The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 10.8 Dear Blizzard & NBA, YOU'RE COWARDS! Also Dobre Brothers Fallout & More...

Starting point is 00:00:00 Sup you beautiful bastards, hope you're having a fantastic Tuesday. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show and let's just jump into it. And the first thing we're gonna talk about today is the story coming out of Texas, which also, don't worry. You know a lot of people when they watch a show

Starting point is 00:00:11 and I say a place that they live, they're like, ah, what'd we do? It's not you, or at least all of you. So there's a story that's blown up about the sexiest of topics, job applications. And specifically at the center of this story, we have a woman whose job application went viral, Emily Clough.

Starting point is 00:00:25 She lives in Austin, Texas. She applied to an open marketing position at a startup called Kickass Mastermind. Clough saying she was eager to grow her social media and sales experience, saying she eventually heard back from the company. They then asked her to fill out additional application forms and also asked her to follow them on Instagram.

Starting point is 00:00:39 And so all seemed like it was going pretty well until she saw that Kickass Masterminds had posted a cropped photo of her in a bikini to its Instagram story. With Kick-Ass Masterminds adding text to the photo saying, "'PSA, because I know some of you applicants "'are looking at this. "'Do not share your social media

Starting point is 00:00:54 "'with a potential employer "'if this is the kind of content on it. "'I am looking for a professional marketer, "'not a bikini model.'" Adding, "'Go on with your bad self "'and do whatever in private. "'But this is not doing you any favors "'in finding a professional job.

Starting point is 00:01:05 Clow, obviously surprised, then messaged the company privately about the photo, saying that she'd screenshot the story, then saying, I appreciate your advice, which kick-ass masterminds then replied, remember that everything you put on social is public and future potential employers will see it. Best of luck in your job search.

Starting point is 00:01:19 Clow then responds again, I am aware of that as I worked with social media for two years. I didn't realize wearing a bathing suit and appreciating my body made me an unprofessional. Most employers and companies, especially those who work with marketing, have that understanding. I am disappointed to see a company I was very interested in decided to go out of their way to shame an applicant.

Starting point is 00:01:35 She then continues by asking the company to take down the story. Kick-Ass Mastermind simply responds, best of luck. Clow asks again, but then following that, the company blocks her. She then takes to Twitter saying she felt objectified and that she was baffled that the company handled it in such a manner.

Starting point is 00:01:48 Also later sharing a photo of the company's bio from its LinkedIn page saying, "'This is fucking hilarious considering'." That bio stating that Kickass Masterminds works with rebellious business owners, specifically those who are rebelling from the traditional way of earning a living because they've lost faith in corporate America.

Starting point is 00:02:01 And then goes on to say that it works with business owners who quote, want other like-minded people to have their backs "'when shit gets tough in their quest for personal "'and money freedom.'" And following this, you know, her post goes viral. You see a wave of support for Clow. You also had others sharing photos like this, which is reportedly from Kick-Ass Mastermind's

Starting point is 00:02:16 Instagram page. Are people asking, well, is this photo professional? Also photos like this from CEO Sarah Christensen's personal Twitter. But at the same time, of course, that reaction was not universal. You had some others saying things like, "'What the hell? Of course it's unprofessional.

Starting point is 00:02:27 "'Women need to help other women learn "'how to be taken seriously.'" And that was essentially the full story until yesterday when Christensen posted an apology to Medium, saying, "'In a very human moment, "'I made an error in judgment by posting "'to my Instagram stories about a job applicant's "'online persona.

Starting point is 00:02:40 "'To anyone watching, I am a great case study "'in what not to do. "'To Ms. Clow, I apologize for my behavior. I intended you no harm. I should never have made that post. To those I serve through my business and who have trusted my counsel, many of you have been affected by this very avoidable event.

Starting point is 00:02:53 There are no words to describe how sorry I am that you have felt the consequences of my poor decision." As of recording this video, Kickass Masterminds has set their Instagram to private. The company's Twitter, Facebook, and even LinkedIn page were also taken down. As far as Clow, she seems to be rolling with it with her new Instagram profile reading

Starting point is 00:03:07 an unprofessional bikini model. And I'd really love to know your thoughts on this because depending on where you see this story popping up, there are vastly different opinions. Right, for example, like on Yahoo News, if you look to the top comments, there are a lot of people that are siding with the business. But if you look to places like Twitter

Starting point is 00:03:20 where this story blew up, you had a lot of people just calling this blatant slut shaming. Now, as far as my opinion on this, I think regarding the company and the CEO publicly shaming this woman, and sure, they cropped out her face, I still think that it's disgusting they did that.

