The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 5.19 Ariana Grande Fraud Claim, Justin Bieber, Joe Rogan's Spotify Deal, Charli D'Amelio, & More

Starting point is 00:00:00 Sup you beautiful bastards, hope you've had a fantastic Tuesday. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show. Buckle up, hit that like button, otherwise I will punch you in the throat, and let's just jump into it. The first things we're going to talk about today are internetty and entertainment news. First up, we have TikTok's most followed star, Charli D'Amelio. Although, to be fair, she's very massive everywhere right now. She was on the news for two reasons.

Starting point is 00:00:20 One, she is kind of, and I don't know if she at this point kind of feels like she's been forced into this. She's become one of the bigger faces regarding talking about mental health and social media and anti-bullying. And today, yet again, we found her name in headlines, face in articles on this topic. This after she posted and then quickly deleted a TikTok where it features her and then just a myriad of hate comments

Starting point is 00:00:40 with the audio playing behind it saying, I'm just a kid. Right, this likely just a small example of what she gets every single day. Barb is about her worth as a person, her body, her looks. And even though she deleted it and we don't know why, whenever you're kind of in a privileged position, sometimes you hate complaining. I still think it's incredibly important to raise awareness

Starting point is 00:00:59 that this happens, even with the people that are in privileged positions. Like she was just this 15, now 16 year old, dealing with the internet telling her she's a garbage person every day. And I know it's very easy to go, well that comes with the territory, but it's still not okay or normal.

Starting point is 00:01:12 And yeah, in addition to this just being a story, I mean, for me personally watching that video, it was genuinely heartbreaking. All right, so there's that, and of course I'd love to know your thoughts there, but the positive news for her is it appears that she and her sister are about to launch a podcast. It's what appears that in addition to her other successes,

Starting point is 00:01:24 she's securing that bag, which sister are about to launch a podcast. And so it appears that in addition to her other successes, she's securing that bag, which actually brings us to story number two. We had Joe Rogan in the news because I can't even imagine how much money this deal was. Joe Rogan announced today that his podcast, which is easily one of the biggest podcasts in the world, will soon be exclusive to Spotify. Explaining in a video today how things will transition

Starting point is 00:01:43 in September until eventually in the end of the year all new content will be on Spotify, including the video contest. So I guess one, congratulations to Joe Rogan on whatever the hell this giant bag of money looks like. And two, this appears to be once again, the continuation of locking people down exclusively. We've seen this heavily in the gaming space.

Starting point is 00:02:01 We know that it's been happening in the podcast space. But I mean, as far as licensing acquisitions go, this is something that makes waves. And in fact, as of recording this video, Spotify stock price jumped 8.42%. So big news, it's gonna be interesting to see what follows. Also, once the transition's done, it'll be interesting to see how it affects his numbers.

Starting point is 00:02:18 Personally, I will say, if there is anyone that could continue and maybe even get further success going exclusive, I think it could be Joe Rogan. He's been so big everywhere with them transitioning this from September to the end of the year. They're giving themselves a lot of runway to say, Hey, follow us on Spotify. Hey, follow us on Spotify.

Starting point is 00:02:33 And in addition to that, and I think it's a very intelligent move because it'll make him money when he posts them. But also it is essentially a big advertisement. He will still be uploading clips to YouTube. Also Spotify in case you're interested, I'm also open to a deal like this. I'm kidding, unless.

Starting point is 00:02:46 But I guess the question here is for those who listen to the Joe Rogan Experience, will you follow over to Spotify? And then we have the news surrounding Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande being accused of fraud. So here's what happened. On May 8th, those two singers released their charity collaboration song called Stuck With You.

Starting point is 00:03:02 And at the same time, 6ix9ine drops his new single, Gooba. And connected to those songs being released, you had fans for those artists waiting to see where those songs would fall on the Billboard charts. And so what we ended up seeing last Friday is 6ix9ine posting a video to his Instagram accusing Billboard of manipulating the streaming numbers. What I'm about to show you is a forecast, right,

Starting point is 00:03:20 of what every label in the world gets. Atlantic, Interscope, Republic, Columbia, Sony, Universal Music, every label gets this, right? Number one, Doja Cat, Say So. Number two, 6ix9ine, Gooba. Number three, The Weeknd, Blinding Lights. Four, Megan Thee Stallion. Number five, Ariana Grande was stuck with you.

Starting point is 00:03:41 And in this video, he notes something as suspicious activity. Last night, last second, like last hour, Stuck With You by Ariana Grande submits 60,000 units out of nowhere, completely out of nowhere. And he even said that Sony and Universal Music asked for an audit of Billboard's data because they were suspicious of potential manipulation.

Starting point is 00:04:00 Right, so that's all out there. We then fast forward to Monday and the public officially learns that Stuck With You debuted at number one, with Gooba by 6ix9ine landing two spots below at number three. But shortly before this chart was revealed, 6ix9ine took to Instagram again to accuse Billboard of lying and being corrupt.

