The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 1.22 MrBeast X Video Scandal, Cheating Accusations, DeSantis Kisses Trump's Ring Like A Good Boy &

Episode Date: January 22, 2024

Start your free trial today: http://www.Squarespace.com/Phil  & enter offer code “Phil” to get 10% off your first purchase!  Catch up on the last show: https://youtu.be/OJpTu4dK6wU?si=ZokS3vgfU1QQPLHX –✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ – 00:00 - Newspapers Stolen in Colorado Town After Investigation Makes Front Page 02:27 - MrBeast Announces Results of Twitter Revenue Test 05:58 - Sponsored by Squarespace 06:46 - FAA Recommends Examination of Another Boeing Model Over Door Plugs 09:14 - DeSantis Drops Out of Presidential Race 11:39 - Get Ready for the First Beautiful Bastard Drop of 2024 12:35 - Your Thoughts on Thursday’s Stories What Went Wrong With Horizon - Learning from the Post Office Trial: https://www.benthamsgaze.org/2021/07/15/what-went-wrong-with-horizon-learning-from-the-post-office-trial/ ——————————   Produced by: Cory Ray Edited by: James Girardier, Maxx Enright, Julie Goldberg, Christian Meeks Art Department: William Crespo Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Brian Espinoza, Lili Stenn, Maddie Crichton, Star Pralle, Chris Tolve  ———————————— #DeFranco #MrBeast #ElonMusk ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sup, you beautiful bastards. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show. We got a lot of news to talk about to start your week today. We've got the MrBeastX video scandal getting very messy. The spectacular disaster that was trying to stop this news story from getting out. DeSantis has officially bent the knee, which was impressive for a man with no backbone. And then there's even more to talk about. So buckle up, hit that like button, and let's just jump into it. Starting with this absolutely wild news about news. And it begins with the question, what would you do if there was a local news story about to drop that you did not want getting out? Would you try to jump ahead of it? Make a statement, try to undercut things that were

going to come out? Or might you try to cut people off from the source of the information? Because the small Colorado mountain town of Ouray, they're knee deep in a scandal right now. Because there's this investigation into a sexual assault at the local police chief's house that's making front page news. With the Array County plane dealer, the local newspaper, taking on this story. You have a local teenager saying that she was raped at least three times by two different people in the home of the local police chief, who they say was reportedly asleep at the time. The most recent update is that three people were arrested, with one of them being the stepson of the police chief. But here's the thing, when the plane dealer put

this story out there, no one could actually get a copy. That's because early on the morning that this story was published, someone or people went to every single newspaper box in the town of Uray and all but one in a neighboring town and emptied them. We're talking about hundreds of newspapers just stolen, with the paper saying whoever did this likely put a few quarters into each box and then took the entire stack of papers.

And when they realized that this happened, the plane dealer co-publisher sent out an email saying, it's pretty clear that someone didn't want the community to read the news this week. I'll leave it up to you to draw your own conclusions on which story they didn't want you to read. So now, I mean, we're talking about it. The Streisand effect is strong. This news getting out to even more people.

The Plain Dealer also raising $2,000 in donations since the theft. They also reprinted 250 copies to distribute. But also, later that day, the thief came forward. But then even this is weird. Because it was a local restaurant owner by the name of Paul Choate. He confessed and returned the papers in a garbage bag with an apology, admitting that he stole the papers because of the story on the front page. But this is, it looks like, you know, this guy wasn't even connected to the investigation. The Array County

Sheriff's Office saying in a statement, the suspect is not a member or relative of law enforcement and not associated with the defendants in the recent reported sexual assault. And as for the sexual assault investigation, there is now more attention and arguably pressure on it than ever. The case reportedly being handled by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. But all in all, just kind of a weird one, but I guess also there is a lesson here. If you want a story to be spread, try to stop it. Try to hide it because there's nothing that will get people's attention more. Even through all the noise that is the insanity of our current news site. Just say, hey, don't look behind the curtain. There's nothing behind it. You will get a line of people lining up for it. Just chomp it at the bit to get a peek.

And then in huge business and social media news, the grand Mr. Beast Elon Musk experiment has concluded and wow, it's been big news. There are big claims being made. There are accusations. There are conspiracies. Some are calling Elon Musk a fraud over this. So let me break it down for you and let's talk about it.

Because Musk for a while now has been trying to court creators over to X to post video content, with him even publicly tweeting out his desire to get Mr. Beast on the platform. So you had Mr. Beast politely explaining in the past why it doesn't make monetary sense for him to also post on Twitter.