Starting point is 00:03:32 If you wanna make an untethered post about your advice regarding hiring practices that doesn't include an actual applicant and her photo, fine, but the way things were actually done, it feels petty, unprofessional, it feels like slut shaming from someone that's maybe, maybe at times given what they've put out on social media is being hypocritical and maybe jealous.

Starting point is 00:03:50 And also I'll add as a small business owner, right? Someone who employs a number of people. If you applied to me and this was your profile, I wouldn't give a damn. Like if you're putting stuff out on social media and it's like illegal drug use, or you blacked out, right? With a caption, just another Tuesday, right, I'm gonna have concerns.

Starting point is 00:04:07 But literally all we're talking about is a young woman who is confident and happy in her body, sharing photos. Like I understand that when I hire someone, they're not a robot that's just doing the thing that I need them to do. They are also a person outside of the building. But whatever, I understand that I'm just one employer in a business that is not prudish.

Starting point is 00:04:24 And so with that said, of course, I'd love to know your thoughts around this. Then kind of a quickie story I wanna touch on because it blew up yesterday. For those who don't know, there are these people that exist. They were initially the Dobre twins, then the Dobre brothers. You got Lucas, Marcus, Darius, and Cyrus Dobre.

Starting point is 00:04:37 As far as what they do, what they provide to the world, according to their YouTube description, we are the Dobre brothers and we do backflips. We dance, we do backflips. They really want you to understand the backflip part. And we also live life like there is no tomorrow. And they're also just massively popular on TikTok with the Dobre twins having 17.6 million fans there.

Starting point is 00:04:55 But the reason there was all this news around them, this whole situation blew up, is they're currently on a 21 stop live tour. And according to their site, they offer a range of tickets starting at $29.99 all the way to just around $600. And part of the tickets here is above general admission is that there is a meet and greet. And a video of one of those meet and greets went viral.

Starting point is 00:05:13 I'm gonna have to remove the music that was in it. Hey, so nice to meet you. Oh my god, thank you so much. What was that? Right, so following that, there were a number of people that were like, are you serious? A lot of other people saying it's disgusting. People saying, can you imagine treating a fan like that that has spent money on you? Among those calling out the Dobre brothers,

Starting point is 00:05:48 you had people like James Charles, who as you might remember had been slammed in the past for having tickets that cost $500, tweeting, what the actual fuck is this? And later adding, being tired is not an excuse to not smile and give a hug to people who pay to meet you. YouTuber JC Kalen tweeting that it was actually sad. Also noting that the fan probably waited months

Starting point is 00:06:05 for this moment. Danny Gonzalez is actually on tour right now tweeting. For a second I was like, is there a Dobre Brothers exhibit at Madame Tussauds? Which for those that don't know is a wax figure joke. We also have people defending them saying, you don't know what was happening. They could have received bad information

Starting point is 00:06:17 right before this moment. And regarding that kind of defense, we saw Lucas Dobre tweet on Monday, "'After a long 48 hours of restless filming and touring, "'then meeting thousands of fans with no sleep, "'we were exhausted by the end of the show. "'Our true apologies. "'We are sincerely sorry.'"

Starting point is 00:06:29 And following that, you know, you had some people accepting that apology, some saying it's not enough. And here's the thing. While just quickly scrubbing through this story, I saw some other people sharing their meet and greet videos where there's kind of like half-assed hugs and, ah. My opinion is if you're doing these live shows

Starting point is 00:06:41 and you're promising a certain experience that these people have paid for, you need to make it worth it. Right, so if you wanna blame management or someone else for putting too much on your plate, okay, go for that, but then try to actually change. But otherwise, understand you wouldn't have anything without these people.

Starting point is 00:06:54 Once again, yes, you guys are massive. I had no clue really before this story who you were, but based off of an initial scrub, you need to be the nicest fucking people on the planet because I don't know other than your looks appealing to younger girls What what's happening that does not and will not last forever. Here's the thing No one's ever gonna be perfect, but you have to at least try, you know

Starting point is 00:07:13 If I've ever been at the end of a meet-and-greet right now, I'm losing my voice. I'm tired. There's always like a I'm so sorry I'm trying thank you so much, but that's where I'll leave this one Of course, I'd love to know your thoughts on this. And then let's talk about the situation with China, cowering companies, censorship, there's a lot to cover here. Right, and understand when I'm talking about censorship, I'm also talking about things outside of China itself.

Starting point is 00:07:35 So quickly, because I know a lot of you aren't familiar with sports, which is part of the reason one of our best selling shirts of all time is the sports shirt. In the NBA, the National Basketball Association, there is a team called the Houston Rockets. And their general manager, Darryl Morey, tweeted while in Japan for a pre-season game.

