, as far as the other side of this, according to reports, a Juul spokesperson called Breja's claims baseless and added that he was terminated

because he failed to demonstrate the leadership qualities needed in his role. The report also saying the representative also said that Breja's safety concerns were unfounded while acknowledging that the, quote, "'manufacturing issue' that he described had taken place. With a spokesperson saying, the allegations concerning safety issues

with Juul products are equally meritless, and we already investigated the underlying manufacturing issue and determined the product met all applicable specifications. But yeah, ultimately, that's where we are with this story. Now it's gonna be interesting to keep an eye on it, and yeah, really just no shortage of troubles

for Juul right now. Then, in some quickie news, there were very awesome announcements around the Team Trees initiative from Mr. Beast and Mark Rober and just so manyul right now. Then in some quickie news, there were very awesome announcements around the Team Trees initiative from Mr. Beast and Mark Rober and just so many people involved now. One, thanks to the word getting out more and more as of this morning, $8.2 million has been raised.

Right, the idea behind that movement is for every dollar donated, a tree gets planted. And among the top new donors you had for this project, you had Jack Dorsey, who of course the CEO of Twitter, and in fact, Elon Musk, who donated $1 million. And even crazier, when Elon responded on Twitter saying that he would donate the million, with, okay, sounds legit, we'll donate 1 million trees,

YouTube responded, it can confirm it's legit, and we'll match the next million to keep Team Trees growing. Right, so just awesome news, it's great to see that, but also because, you know, as we've seen with other news stories, it often feels news. It's great to see that. But also because, you know, as we've seen with other news stories, it often feels like no good deed goes unpunished. We're now seeing articles and reports targeting Elon Musk,

like this one from The Verge, reading Elon Musk donates $1 million to plant trees after testifying that he's cash poor. Musk admitted his illiquidity as part of an ongoing defamation suit. And that claim is reportedly connected to a defamation lawsuit that stems from, I mean, we talked about that story a while ago

when Elon Musk called that British cave diver a child rapist, but yeah, there was that. Then let's talk about the massive news around Jeffrey Epstein. And for those who don't remember, Epstein, who was arrested for federal sex trafficking charges, he ended up being found dead in his cell.

New York City officials ruled it a suicide, which was a conclusion that many, many people did not believe. Just tons of conspiracy theories have been connected to this death, many attributing it to a number of people. But the reason we're talking about this today is Michael Baden. Baden is a former New York City medical examiner.

More specifically for this story, he is a forensic pathologist who was hired by Jeffrey Epstein's brother. And he has come out today saying the death showed a number of signs pointing to homicide rather than suicide. Reportedly arguing that Epstein's injuries were extremely unusual in suicidal hangings and could occur much more commonly

in homicidal strangulation. Also saying of the two guards that were meant to monitor Epstein, "'I've never seen in 50 years of investigating all deaths "'that occur in prisons in New York State, "'never have two guards fall asleep at the same time "'while the video doesn't work.'" Although there was one note

that Baden himself did point out. He reportedly told Fox News that a homicide would have left a perpetrator's DNA at the scene, but admitted that, quote, "'We don't have those results yet.'" And also, as the New York Times has reported, the findings by Dr. Baden were strongly disputed by the city's chief medical examiner, Dr. Barbara Sampson,

with Dr. Sampson having said, "'I stand firmly behind our determination "'of the cause and manner of death in this case. "'In general, fractures of the hyoid bone and the cartilage "'can be seen in suicides and homicides.'" Which is also of note because Dr. Baden pointed out, Epstein had three fractures of the hyoid bone and the cartilage can be seen in suicides and homicides. Which is also of note because Dr. Baden pointed out Epstein had three fractures in the hyoid bone and the thyroid cartilage. And of those injuries, he said that was very unusual for suicide and more indicative of strangulation, homicidal strangulation. All right, so there was that. And it's going to be interesting to see if we see any further fallout from this claim. And in quickie

internet business news, it appears that we are now just days away from one of the biggest sales that we've seen. And specifically what I'm mentioning here is the Shane Dawson, Jeffree Star collaboration. And if you're completely unfamiliar with this, it's kind of been this amazing internet experiment to watch. Shane Dawson, who of course is an old school creator, has really evolved over the past year and a half. He took several months off to work

on this big secret project. That project has then come out in the past four weeks, revealed in six episodes. The first one garnering 24 million views, and yes, there has been a steady decline in each one, but even the latest one, after just 16 hours, is showcasing 8.2 million views. And part of the reason for that is probably a lot of people

tuned in initially to see if there was kind of drama, allegations, claims. And then I think more and more people realize that, oh, this is actually a documentary about Shane Dawson coming out with a product from the beginning to the actual release. While also at the same time, thanks to Jeffree Star, getting an inside look at the money and business around

merchandise as well as makeup. Which I will say is fascinating. There was this moment in one of the last episodes where they showed half a million dollars in sales over the course of around 20 to 30 minutes. And that was kind of on a just random secondary merch drop. And while the views have gone down with this series, and no way is that a bash or any kind of inclination that there's going to be a failure of some sort,

it's just that the numbers that you're seeing now, I think are the most invested and probably most likely to buy this product that people over the course of six episodes have seen created. Which I will say, you know, I've had this show for like, what, about 12 years. We've covered a lot of kind of marketing plays.