But eventually, Musk, in the situation, convinced Jimmy to test it out. So he posted an old Mr. Beast video and was like, hey, I'm gonna test out and see how much money this makes and then I'll share the results. And as promised, he announced today, saying my first X video made over $250,000, but adding that it was a bit of a facade, saying advertisers saw the attention it was getting and bought ads on my video, I think, and thus my revenue per view is probably higher than what you'd experience.

And based off the numbers that we have right now, it looks like he's getting $1.68 CPM, but that's how much he gets per thousand views or impressions. And so, you know, with this, you had some people saying, hey, this is a game changing situation. If you look to TikTok, you see examples popping up where people are like, hey, I'm getting eight cents, 30 cents, a dollar per thousand. But then on the other side, you have others saying, no, I mean, you even have Mr. Beast saying that his money, it's probably being inflated here. Then going even further, you have people saying that Elon Musk rigged this whole thing. But some accusing him of running Mr. Beast's video as an undisclosed ad so that it racks up more views

and engagement, meaning that the video would be promoted to people's feeds, not as a regular post, but as an ad minus the label. With people tweeting, this has shown up in my feed maybe seven times now, and saying it's both missing the post time next to the username, indicative of a normal user post, and the ad indicator on the top right. Others noting that when you hit the three dots

on the top right, you can report ad, along with the option why this ad, and then you also have people like Cody Johnston tweeting that on older, un-updated versions of the app, it plainly has the top right. You can report ad along with the option why this ad. And then you also have people like Cody Johnston tweeting that on older, unupdated versions of the app, it plainly has the promotion label. You know, the thing is, this wouldn't be the first time that Twitter's been accused of running undisclosed ads. With the watchdog actually having hit the company with an FTC complaint over this kind of alleged practice. As far as X, they denied the accusations. Because while speaking to Garbage Day newsletter writer Ryan Broderick, they said there is a pre-roll ad for Shopify in the video, which is labeled as such. X boosts posts containing pre-roll ads, but because the post itself is not the ad,

it doesn't have the label. But there you had outlets like Mashable saying that's bullshit. But there he's plainly saying that doesn't make any sense. The pre-roll video ad is a completely different advertisement. If viewers are being served Mr. Beast's posts in their feed and it isn't organically showing up and the aforementioned attributes point to it being served via X's advertising platform, the Mr. Beast's post containing the video is a completely separate advertisement and needs to be labeled as such, which again is one of the reasons this announcement for MrBeast this morning wasn't received with all rave reviews. That includes from other creators who have been getting paid out by X going, this is nowhere near my numbers. Some even saying they wonder

if they're making less because Elon Musk wants to do this whole MrBeast thing as a proof of concept. Though while there's scandal and controversy there, everything kind of amazing for Mr. Beast himself. With a report coming out from Puck News claiming that Mr. Beast actually sold a show to Amazon. Some reports saying that sources said that if the deal becomes 100% official, it will close at nearly $100 million. Though, that hasn't yet been confirmed. Though again, this has not been confirmed by Mr. Beast. It hasn't been confirmed by Amazon. Though now, shortly before uploading today's show, you have outlets like Variety saying there are talks nearing a deal with Amazon. But if this is true, I mean, it's a game-changing situation. And it feels like

something that is inevitable and also so obvious. I've always been shocked that a Netflix or an Amazon type hasn't just backed up the money truck to Mr. Beast. And that despite all his success, that there are still murmurings inside of the community of like, you can't afford a Mr. Beast video. So he ends up taking sponsorships, which are, you know, huge dollar deals, but arguably pennies on the dollar for the value that his videos command. But for now, we'll have to wait to see if we get some confirmation or this is just some internet engage bait. And then we've got more news you need to know about today, but I got to take a quick second to pay some bills, you know, because for any of you focused on getting your business off the ground, creating a place to share your homemade goods, or even a personal blog, I've got a great solution for you.

And it comes from, and I want to thank the fantastic sponsor of today's show, Squarespace. Because, you know, I've been partnering with Squarespace for years now, and I still have to say it is just so easy. There's nothing to install, patch, or update ever. I mean, creating a beautiful website with Squarespace's Fluid Engine is so easy. You just drag things where you like, no coding necessary. And if you need a starting point, Squarespace has a bunch of great professional templates. You can even sell custom merch easily. Squarespace handles all the production and shipping. Plus with Squarespace, you get access to all their marketing tools and analytics