Starting point is 00:07:50 Specifically, posting an image that says, "'Fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong.'" Right, so he was showing support for the pro-democracy protestors in Hong Kong who have been protesting for 18 weeks now. Now, if you're unfamiliar with the protests and how things have developed, how dare you for not watching my show before this video?

Starting point is 00:08:03 I've been covering it for a while, things have been escalating. You can check out those videos, I'll link to them down below. Now, regarding Maury's tweet, he ended up actually quickly deleting it. And that tweet, both the posting and deletion, it was met with a lot of mixed reactions.

Starting point is 00:08:14 You had Chinese fans upset that an NBA leader spoke in support of Hong Kong, which, something to note here, the NBA has a lot of money to make in China, which is why over the weekend, the Rockets were scrambling to handle the situation. The Rockets owner, Tilman Fertitta, sent out a tweet clarifying that the tweet

Starting point is 00:08:27 represented Maury's personal beliefs and not a political position of the team. Maury himself tried to do damage control on his own, addressing the situation on Sunday. There he kind of started to backpedal and downplay his comments, saying, "'I did not intend my tweet to cause any offense "'to Rockets fans and friends of mine in China.

Starting point is 00:08:40 "'I was merely voicing one thought "'based on one interpretation of one complicated event. "'I have had a lot of opportunities since that tweet to hear and consider other perspectives. I have always appreciated the significant support our Chinese fans and sponsors have provided, and I would hope that those who are upset will know that offending or misunderstanding them was not my intention. My tweets are my own and in no way represent the Rockets or the NBA. Which on that note, the NBA has also addressed the situation as well, taking a similar approach to Maury and trying to appease China and their fans,

Starting point is 00:09:07 saying Maury's tweets are his own, the values of the league support individuals educating themselves and sharing their views on matters important to them, and we have great respect for the history and culture of China and hope that sports and the NBA can be used as a unifying force to bridge cultural divides and bring people together.

Starting point is 00:09:22 But in response to this, China was essentially like, yo, we're China, no, go fuck yourself. So we saw the Chinese government cutting ties with the Houston Rockets. It also upset a lot of Chinese businesses, including the team's Chinese sponsors who followed suit. Also the Chinese Basketball Association, along with Tencent, which streams NBA games in China

Starting point is 00:09:37 to almost 500 million viewers, cut their ties as well. And some background here, the Rockets specifically are an incredibly popular team in China. Yao Ming, who's one of the most popular basketball players in the country played for the Rockets. He's also a major reason behind the NBA's popularity in China. Also a big thing of note here is that Yao Ming himself

Starting point is 00:09:52 is actually the current president of the CBA. Right, so when the CBA cut ties with the Rockets, it meant Ming was cutting ties with his former team. Right, so all the statements, the moves, it's a massive deal and it's also part of the reason why it's believed that this is kind of just the beginning. According to a report from the ringer, ownership is actually debating whether or not

Starting point is 00:10:08 to replace Maury as the team's GM. You also had the owner of the Nets, Joe Tsai, who also co-founded Chinese media company Alibaba, saying, I don't know Darryl personally. Regarding Darryl, I'm sure he's a fine NBA general manager. Also regarding the apology, saying he would take that at face value. But the hurt that this incident has caused

Starting point is 00:10:22 will take a long time to repair. We also saw an example of an NBA player trying trying to calm things down this with james harden we apologize um you know you know we love china we love you know playing there uh i know for both of us individually we go there you know once or twice a year uh they show us the most important love so you know we appreciate as a fan base and we love everything, you know, they're about and, you know, we appreciate the support that they give us individually and as an organization. So, you know, we love you.

Starting point is 00:10:52 Following this, we also saw a number of American politicians respond. You had presidential candidate Julian Castro tweeting, China is using its economic power to silence critics, even those in the US. You had Republican Senator Ted Cruz saying he was proud of Daryl Morey, but adding now in pursuit of big money,

Starting point is 00:11:05 the NBA is shamefully retreating. And adding we're better than this. Human rights shouldn't be for sale and the NBA shouldn't be assisting Chinese communist censorship. Republican Senator Rick Scott calling the statement from the NBA commissioner an absolute joke, as well as Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer saying

Starting point is 00:11:18 no one should implement a gag rule on Americans speaking out for freedom. Also, like I was saying, this situation, it's primed to escalate even further. We're now seeing news this morning that China won't show NBA preseason games as backlash over Hong Kong tweet grows. Reportedly, that latest move was in response

Starting point is 00:11:33 to the NBA commissioner who actually on Monday night told Kyoto News, I have read some of the media suggesting that we are not supporting Daryl Morey, but in fact we have. I think as a values-based organization that I want to make it clear that Daryl Morey is supported in terms of his ability to exercise his freedom of expression. But like I said, there is a lot more to this China story

