The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 3.30 WOW! Chris Rock Apologized, But Not To Who You Think... Facebook's TikTok Smearing Exposed

Episode Date: March 30, 2022

Enter at https://www.omaze.com/phildefranco for your chance to win a Tesla Model X Plaid, all while supporting two great causes. Use PHIL50 at checkout for 50 bonus entries! News You Might Have Missed: https://youtu.be/95jVsC3XFNQ TEXT ME! [phone] Get More Phil: https://linktr.ee/PhilipDeFranco – 00:00 - Poll Shows Public Thoughts on Will Smith Slap As Chris Rock Clips Resurface 04:01 - TikTok Is Boosting Popularity of Books and Bookstores 06:20 - Spon 07:22 - Reports Claim Meta Paid Republican Firm to Spread Negative News About TikTok 09:18 - Australia PM Scott Morrison Slammed For Telling Those Who Can’t Pay Rent to Buy Home 11:38 - World Bank Suspends Project in Afghanistan Over Girls’ Schooling Ban – ✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ Poll Shows Public Thoughts on Will Smith Slap As Chris Rock Clips Resurface: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/stephaniesoteriou/chris-rock-hell-sexually-assaulted-bullied-will-smith https://roguerocket.com/2022/03/30/academy-update-will-smith/ TikTok Is Boosting Popularity of Books and Bookstores: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2022-03-28/bookstores-tap-nostalgia-for-borders-barnes-nobles https://www.npr.org/2021/12/26/1068063564/booktok-is-a-new-force-driving-book-sales-and-publishing-deals Reports Claim Meta Paid Republican Firm to Spread Negative News About TikTok: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/03/30/facebook-tiktok-targeted-victory/ Australia PM Scott Morrison Slammed For Telling Those Who Can’t Pay Rent to Buy Home: https://roguerocket.com/2022/03/30/scott-morrison-says-just-buy-a-home/ World Bank Suspends Project in Afghanistan Over Girls’ Schooling Ban: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-60923196  ——————————   ✩ STORIES NOT IN TODAY’S SHOW ✩ House Republicans Angered Over Rep. Cawthorn’s Claims About Members: https://roguerocket.com/2022/03/30/house-republicans-angered-cawthorns-claims/   ——————————   Executive Producer: Amanda Morones Produced by: Cory Ray  Edited by: James Girardier, Maxwell Enright, Julie Goldberg Art Department: Brian Borst, William Crespo Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Brian Espinoza, Maddie Crichton, Lili Stenn, Ben Wheeler, Chris Tolve Production Team: Zack Taylor, Emma Leid ———————————— #DeFranco #ChrisRock #TikTok ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sup you beautiful bastards. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco show. Buckle up, hit that like button and let's just jump into it. You know, the first thing that we're gonna talk about today are big updates regarding the Will Smith, Chris Rock, Oscar slap situation, but it starts with us trying to get out of our bubble.

If you go to the comment section of the last two videos I did, you would probably think like 85% of people think that Will Smith is in the wrong, but this is just one place and that's why polls are very interesting to me. What we found is that in America, according to a YouGov poll,

three in five Americans say Will Smith was in the wrong to hit Chris Rock. Though the breakdown of the responses is very interesting, with one of the notable factors being age. Turns out the older someone was, the more likely they were to say that Will Smith was in the wrong for hitting Chris Rock. Right, 65 and older, 72% say it's wrong.

But when you get to 18 to 34 years old, only 46% thought he was wrong, 28% saying not sure, and 27% saying that Will Smith was in the right. Though at the same time, there's this other survey by Blue Rose that was done online with them asking the more open question of who is in the wrong more.

And in that survey, they found that 52.3% considered Chris Rock more wrong than Will Smith. Though with that, if people still care about this story, let's say like five days from now, it'll be interesting to see what the polling would be then. Or because that YouGov poll, for example, was taken on the 28th when the public narrative was very much Chris Rock definitely knew about her alopecia.

It was also before many of these large comedians that have massive audiences started speaking out and backing Chris Rock. Plus tonight we may actually hear from Chris Rock because his tour officially starts. And what reports were talking about Chris Rock's ticket prices being like around $40 and then after the slap jumping to like 380 or so dollars.