and their award-winning customer care team via email or live chat 24 seven. So go check it out. See why so many others love it. See why you're going to love it and start your free trial today over at squarespace.com slash Phil. Just make sure you enter an offer code fill to get 10% off your first purchase. And then Boeing is in some serious trouble. That was the original first line that I had for this story. Cause I was like, you know, you gotta, you gotta hook the viewer, but it's genuinely hard to say that with a straight face because there's no reason to believe despite all the U S government scrutiny, the government wouldn't bail them out or look the other way when necessary. You know, the reason we're talking about this is a couple of weeks ago,

you had that door plug blowing out of the Alaska Airlines flight, something you don't like your plug door to do with 16,000 feet. You know, following that, you had the FAA grounding the entire fleet of Boeing 737 MAX 9 planes. And in fact, all 171 planes remain grounded right now. It's all pending a review of their inspection and the maintenance processes. But also now they're recommending that airlines examine a different Boeing plane, though for the same issue, that being the 737-900ER. And saying in their announcement, some operators have conducted additional inspections on the 737-900ER mid-exit door plugs and have noted findings with bolts

during the maintenance inspections. And saying that those airlines should check those bolts as soon as possible as just an added layer of safety. And this, of course, is the latest thing. Our federal regulators have been watching Boeing closely thanks to the two 737 MAX crashes that happened in 2018-2019. You know, you got to do a little paying attention to when more than 300 passengers and crew die. Though again, all this is you have NPR noting that Boeing is a pillar of the U.S. economy, both as a military contractor and in civil aviation. I mean, even fucking Obama joked once that he should be on the list for the top salesman at the company. Because I mean, in a very literal sense, the U.S. government helps Boeing sell planes overseas. While the relationship isn't supposed to influence how the FAA treats the

company, we live in the real world where money moves mountains and lobbyists exist. The reality is that Boeing has a lot of influence in Washington. With Jim Hall, a former chairman on the National Transportation Safety Board, saying, Boeing evidently does think it's too big to fail. In Washington, D.C., as everyone knows, there is a great deal of influence exercised through fundraising to members of Congress. There's a great coziness or familiarity between all of the parties. And so who's the bad cop? You know, over the years, we've seen the FAA hand more and more oversight authority to Boeing, trusting their engineers to know the planes best. Also, didn't hurt that it was the cheaper option. But then, following those tragic crashes, things changed, right?

Legislation was passed to make sure that the mistakes made by Boeing and the FAA that led to those crashes didn't happen again. Boeing got a new CEO. The FAA also made changes that were meant to tighten how their authority was delegated. But this most recent mess up is people going, okay, well, how effective is it really? And so now you have regulators considering moving a bunch of the oversight for quality and inspections to an independent third party, which many have called long overdue. But as far as what discussions lead to what changes and what sort of separation between the FAA and Boeing, that remains to be seen right now, right? This is still a developing situation.

Though I will say what sounds good on paper, what seems like the proper separation on paper, not always that clean with real world implementation. I probably wouldn't have a news show if checks and balances always worked as intended, or at least as described. And then Gavin Newsom called it weeks ago. In a matter of weeks, in a matter of weeks, Sean, he'll be endorsing Donald Trump as a nominee for the Republican Party. He didn't have to be a genius to see that coming. But it's seeming like the more people saw and met with DeSantis, the lower his poll numbers kept going. So yesterday, DeSantis officially bent the knee,

and he announced that he is ending his campaign. Trump is superior to the current incumbent, Joe Biden. That is clear. I signed a pledge to support the Republican nominee, and I will honor that pledge. He has my endorsement because we can't go back to the old Republican guard of yesteryear. Part of his endorsement for Trump, while yes, he somewhat does look like a hostage, is likely connected to his desire for Trump to be like,

hey, Republicans, you can be okay with Ronnie boy again. Because as DeSantis himself said just a few days ago. You can be the most worthless Republican in America, but if you kiss the ring, he'll say you're wonderful. You know, just like Ron said happens, Trump delivered. I'd like to take time to congratulate Ron DeSantis and, of course, a really terrific person who I've gotten to know, his wife, Casey, for having run a great campaign for president. And so all this news gets us closer to what seems inevitable,

and that is Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee. That is, unless the only other vaguely competitive candidate, Nikki Haley, punches above her weight, though it is not expected or projected. And it's widely believed that unless she somehow wins the New Hampshire primary tomorrow, or at least pulls off a very strong second place finish,

it's done, it's donezo, it's over. Though again, I just don't expect that. Haley's definitely done better, getting more support from moderate voters. But meanwhile, you've got Trump consolidating more conservative votes. And so there's a clear picture of like DeSantis voters being funneled now to Trump. And even in New Hampshire where Haley should be doing well, most polls show that she's around 15 points behind. Keep in mind, this is before DeSantis dropped out and endorsed. And then even in our home state of South Carolina, doesn't even look