I have never seen something done so intelligently. Like I do not wear makeup other than the kind of occasional breakout concealer. And even I, having watched the course of this, I want to buy a palette just because it feels like it's part of something bigger. Yeah, it'll be really interesting to see what happens when they release it.

It's supposed to come out on Friday. I guess really connected to the story, I would really love to know your thoughts for those who have also watched the series. And then let's talk about this Deadspin Stick to Sports controversy. Right, now if you're not familiar with Deadspin, it's an online sports news website.

It covers a lot of sports that you'd expect, like ones sent around the World Series, the NFL. But in fact, it's also made a name for itself by writing stories that break away from sports, so much so that it's actually kind of a running joke on the site. And you have one of the main categories on its homepage being titled, The Concourse,

which is a section devoted to non-sports related articles. And it is everything from political commentary to an annual haters guides to the Williams-Sonoma catalog. We've all seen the site dip into video game news. A lot of people pointing to a 2014 article where they did a deep dive into sexism and harassment in the gamer community. And in fact, according to former editor, Timothy Burke,

those stories were some of the sites most viewed. This, even though reportedly that section only made up about one in every 50 posts. And kind of on top of all of that, you had Deadspin even poking fun at itself by selling merchandise with the message, "'Stick to sports' on it." But the reason that we're talking about Deadspin

is in part because of the new ownership of Deadspin and how that's affecting the site. So Deadspin, if you don't know, was part of the Gizmodo Media Group, which was owned by Univision, who bought it after Gawker got sued into the ground. And the Gizmodo Media Group also ran sites like Gizmodo Media Group, which was owned by Univision, who bought it after Gawker got sued into the ground. And the Gizmodo Media Group also ran sites like Gizmodo, The Onion, Kotaku, and Jezebel.

But back in April of this year, a private equity firm called Great Hill Partners bought Gizmodo Media Group, and then forming a new media group called GEO Media. And reportedly, there's been a lot of tension between executives and employees since that acquisition. In fact, one of those was last week, GEO Media landed a seven-figure advertising deal,

which seems great. But reportedly, employees were not happy because this deal included sound on autoplay video ads, which really, just to insert myself really quick, the only things that those kind of ads advertise are script blockers. They're just horrible, but that's also why you had deadspin employees and employees

from these other sites saying that they were receiving a ton of negative feedback from readers, which is also why on Monday we saw them directly address these concerns, saying in a series of identical posts that were posted to each individual website that they were as upset with the current state of our site's user experience as you are. With a post going on to say that none of the individual sites

had any control over those ads. And ending, editorial staffers at all levels of this company have made our concerns known in various conversations with members of GeoMedia's senior leadership team. We think it would be good for them to hear from you as well. With the Daily Beast also quoting one staffer as saying, this isn't what any of us signed up for. It's amateurish and pushing longtime readers away

and making the sites difficult to enjoy. Also, as far as these kind of protest posts, those were short-lived. They ended up all being deleted, and according to the union that represents these employees, Gizmodo Media Group Union, they had, quote, been informed that posts across our websites asking for reader feedback

on an autoplay ad campaign were taken down by management. We condemn this action in the strongest possible terms. Yesterday we saw the union follow up by claiming that Geo Media executives had disabled the forwarding address to the email provided in those posts. But that was also not the end of the situation nor the only reason people were talking about deadspin

in this general group. On Monday, we reportedly had Geo Media editorial director, Paul Maidman, sending out a statement to employees saying, "'To create as much great sports journalism as we can "'requires a 100% focus of our resources on sports, "'and it will be the sole focus. "'Deadspin will write only about sports

"'and that which is relevant to sports in some way. "'Where such subjects touch on sports, "'they are fair game for Deadspin. "'Where they do not, they are not. "'We have plenty of other sites that write about politics, "'pop culture, the arts, and the rest, "'and they're the appropriate place for such work.'" Right, and so basically you had Maidment ordering Deadspin

to drop the concourse section. And that's not to say that this hadn't also been a debate within the staff at Deadspin before, but Maidment's memo had made that decision clear. However, later that same day, we saw this. Deadspin's entire front page now dedicated to non-sports stories only. We also saw those stories being tagged

with the label Stick to Sports, kind of just this giant middle finger to Maidment's decision and that revolt seemingly coming from interim editor-in- Maidman's decision. And that revolved seemingly coming from interim editor in chief, Barry Pacheski. And following this, yesterday morning, we ended up seeing Pacheski tweet, "'Hi, I've just been fired from Deadspin "'for not sticking to sports.'"