To get tickets to tonight's show, I saw two examples. One was for around $760 and the other was for over 8,000. And those were balcony and mezzanine tickets. But if he does speak on it tonight, it'll be very interesting to hear because so far, we only have kind of assumptions and conjecture into his mind. Or what was going through his mind when it happened?

What did he stop himself from saying? What has happened since? Or especially because as more time goes on, more people have been digging into Chris Rock's past where he talks about things, and it's really rough and heartbreaking to watch. Because it turns out he's been very open about his struggles of being bullied in the past,

his mental health issues. Having previously said in 2020 that he spends seven hours a week in therapy. When talking about his childhood traumas with Howard Stern, he said, "'And I think I've dealt with it it because I can write jokes about it, but I never dealt with it. That was just a horrible existence.

The closest character I can relate to is Tim Robbins in The Shawshank. Every day was hell. I was a d*** and I and I got fucking my ass beat and I got physically fucked up and sometimes some sexual shit happened. And separately on Dana Carvey and David Spade's podcast, he said that he found that the only way that he could grow was from working through his childhood trauma,

with the bullying being constant and saying one day he essentially snapped, responding by throwing a brick in a book bag and beating the bully down with it. Kicking him down, saying it was very severe. But then adding a very key thing. From that day on, as my shrink puts it to me, you have been scared to be angry ever since.

With him saying his shrink said that he was so scared of that anger that he's let people walk all over him since. So he claimed at that time that through a lot of work, he overcame his fear of his own anger. And if you go into the comment sections of these recently unsurfaced clips, you have a lot of people going, oh my God, this is horrible.

People saying things like, oh wow, Will Smith is that bully. He's the much bigger guy that saw someone that he could manhandle. Assaulting Chris and bring back all that trauma with him conflicted as to what to do. And so that's why, especially for me, I'm very interested to see what Chris says

if he does speak on this. Because really days later, the only statement that we've heard is very third party and it was actually Chris Rock apologizing, but not to Will Smith, but instead Wanda Sykes, who was a co-host of the Oscars. With Wanda saying the first thing that Chris Rock said to her at an after party was,

"'I am so sorry it was supposed to be your night. "'You, Amy and Regina were doing such a great job. "'I'm so sorry this is now gonna be about this.'" And adding, "'That's who Chris is. But with this story, I guess the question I wanna pass off to you is, since Sunday slash Monday, and even though it's just a few days now, Wednesday, have your opinions on the situation stayed the same?

Have they changed? Whether you were on one side, then the other, or were you uncertain, and now you're leaning one way or the other? Let me know what you're thinking and why. And then let's talk about a rarity on the Philip DeFranco show, a positive story. And that is the news that books,

and in fact bookstores are having a resurgence right now. Right, Barnes and Noble, for example, previously had plans to work its way down to 450 stores by 2022, but they actually started this year with 625 and plan on adding around two dozen more by the end of the year. Book sales having jumped during the pandemic

with a 13% increase year over year. And for me, I will say this is a relatable story. Definitely during the pandemic, I started listening to and actually reading more books. And initially when you hear book sales are going up, you go, of course, you know, we're just trying to entertain ourselves. But for places like Barnes and Noble,

you have reports crediting, you know, millennials feeling nostalgia about it, Gen Z loving brick and mortar. Also after the last two years, I've looked for any reason to go out. In fact, I think in the last month, I've gone to bookstores three times after probably not having gone to one in 10 to 15 years.

But all of this is also being fueled by a thing that you might not be aware of if you're not on TikTok, and that is BookTok. And BookTok in general is like this sea of videos that display this wholesome love of books from librarians, people who work at local bookstores, to just everyday people. And BookTok absolutely blows shit up.

That's why you have people like author Colleen Hoover telling NPR she was thrilled that her book, "'It Ends With Us' was becoming a New York Times bestseller, but initially she was equally confused since the book was four years old. But even her publisher is confused probably until the unpaid intern explained what BookTok was. And while this is obviously huge online, you also have places like Barnes & Noble going, okay, let's take advantage of this. And so they keep track of what's popular on TikTok and they advertise those books as BookTok favorites. If you go into a store, they'll have them all laid out. And personally, I love it.

I mean, one of my favorite things of going to like an indie bookstore is when you have someone that works there writing out what they thought about the book right underneath it. So to me, BookTok feels a little bit like that, but also at the same time, this like club meeting that you get to go to with a swipe of a finger.

