The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 12.2 YOU CAN NOW SUE FOR BEING BORN! Travis Scott Slammed, Alec Baldwin Denial, Censorship & Today's News

Episode Date: December 2, 2021

Go to http://KiwiCo.com/DEFRANCO and get 50% off your first month of any KiwiCo subscription. More PDS: https://youtu.be/MMvX_yx34J8 TEXT ME! [phone] Get More Phil: https://linktr.ee/PhilipDeFranco -- 00:00 - U.K. Woman Sees Legal Victory In Dispute Claiming She Shouldn’t Have Been Born 01:43 - Alec Baldwin Says He Did Not Pull Trigger on “Rust” Set 03:38 - TX Law Stopping Social Media Outlets From Banning Users Based on Viewpoints Blocked 05:10 - Sponsor 06:03 - Astroworld Families Reject Travis Scott’s Offer, Hulu Pulls Documentary 08:56 - What We Know About the Tragedy in Michigan -- ✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ U.K. Woman Sees Legal Victory In Dispute Claiming She Shouldn’t Have Been Born: https://nypost.com/2021/11/26/evie-toombes-woman-with-spina-bifida-sues-moms-doctor-for-millions/ Alec Baldwin Says He Did Not Pull Trigger on “Rust” Set: https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/attorney-rust-assistant-director-alec-baldwin-pull-trigger/story?id=81511797 TX Law Stopping Social Media Outlets From Banning Users Based on Viewpoints Blocked: https://roguerocket.com/2021/12/02/judge-texas-social-media-law/ Astroworld Families Reject Travis Scott’s Offer, Hulu Pulls Documentary: https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-59488632 https://variety.com/2021/digital/news/hulu-pulls-astroworld-concert-from-hell-documentary-backlash-1235124470/ What We Know About the Tragedy in Michigan: https://roguerocket.com/2021/12/02/prosecutor-parents-oxford-high-school/ ✩ STORIES NOT IN TODAY’S SHOW ✩ Meghan Markle Claims Legal Victory Against U.K. Publisher: https://roguerocket.com/2021/12/02/meghan-markle-claims-legal-victory-against-u-k-publisher/ —————————— 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 #Astroworld ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sup, you beautiful people. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show. I need you to ba, ba, ba, ba, karate chop, karate chop that like button, and let's just, just jump into it. Is that good? Yeah. And y'all, the first thing that we're gonna talk about today

is this really interesting story about a woman in the UK who actually sued her mother's doctor for allowing her to be born. And while your reaction to that might be, what was like, is this like some random, stupid throwaway lawsuit? No, that woman, Evie Toomes, actually won her lawsuit yesterday, making this a landmark wrongful conception case.

But before those of you who have uttered the words, I didn't choose to be born, go out there and now try and sue your own mom's doctors, you should know that Evie's case is a bit unique. According to reports, Evie, who's now a 20 year old show jumper was born with a form of spina bifida and sometimes spends 24 hours a day connected to tubes. She also suffers from bowel and bladder issues

and is expected to lose more of her already limited mobility as she gets older, which will then force her to depend more on a wheelchair. And so Evie sued Dr. Philip Mitchell for his failure to properly advise her mother while she was pregnant, right? Claiming that if the doctor had told her mother that she needed to take folic acid supplements

to minimize the risk of spina bifida affecting her baby, she would have put off getting pregnant. Thus, Evie would have never been born and a judge ultimately agreed with that argument and awarded Evie a massive payout that would reportedly be in the millions. Evie's lawyer saying the exact sum hasn't been calculated yet,

but it should be big enough to cover the cost of her lifelong care needs. But also, like I said, this is a landmark case. This goes beyond Evie. This ruling is being considered groundbreaking because it means that a healthcare professional can be held liable for improper preconception advice if it results in the birth of a baby

with serious health conditions. I mean, I have no idea the number of doctors and the number of people that could be affected by this decision, but with that, while we wait and see, you know, will we see more litigation moving forward from other people? What are your thoughts on this? And then we should definitely talk about Alec Baldwin

and the updates to the tragic shooting on the set of Russ, right? You probably remember cinematographer Helena Hutchins was killed and director Joel Sousa was injured when a gun that Baldwin was holding misfired while he was rehearsing a scene where he was pointing the weapon at the camera. Lawsuits have been filed,

an investigation into the matter is ongoing. People could potentially be charged over this incident. And now Baldwin is speaking out with a sit-down interview with George Stephanopoulos that will air on ABC News tonight. Leading up to that, ABC released a trailer where we see Baldwin make this major claim about what happened regarding the gun misfiring.