About 30 minutes after that, you had the GMG Union confirming that yes, he had been fired and adding, "'This will not stand.'" And later yesterday evening, we saw the site's main page revert back to sports stories. Following that, GMG Union tweeted again, saying that Deadspin staffers had nothing to do with the new changes. With the site's main page revert back to sports stories. Following that, GMG Union tweeted again, saying that Deadspin staffers

had nothing to do with the new changes. With the New York Times also reporting that two sources with knowledge of the situation said that Maidment was in direct control of Deadspin yesterday. That same day, we also saw senior editor Diana Moskowitz announce that she put in her two weeks notice, saying on Twitter,

what happened today and everything that preceded it are among the reasons I decided to move on. But then also, in response to all of this, we saw Maidment say in a statement, "'I sent a memo to Deadspin staff stating "'that our sports site should be focused on sports coverage. "'As I made clear in that note, "'sport touches on nearly every aspect of life,

"'from politics to business to pop culture and more. "'We believe that Deadspin reporters and editors "'should go after every conceivable story "'as long as it has something to do with sports. "'We are sorry that some of the Deadspin staff "'don't agree with that editorial direction "'and refuse to work within that incredibly broad mandate." But notably here, we also saw a response from Will Leach,

who was actually the founder of Deadspin, with him saying, the only way you could buy Deadspin and say, here are some edicts and now everyone follow them, is if you never read Deadspin in the last 10 years. It feels like they are either trying to kill the site and squeeze whatever money they can out of it or get rid of the entire staff,

or both because there's no sense they have any plan. Yeah, ultimately we're gonna have to wait to see what happens next, if more people leave, if there are more firings. I mean, I also went to deadspin.com and it appears that some of those concourse articles are on kind of the first page if you scroll. Yeah, it's gonna be interesting to see how this plays out.

And the last thing we're gonna talk about today is this massive news coming out of Bolivia. If you haven't seen, protests have been going on all over the country for over a week now. But unlike some of the recent protests that we've talked about in Latin America and other parts of the world, these protests aren't because of economic problems.

Instead, we're seeing protests over accusations of election fraud. Okay, so all this starts on October 20th, when voters in Bolivia head to the polls to cast their votes. Votes for either President Evo Morales or his opponents, the strongest of which was Carlos Mesa, who actually himself had served as president

from 2003 until 2005 when he resigned. Now, Morales has served opponents, the strongest of which was Carlos Mesa, who actually himself had served as president from 2003 until 2005 when he resigned. Now Morales has served as president of Bolivia for more than 13 years since 2006, making him one of the longest serving leaders in Latin America. And so in this most recent election, he was running to be reelected for his fourth term. And right now you might be thinking,

okay, 13 years, four terms, that sounds like a long time for a democratically elected president to serve. And in fact it is, or rather was, because back in 2013, Bolivia's highest court ruled that Morales could time for a democratically elected president to serve. And in fact, it is, or rather was, because back in 2013, Bolivia's highest court ruled that Morales could run for a third term, even though the constitution limited the president to two five-year terms. And so he ran that third time, and he won.

And then in 2016, Morales proposed a change to the constitution that would end term limits altogether. But in a national referendum, a majority of Bolivian voters voted against his plan to scrap the term limits, thus preventing him from running again in 2019. Now Morales originally said that he would accept that outcome,

but then in 2017, his party asked the highest court to overrule the referendum, arguing that preventing elected officials from running indefinitely, one, violated human rights, and two, that the referendum only passed in the first place because of a smear campaign led by the United States. And again, we ended up seeing the court give Morales

a huge win by scrapping the limits, entirely officially allowing him to run for a fourth term. Now unsurprisingly, that decision upset a lot of people who argued that this was a clear tactic for Morales to solidify his hold on power. And now those allegations have resurfaced because when the polls closed on the night of October 20th, the results from Bolivia's election tribunal

indicated that the race was headed to a runoff, that analysts said that Morales had a strong chance of losing. But then the tribunal mysteriously stopped updating the election results for nearly 24 hours. And then when reporting finally resumed after this just unexplained gap, it showed that Morales was actually beating Mesa

in a razor thin margin. And then a few days later, the tribunal declares that not only did Morales win, but that he had won by just a little bit over the 10 point lead required to avoid a runoff election. So unsurprisingly, you had a lot of people confused, a lot of people pissed off.