And it's the reason why in the last week I picked up the Midnight Library. And this is, it's not just me. If you look at just the BookTok hashtag, they have roughly 46 billion views. And it's why you can have these creators that go viral. They get these massive followings for their love of books like Abby's Library, who has over 90,000 followers.

And while that may sound like a small number of followers when you compare it to all the big people, for such a niche category, 90,000 followers is a, you could be a king or queen maker, especially on TikTok, which is a platform where you can expect to reach multiples of the number of followers you have. So I guess the way that I want to end this story,

if you'll nerd out with me, is are you familiar with BookTok? Do you have any favorite creators? Has it put you on to any books that you love? Because for me, and this is going to sound way more depressing than I want it to, like it just, it's exciting to be excited for something again.

But from that, I want to take a second to thank the fantastic sponsor of today's show, Omaze. Omaze gives away the chance to win life-changing experiences and amazing prizes, all while supporting nonprofit causes. And we've partnered with Omaze again to give you beautiful bastards a chance to own a Tesla Model X Plaid, the sought after top of the line flagship SUV,

all while supporting two nonprofits, GivePower and 501C3. This Tesla has over a thousand horsepower, taking you a quarter mile in 9.9 seconds and 313 miles of range. The incredibly high tech interior features a sleek 17 inch infotainment display with gaming capabilities for every passenger.

Also, wanna take a second to say congrats to Elaine from Michigan for winning the Tesla Model S Plaid. Y'all, your entry isn't just a chance to win, it supports two amazing nonprofits, GivePower and 501C3. Their work helps provide clean drinking water, food security, and light to regions in need around the world. It's a win-win, a chance to win a dream car

while supporting both GivePower and 501c3, responsible for providing solutions to provide safe drinking water to those in need. So head to omaze.com slash phildefranco for your chance to win a Tesla Model X flat and support two great causes. And use code phil50 at checkout for 50 bonus entries. And then, you know, we were talking about TikTok earlier,

but let's talk about who's really not a fan of TikTok. Namely, Meta, Facebook's parent company, because reports have come out that they have been sneakily trying to convince you that TikTok is evil. Right, and reportedly they hired Targeted Victory, which is one of the biggest Republican consulting firms to make this happen.

In fact, according to internal Targeted Victory emails that the Washington Post received, the company aims to get the message out that while Meta is the current punching bag, TikTok is the real threat, especially as a foreign owned app that is number one in sharing data that young teens are using.

And part of their strategy is to push op-eds, news reports, and just about any anti-TikTok story in major news markets. With apparently the best tactic being to push a narrative that TikTok is full of dangerous trends with one targeted victory employee writing. Dream would be to get stories with headlines like, "'From Dances to Danger'

how TikTok has become the most harmful social media space for kids." And so with this, you had a TikTok spokesperson saying they were concerned about the stoking of local media reports on alleged trends that have not been found on the platform. We're talking about stuff like last October's alleged slap a teacher challenge,

which didn't come from TikTok, also didn't exist. It only really existed as a rumor on Facebook. And then you also had stuff like the devious licks challenge, which according to the research, content related to it actually started on Facebook. And then you also had stuff like the devious licks challenge which according to the research content related to it actually started on Facebook and it didn't trend on TikTok until reports started getting out there that it was a thing. And clearly that plan worked because after reports of the challenge went viral, Senator Richard Blumenthal

called on TikTok to testify in front of the Senate with some of their other tactics being things like posing as concerned parents and writing to local papers. This is an absolutely massive report because it wasn't even known that in reality, Meta was behind all of this. It just shows how serious and far Zuckerberg is willing to go because he considers a company like TikTok

an actual threat to Facebook. Even though I think most people look at Facebook and go, no, your biggest threat to your company is you. But possibly the most concerning thing about this story and the situation is you have this company, right? Facebook, Meta, whatever the fuck you want to call it. And they act like they care about truth and misinformation. Meanwhile, they're actively trying to distort the truth.

And now that this report has come out, anytime there's like this anti-TikTok story, there's gonna be this question in the back of people's minds of, is this fake? Which, I mean, maybe this ends up backfiring. Maybe you inadvertently make TikTok bulletproof. And then this news story starts with a question of, are you struggling to pay rent right now?