It wasn't in the script for the trigger to be pulled. Well, the trigger wasn't pulled. I didn't pull the trigger. So you never pulled the trigger? No, no, no, no, no. I would never point a gun at anyone and pull a trigger at them, never. And there are other standout moments in this trailer, right?

Baldwin appears clearly emotional, crying at times, saying that even though he is not the victim, this is the worst thing that has ever happened to him. He talks about the issue of how a live round ended up in the gun, claiming he had no clue how it got there and that it should have never been on the property in the first place. But obviously, the clip where he said

he never pulled the trigger has gotten the most attention and responses. And with that claim, you have a lawyer for Dave Halls, the assistant director on Russ, who has been identified as one of the people primarily involved with the handling of the weapon, backing up Baldwin's claim to ABC News with the attorney saying, "'Dave has told me since the very first day I met him

"'that Alec did not pull that trigger. "'His finger was never in the trigger guard. "'Dave has told me since day one that it was an accident. "'It was a pure accident, freak, awful accident "'that unfortunately killed somebody.'" But on the other hand, you have many, many people skeptical of that claim. With the Santa Fe Sheriff's Department telling Fox News

that it's waiting for more information from the FBI that could reveal how the gun was fired. If it was just maybe pulling back the hammer, which hits the firing pin or pulling the trigger. With Sheriff Aiden Mendoza telling the outlet, "'Guns don't just go off. "'So whatever needs to happen to manipulate the firearm, "'he did that and it was in his hands.'"

But for now, that's where we are. We have to wait and watch. Watch to see what else Baldwin says in this interview. Does he say anything that gives more insight? Does he say anything that maybe contradicts what we understand about the situation? As far as wait, I mean, obviously we have to wait for the investigation.

What will that reveal? Then we should definitely talk about how a federal judge in Texas has now blocked the state from enacting a law that would have prevented social media platforms from banning users based on their quote viewpoint. And so how we got to this point, you had governor Greg Abbott signing this law back in September for platforms

with at least 50 million active monthly users. And had it not been blocked, it would have gone into effect today. And notably, we've talked about these types of laws a few times on the show, largely the Republican led reactions to the social media bans that we saw against then president Donald Trump

following the January 6th insurrection. With that, many Republicans have continually claimed that social media platforms have an anti-conservative bias, despite having almost complete control of the monthly engagement list on sites like Facebook. Many also taking it a step further and saying that they're stifling free speech. However, in his decision yesterday, US District Judge Robert Pittman ruled that the First Amendment gives platforms a right to moderate on their sites, saying, this court is convinced that social media platforms, or at least those covered by House Bill 20, curate both users and content to convey a message

about the type of community the platform seeks to foster, and as such, exercise editorial discretion over their platform's content.'" And on top of adding that he found some of the aspects of the Texas law prohibitively vague, he also noted that the law itself, not the social media platforms, violated the First Amendment, explaining,

"'The platforms have policies against content that express a viewpoint, and disallowing them from applying their policies requires platforms to alter the expressive content of their message. Now understand with all of that said, this law is not fully scrapped. Instead, it's just a preliminary injunction, meaning that at the very least it's just on hold

until the case against it is over. But also if you remember, this is very similar to a story that we talked about back in June, where a federal judge in Florida blocked another social media viewpoint law just like this. This is not a completely unique we talked about back in June where a federal judge in Florida blocked another social media viewpoint law Just like this. This is not a completely unique situation and it's gonna be interesting to see what happens from here But from that I want to take a second to thank today's sponsor KiwiCo KiwiCo makes really awesome hands-on projects and activities aimed at inspiring young innovators as well as defining the future play and making it engaging