competitive. And so I think really the only question is who's going to be Trump's VP pick? Is it someone who had the gall to run against him even though like Ramaswamy was not running against him? It was like he was trying to be a surrogate. Or does he just grab a diehard like at least Stephanie? I will say even if she would accept or not, I don't think that he would even pick Nikki Haley. I know her name's been thrown around some, if not purely for the fact that he might have reservations about her following the constitution and the rule of law, a la Mike Pence on January 6th. And with how fractured part of the left has been, especially because of the whole Israel-Gaza situation, I think he's going to count on the left infighting

enough that he can just be as Trumpy as he wants to be. He can play to his base. But that is the story, some speculation, and I'll pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts? And then finally today, we have some community stuff in Yesterday Today. As far as the community stuff, get ready for Wednesday. Launching the first beautiful bastard drop of 2024. We went a really different route this time that I'm so pumped about. Because while we're still gonna be releasing the crews, the hoodies, the shirts with the awesome graphics,

stuff like that, as I've gotten older, it's just so much more important for me to have like fantastic essentials, the basics that I can put into any outfit. So for like the last one to two years, we've been building what we think is the perfect shirt. Internally, I just call think is the perfect shirt. Internally, I just call it our everyday everything shirt.

It's mid-weight, it's a special cotton spandex blend. It fits so right. It's what I'm wearing now, it's what you've seen me pair with the flannel that we're also releasing on Wednesday. My whole goal with it was like, how do I get the quality of like an 80 to like $150 shirt to someone for 20 to $25?

And I 100% believe that we did it. We're gonna be launching three packs on Wednesday along with other stuff. I got a new blanket, socks. It's just, it's all killer. But we're treating this as a test. So the stock is gonna be somewhat limited. If you wanna be the first to know about it,

just text me at 813-213-4423 and you'll be among the first to know when it's live. But with that said, let's talk about yesterday today where we dive into those comments and see what y'all had to say on the last show. Really no surprise, everyone was sounding off on American Nightmare, what happened to Denise and Aaron.

His girlfriend was kidnapped and raped and police focus on him instead. This is why people don't trust the police. Imagine telling someone about the most traumatic event in your life and having them look you dead in the eye and say, you're lying, none of that happened. And then imagine them holding a press conference

to tell everyone you know that you're lying. Retraumatization doesn't begin to cover. Others like Dishonored Undead saying, don't go to the police wasn't a threat, it was advice. Which once again, in no world should we ever downplay what these monsters did to Denise and others. But again, it was so weird looking through those emails that like, that person was more empathetic towards Denise than the actual police who should have been helping her. Cody Collins also tying this to all the other news we've seen around the authorities. Between the fact that they said nuh-uh to a couple that got kidnapped, not to mention the

atrocities committed against minority communities and the clusterfuck at Uvalde, the entire system needs a major rework. Which also on the topic of Uvalde that came up in that video, NINJI5 saying, the entire Uvalde case just continues to make my blood boil. From the videos of the dozens of armed officers cowering at the end of the hallway while looking at their Punisher wallpapers on their iPhones, to the actual harassment of the mother who ran and saved her child when they originally prevented her from doing so. And then finally, regarding the Fujitsu Horizon scandal over in the UK, you had Jennifer saying, I thought that I would add a little bit more to the situation. The reason that the post office was able to accuse the sub postmasters of theft and fraud

was that there is a presumption in the UK law, which presumes computer and evidence created by a computer is working reliably. This means that in the case of Horizon, the post office could state Horizon was working at the time and therefore the missing money was due to the employees. It was then the employee's responsibility to find evidence that the computer, AKA Horizon, was the cause. And adding the sub-postmasters were not in any position to provide this evidence. They are not software developers

and many didn't have the money to defend themselves. The post office could also hide information such as known error logs as it could harm their case. And they were not the responsible party that needed to defend Horizon. The presumption is dangerous. It places an undue burden on parties defending themselves against computer-generated evidence. In closing, with more and more cases relying on digital evidence, it is possible something like this could happen again. It is important not only for the parties

responsible to face justice, but also that changes are made in legislation to prevent this situation from happening again. In saying, if you want to read more, my supervisor posted an article, What Went Wrong With Horizon? Learning from the Post Office Trial, which explains this problem in detail. I actually found that article and I included a link in the description for you. So you can check it out for yourself. But that is ultimately where today's show is going to end. Though, for more news you need to know, I got you covered right here. You can click or tap or I got links in the description.

Don't worry about missing my dumb face because my name's Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love your faces and I'll see you right back here tomorrow.