You had Mesa and other opposition leaders accusing Morales of election fraud, calling for people to hold demonstrations against the election outcome. And speaking to CNN last Monday, Mesa said, quote, "'What is happening in Bolivia is a gigantic fraud "'to rob us of our right to go to a second round "'where we have a chance of winning.

"'We are talking about a clearly established fraud "'by a government that has the electoral council "'at its service. And so with this, we saw people taking to the streets all over the country to protest. And while some of the demonstrations have remained peaceful, other protesters have reportedly set fire

to government buildings and knocked over statues. These protests have also basically been ongoing ever since the election with protesters building barricades and blocking highways and buildings, also causing shops and schools to close down. In the Capitol yesterday, we saw police responding by firing tear gas at protesters, and numerous injuries have been reported

all over the country. But what's also really interesting is it isn't just people protesting against Morales. In fact, a lot of the clashes and violence that we're seeing at these protests are actually between Mesa's supporters and Morales' supporters. And in fact, on Monday, there were both Mesa

and Morales held rallies where they each accused the other supporters of inciting violence. Also at his rally, Mesa doubled down on the fraud accusations, also telling writers earlier in the day that his protesters would not stop or accept negotiation and that the crisis was caused entirely because Morales wanted to stay in power for his lifetime,

adding, I have no doubt that his intention is to stay in government indefinitely, illegitimately. This is a political process that is debasing, deteriorating, and corrupting, that is expressed by the desire for power for power's sake. But on the other side of this, you have Morales continuing to affirm his victory and deny any accusations that any fraud occurred

or that he is simply trying to keep himself in power. Arguing that his continued election wins are the will of the Bolivian people. Morales has also claimed that there is a coup attempt underway led by right-wing groups and foreign powers. But we've also seen him invite the Organization of American States, the OAS, to audit the vote and saying if the OAS finds evidence

of fraud, he'll agree to a second round of voting. In the meantime, the United States, Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia have refused to formally recognize Morales as the rightful president of Bolivia following the election. And in a joint statement, the four countries said that they will not recognize him if the OAS is not able to verify results of the first round, which, actually a big update today,

as Bolivia's foreign minister announced that the OAS audit is set to start tomorrow and that the results will be binding. As far as what the OAS has had to say thus far, I've seen them call the 24 hour gap in election reporting surprising and worrying. Also saying that Bolivian authorities didn't have a legitimate explanation for it.

We've already seen the OAS director of electoral observation and cooperation saying that this election should still go to a second round regardless of the audit's finding. But yeah, ultimately that is where we are with Bolivia now. And it's gonna be interesting to see what happens. You know, with this situation, you have many comparing Morales' actions to's gonna be interesting to see what happens. You know, with this situation, you have many comparing Morales' actions

to what's going on in Venezuela right now. You know, as the Washington Post wrote, "'The developments in some ways resemble the sequence "'of events that led to the current standoff in Venezuela. "'Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, a Morales ally, "'claimed victory last year "'in elections widely viewed as fraudulent. "'The United States withdrew recognition of Maduro,

"'declared opposition leader Juan Guaido "'Venezuela's rightful leader, "'and imposed economic sanctions on the already collapsing nation. And in fact, on that note, thousands of protesters who have taken to the streets in Bolivia can often be heard chanting slogans such as, "'No' and, "'No, I don't want to live in a dictatorship

"'like the one in Venezuela.'" But that's one of the big differences between Maduro and Morales, is that Morales is actually still pretty popular. While Maduro is widely blamed for Venezuela's economic crisis, Morales is often widely credited for bringing massive economic growth to Bolivia

and significantly reducing poverty and inequality in one of the region's poorest countries. But also at the same time, Morales' once very strong popularity has slipped recently, with more and more people accusing him of weakening democracy and concentrating power with his continued efforts to change the constitution to be reelected.

For now, we'll have to wait and see. For those that live there, live around there, have family there, I'd really love to know your thoughts on what's happening. And that's where I'm going to end today's show. If you're new here and you want an easy and hopefully enjoyable way to stay informed, be sure you hit that subscribe button.

Definitely tap that bell to turn on notifications. Also, if you're looking for more to watch after this video, you should definitely check out that new podcast I have with Jax Films and or maybe you just missed yesterday's show, you can click or tap right there to watch either of those. But with that said, of course, as always, my name's Philip DeFranco.

You've just been filled in. I love your faces and I'll see you tomorrow.