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They offer eight subscription lines, each catering to different age groups and topics for toddlers up to adults. So if you want to check it out, just head on over to kiwico.com slash DeFranco where you can get 50% off your first month of any crate. And then we should definitely talk about updates regarding the deadly crowd surge

at Travis Scott's Astroworld Festival in Houston, Texas. Among other things, according to reports, families for six of the 10 concert goers who died have now rejected Scott's offer to cover funeral costs. With Rolling Stone reporting earlier this week on a rejection letter sent to Scott's lawyers on behalf of the family of nine-year-old Ezra Blunt. Ezra, of course, was the youngest of those who died,

and his family has filed one of the now dozens of lawsuits that Scott and the event organizers are now facing. Notably, Scott's team specified that their offer would quote, have no effect on the lawsuit, but still, he saw the family's lawyer respond by saying, "'Your client's offer is declined. "'I have no doubt Mr. Scott feels remorse. "'His journey ahead will be painful.

"'He must face and hopefully see "'that he bears some of the responsibility "'for this tragedy.'" And after that report, lawyers for five other victims said they had made the same decision, also going on to describe that the offer seemed to be an attempt to lessen public pressure rather than a genuine display of remorse.

Like the attorney for the family of 14-year-old John Hilgert who said, "'It was not an offer the Hilgerts were going "'to seriously consider. "'Of all the things this case is about, "'that's the least of any concern. "'This family is set on making change "'and ensuring this never happens at a concert again.

"'I find offering to pay for funerals frankly demeaning "'and really inappropriate to the magnitude of the tragedy that unfolded. With one of the most blunt responses coming from a lawyer who represents the family of 21-year-old Axel Acosta who said, it's bullshit. If he gave a shit about these families, you wouldn't have to put out a press release

for everyone to see saying he's willing to pay for a funeral. Let the families grieve and shut up, that's it. He says he feels sorry for them, but he's quick to say it wasn't his fault. He's no different than any defendant pointing fingers to someone else. Also, we saw Travis Scott and Astroworld back in the news because of a different kind of controversy.

Maybe you saw it yesterday. I was kind of taken aback when I was scrolling and I saw it, but there was this documentary special about the festival called Astroworld's Concert from Hell that was released on Hulu. Reportedly, as it turns out, it was made by ABC 13, the Houston affiliate for ABC News, and now it's already been pulled off of Hulu.

But the spokesperson for the streaming service telling Variety, this was an investigative local news special from ABC 13, KTRK TV, at Houston that originally aired on November 20th. This was not a Hulu documentary and has since been removed to avoid confusion. While the documentary can still be viewed

on ABC 13's website, it is worth noting that it came off of Hulu after the documentary received a ton of backlash. With people tweeting things like, "'How did they make an Astroworld documentary so quickly? "'Capitalism will make money off the dead. "'That's so sick when the families are still newly grieving. "'And Hulu making a documentary about Astroworld

"'is in poor taste all around. "'Great documentaries are done "'when all the facts are laid out. "'Not enough time has passed to fully discuss this.'" But also we did see some defending that this documentary was made in the first place. With people saying things like they'd rather people be able to watch a documentary about the facts now

than start quickly spreading conspiracy theories. And as far as my opinion, right, I think we can separate the confusion if Hulu made this or not. It was still on the service, blah, blah, blah. For me, I think a big part of the difference is the framing of this. If this is about like making a really solid documentary,

getting all the facts out, they're trying to combat misinformation, you probably don't label it something like concert from hell. That to me feels kind of fucking insane at the very least, deeply insensitive. Right, that feels like it's more about the spectacle and the clicks than actually getting information out there.