Starting point is 00:11:50 and not even what's to come, but already what we're seeing in different avenues. For one of the more recent ones, we jumped from sports to e-sports. So there's this professional hearthstone player called Wei Cheng. According to reports, Wei Cheng appeared on a Taiwanese hearthstone stream

Starting point is 00:12:02 in a gas mask and goggles and said, "'Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our age. As far as why the gas mask and the goggles, it appears that was a reference to the ban on masks in Hong Kong now. Now following that, the clip was removed from the Taiwanese Hearthstone channel, though the internet is the internet

Starting point is 00:12:17 and so it began to spread and blow up even more. And so what we ended up seeing after this is that Blizzard, right, the company behind the game, the tournament, they announced this player's immediate removal from Grand Masters, they're withholding his prize money for his participation, and they're banning him from taking part in Hearthstone Esports for a year. With Hearthstone announcing this on their official blog

Starting point is 00:12:36 and pointing to a rule, reading, "'Engaging in any act that in Blizzard's sole discretion "'brings you into public disrepute, offends a portion "'or group of the public, or otherwise damages Blizzard's image will result in removal from grand masters, et cetera, et cetera. And then they actually had the audacity to include

Starting point is 00:12:51 while we stand by one's right to express individual thoughts and opinions. Did you though? Okay, actually I'll save it. Players and other participants that elect to participate in our e-sports competitions must abide by the official competition rules. The two parts of that one sentence

Starting point is 00:13:03 do not appear to go together, which may also be the reason why they disabled comments on that post. Also, crazy enough, Blizzard also fired the two commentators who it appears did not also call for anything with Hong Kong. They were just there. Right, so in my opinion, this is Blizzard blatantly saying, "'Hey, the business that we have in China,

Starting point is 00:13:19 "'that is more important than free speech.'" Which, hey, they're a private organization, they have rules in place, they're allowed to do what they want, and I, as someone that is outside of it, can call them fucking pathetic cowards. Also, congratulations to everyone involved, as we always constantly see

Starting point is 00:13:31 when you try to suppress something, when you try to push something out. You just draw more attention to it, so the people in Hong Kong, you're just drawing more attention to their struggle. But that is only possible if we have people that are not terrified of China or losing money in China.

Starting point is 00:13:43 Because, like places like Axios have pointed out, right? This is not a covert operation from China. China is using their market power to bully American organization, right? As the report points out, this is just the latest in this. You had Marriott apologizing to China after Beijing shut down the hotel's chains website because it listed Hong Kong, Taiwan, Tibet,

Starting point is 00:14:00 and Macau as separate countries. You had American United and Delta bending to China's will last summer and scrubbing references to Taiwan as its own country. Hell, actually one of the most recent stories and a story that I am happy to see. According to reports, South Park this week was erased from major platforms in China after an episode last week taunted Chinese censors

Starting point is 00:14:19 and the far reaching effect they often have on American entertainment. It was an episode called Banned in China, a little word play. Popular platforms when you were searching for South Park. On was an episode called Band in China, a little wordplay. Popular platforms when you were searching for South Park. On Tuesday, you'd get the message, according to the relevant law and regulation, this section is temporarily not open.

Starting point is 00:14:33 And so following this, we saw the show's creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, apologize, saying, like the NBA, we welcome the Chinese censors into our homes and into our hearts. We too love money more than freedom and democracy. In closing, she doesn't look just like Winnie the Pooh at all. And I think for me, that's a solid note that I kinda wanna end on because I mean, as far as my opinion, one, fuck Xi

Starting point is 00:14:52 and the Chinese government. I'm not saying that about the Chinese people. I think it is incredibly important to separate governments with their people, especially when you have a government like China. And also two, fuck these cowardly companies that are choosing the money in China over human rights. You can make all the excuses you want,

Starting point is 00:15:07 but in part to a certain degree in certain areas, you are being complicit. But hey, that's the story, a little bit of my opinion. And of course I pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts around this? And that's actually where we're going to end today's show. And hey, if you liked this video, let us know. Take a second to tap that like button.

Starting point is 00:15:20 Also, if you're new here, be sure to tap that subscribe button. Definitely ring that bell to turn on notifications. And hey, if you're looking for more to watch, maybe you missed yesterday's show, you're new here, be sure to tap that subscribe button, definitely ring that bell to turn on notifications. And hey, if you're looking for more to watch, maybe you missed yesterday's show, you wanna catch up, or you wanna check out our latest deep dive, you can click or tap right there to watch either of those. But with that said, of course, as always,

Starting point is 00:15:33 my name's Philip DeFranco, you've just been filled in, I love yo faces, and I'll see you tomorrow.

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The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 10.8 Dear Blizzard & NBA, YOU'RE COWARDS! Also Dobre Brothers Fallout & More...

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