And if your answer happens to be yes, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has a genius solution for you. Just buy the house. Why are you paying rent, stupid? Buy it. All right, so let me explain. Morrison goes on Channel 9's Today show this morning

to defend his government's 2022 federal budget. And to give some context here, the cost of living in Australia has gone through the roof in recent years, with Netflix's contribution to gentrifying Byron Bay being just one example that we've talked about. In fact, a recent report found that rents in regional areas are now 18% higher than before the pandemic.

And so ahead of the upcoming election, Morrison's promoting his budget as a remedy for this problem, pointing out a one-off $420 tax break, as well as a move to cut the fuel excise tax in half for the next six months. But one thing the budget doesn't include much of is rent relief. And so when you had the interviewer,

Ali Langdon, pressing him on this, he said, It's about Australians getting into homes. Best way to support people who are renting a house is to help them buy a house. And over the last three years, we've got over 300,000 Australians directly into their own home. With Ali promptly checking him, I'm not talking about homeownership here, I'm talking about rental relief for the thousands of millions of people who are renting. To which he replies, I know, but that's my point. People who are buying houses are renters. And so with that, he got absolutely ridiculed for this by people on social media.

With the satirical outlet, The Chaser, tweeting, Scott Morrison suggests that people who can't afford petrol should just buy an oil company. Some other fun comments, including, I bet Morrison is the kind of person who tells depressed people to just try being happy. Another saying Morrison has the brain of a wombat without the cuteness.

Now, to be fair, Morrison didn't make that comment kind of out of nowhere. His budget does expand the first home buyer scheme, which allows people to purchase just 5% of the value of a property rather than 20% with the government covering the difference. Which I mean, to me, if I was a first time home buyer, I'd be like, okay, that sounds good.

I can put less money down. I can keep more money, maybe make it work for me in the stock market, something like that. But you have many experts saying the program will probably just raise the home prices instead. Dr. Chris Martin telling the Guardian, this is a real let them eat cake moment and adding that 30% of low income people

on the private rental market do not have $500 in savings for emergencies, let alone a 5% deposit for a home loan. Which is also why we saw Dr. Cassandra Goldie, Chief Executive of the Australia Council of Social Service, accusing the government of treating renters like second class citizens, saying why not just boost people's income

and create social housing. Plus others pointing out that even after buying a home, you still need to pay off the interest, which could get even worse if the rates go up." And for me personally, when I look at this story, I don't doubt that there are a lot of people that could take advantage of this program. But like we often see, it doesn't address the people

that probably need the most help. And then finally, let's talk about the country that a lot of people forgot about once Americans left, Afghanistan. Since the Taliban retook control of the country back in August, things have gone to shit. US sanctions have helped cripple the economy. A February projection through the winter estimates

that over 22 million people will face high levels of acute food insecurity. Also, and this kind of came out of nowhere, complete shocker, the Taliban, not great for women and girls. Curtailing their access to health and education, as well as freedom of movement, expression, and association, and all that being compounded by the economic collapse,

which has deprived them of income needed for basic survival. Though it appeared there was a glimpse of hope a couple of weeks ago when the Taliban announced that all high schools would be reopening for both boys and girls. Though, once again, shocker, followed by a revision the following week that actually girls' high schools will remain shut.

Though saying they will reopen, they just need the time to decide what's appropriate dress for the girls under Sharia law and Afghan tradition, which also led to protests outside the Ministry of Education. And now in the latest update, the World Bank is suspending four projects in Afghanistan

worth around $600 million in response to the closed schools. With those projects having been aimed at improving health, agriculture, and ironically education. With this, the bank saying they also had a strong focus on ensuring the girls and women participate and benefit from the support. This is incredibly notable because it comes after the bank authorized

over a billion dollars this month for urgent needs, which would be distributed through UN agencies and aid groups, not the Taliban. And so you have all of that, and that's why you have so many people split right now. Some obviously applauding this move as a way to punish the Taliban, but others saying, hey, here's the deal.

It sucks, the Taliban's in control. So what you might be doing is just hurting the people that you're trying to help, the women and girls. And so while of course, I'd love to know your thoughts on any story today, I'll pass one final question off to you. What are your thoughts here? What do you think is the right move and why? And maybe while you're leaving that comment,

I'll say that is the end of this story and today's show. I appreciate you, I love your faces, and I'll see you tomorrow.