But also that's a story, some of my opinion, and of course I pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts here? And then finally today we should talk about the tragic school shooting in Oxford, Michigan, because we now have more information and more details. So on Tuesday, a 15 year old student at Oxford High School came out of a bathroom and fired around 30 rounds,

killing four students and injuring seven others in the deadliest school shooting this year. He was later arrested and charged as an adult on two dozen crimes, including first degree murder, attempted murder and one count of terrorism, which is actually a very rare charge for a school shooting, with the teen pleading not guilty on all charges. And yesterday we saw authorities providing more information

saying that while aive is unclear, there was a mountain of evidence showing the suspect's desires and plans to kill students at his school. This including two cell phone videos that he made the night before the shooting, where he talked about killing students at the high school the next day, as well as a journal found in the teen's backpack

where he wrote about his desire to shoot up the school. Law enforcement officials also said that a review of the suspect's social media accounts showed that he had access to a firearm, including posts that showed him with the same type of gun as the murder weapon, a Sig Sauer 9mm. And while they didn't mention any specific posts there, many have noted that a screenshot

from his now-deleted Instagram shows that he posted a picture on Friday of a hand holding a gun with the caption, "'Just got my new beauty today, Sig Sauer 9mm. Ask any questions, I will answer.'" And regarding the gun, officials have confirmed that the suspect's father bought the gun used in the shooting four days earlier,

though they have not said how the teen got the gun or whether or not it was secured in the family's home. Though very notably here, the prosecutor overseeing the investigation strongly suggested that she would charge the suspect's parents saying that gun owners have a responsibility to ensure that their weapons are secured, especially in households with young children.

And like with the terrorism charge that the prosecutor filed against the teen that we talked about, bringing charges against the parents would be a very rare move, with the Washington Post noting, "'Adult gun owners are almost never held accountable "'when children use their weapons "'to harm themselves or others.'" And adding, that's despite the fact that if children

as young as six did not have access to guns, well more than half of the country's school shootings since 1999 would never have happened. Also, regarding the suspects, parents reportedly they have declined to speak with investigators. Though, you had law enforcement officials revealing just this morning

that they were actually at the school for a meeting with school administrators regarding their son's behavior just hours before the mass shooting. With Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard saying that two teachers separately reported concerning behavior from this student in the days before the attack, which prompted two meetings.

According to the sheriff, the first report came a day before the shooting when a teacher in the classroom where he was a student saw and heard something that she felt was disturbing. And adding, they had a counseling session about it with school officials and a phone call was left with the parents. With him also going on to describe the second incident that occurred on Tuesday shortly before the attack. Saying a different teacher in a different classroom saw some behavior that they felt was concerning and they brought the child down to an office, had a meeting with school officials, called in the parents, and ultimately it was determined that he could go back into class. Though, notably, the sheriff declined to provide more details

about the behavior that the suspect displayed. And all of that is pretty much most everything that we know right now, though, understand, this is still a developing situation, more will likely come out. And so as far as what happens next, we're gonna have to see how the trial and the sentencing of the teen plays out,

if additional charges are added, as the prosecutor said that she expects, and if charges are filed against his parents. But also with all this, to close this story on a different note, I do wanna talk about someone who acted heroically under unimaginable circumstances. And in this instance, that person is Tate Meyer,

a 16 year old football player who was fatally shot by the gunman. With Tate now being hailed as a hero by other students who say that he sacrificed his own life to save his fellow students by rushing the shooter in an attempt to disarm him. With many sharing videos of Tate speaking, saying this is what a hero looks like.

People also signing a petition to have the high school's football stadium named after him. That petition reading, Tate is not just a hero to his fellow students at Oxford High School, but a legend. His act of bravery should be remembered forever and passed down through generations. And that is a final note that I can agree on

with what feels like a never ending stream of these horrible, horrible tragedies. Trying to make sure that we remember those who were lost and trying to make sure we remember those who tried to stop the person that ends up being the person that gets their face and their name plastered everywhere. Because it's all heartbreaking, but I think we need to remember there are still those

that are trying to stand in the way of the never ending horrible. But ultimately on that note, that's gonna bring us to the end of that story and the end of today's show. Of course, as always, thank you for watching. Ending on this note, I just want to do that reminder. We don't know how long we have. We don't know what is around the corner. So those that are around you right now, it's the season. Take that extra second. Take that extra minute to call that friend,

that family member, that whoever. Let them know you're thinking about them. You love them. Maybe if they're with you, give them a hug. But of course, with that said, to end as we always do, my name's Philip DeFranco, you've just been filled in. I love yo face and I'll see you next time.