Starting point is 00:04:14 So listen, I want the world to know that Billboard is a lie. You can buy number ones on Billboard. They purchased half of those things with six credit cards when we asked where was those six credit cards linked to billboard said we can't disclose that information he also goes on to say that not all of his streams were counted billboard illegally disqualified 20 million streams so it can drop down and the people who bought the number one which was stuck with you can can go to number one. He also posted another video directly addressing

Starting point is 00:04:50 Ariana Grande, clarifying that his frustrations are with Billboard, not her, but still at the same time, stressing that they both come from different backgrounds. You know, he plays an old clip of himself to show how he found success despite growing up under difficult circumstances, then showing clips of Grande acting on Nickelodeon, you know, suggesting her early beginnings were not as hard.

Starting point is 00:05:05 And you know, with these accusations, it sparked a lot of conversation online, even in prompting Grande Bieber and their manager Scooter Braun to respond. In a lengthy post, Grande thanked her fans for the success of the song, but noted that numbers have never been the driving force behind anything she does, then saying she has to address the drama because this has gone a little too far,

Starting point is 00:05:21 saying, my fans bought the song. Justin's fans bought the song. Our fans bought this song. Never more than four copies each, as the rules state. They are ride or die motherfuckers and I thank God every day that I have them in my life. And adding, I know. Sales count for more than streams.

Starting point is 00:05:35 You cannot discredit this as hard as you try. To anybody that is displeased with their placement on the chart this week or who is spending their time racking their brain thinking of as many ways as they can to discredit hardworking women, and only the women for some reason, I ask you to take a moment to humble yourself. Be grateful you're even here,

Starting point is 00:05:50 that people want to listen to you at all. I've had a lot of almost number ones in my career and I never said a goddamn thing because I feel grateful to even be here to want to be heard at all, and you should feel that way too." We also saw Bieber following up on his Instagram story saying that 6ix9ine is counting his global streams in his records when Billboard only looks at domestic streams.

Starting point is 00:06:08 Also saying that those 60,000 units were reported late because they chose not to disclose their numbers until the end of the week. With Bieber saying that's called strategy. With Bieber also calling the claim about 30,000 units being purchased on six credit cards a line. And adding, finally, this is my song with Ariana Grande and I'm honored to work with her to help raise money for a great cause. If you're gonna say her name, make sure you say mine because it's our song. And then finally came Scooter Braun, who in addition to reiterating the points

Starting point is 00:06:31 that we saw from Grande and Bieber, ended up actually turning the tables on 6ix9ine, noting that yes, there was an investigation, but it was into a video that had six times the amount of paid bot activity than the normal video. That video was not ours. Right, and so this seemingly in reference to the rumors that 6ix9ine used bots to improve his YouTube numbers.

Starting point is 00:06:47 We also saw Billboard responding, and I'll kind of give you the TLDR here because they covered a lot of points. They noted that their post-audit number excluded streams that did not meet long-standing charting parameters such as US-based only plays, minimum play length, excessive plays, and lack of user verification. They also stressed that the 4K 6ix9ine review

Starting point is 00:07:02 did not come from Billboard. They also disputed the claim about six credit cards. And in response 69's claims that billboard would not disclose information about data when asked, they said that billboard was open about all information pertaining to Gooba, but it could not provide granular detail on a title to anyone but its content owner. And ultimately that is where we are with this right now and of course with this I would love know your thoughts. Do you think that there's something sketchy and nefarious happening with with Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande? Or do you think no this is actually 6ix9ine just lashing out trying to make excuses for not coming back number one. Yes No, maybe so why why not all the things I'd love to know in those comments down below then in the world of politics

Starting point is 00:07:36 I had a number of people requesting that I cover this. I'm taking it hydroxychloroquine Right now. Yeah a Couple of weeks ago started taking it because hydroxychloroquine. When? Right now, yeah. A couple of weeks ago, I started taking it. Because I think it's good. I've heard a lot of good stories. And if it's not good, I'll tell you right, I'm not going to get hurt by it. Okay, so hydroxychloroquine here is one of the drugs being investigated as a possible treatment for patients with COVID-19. You know, we've talked about it on the show before, but of course, one of the big things here is it has not been definitively proven to be a safe and effective drug

Starting point is 00:08:05 for treating COVID-19. That said, it's not a completely new drug. I mean, even Trump referencing the fact that it's been approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat malaria, lupus, and rheumatoid arthritis. You know, Trump admitting to, or rather claiming, because I don't, I don't know if he's actually taking it. It feels weird that he'd be taking hydroxychloroquine,

Starting point is 00:08:20 but he's not wearing a mask, but okay, whatever. That said, the reason Trump's claim stood out is because last month, on April 24th, the FDA Trump's claim stood out is because last month on April 24th, the FDA actually said that it was issuing a safety alert on the drug, saying that both it and chloroquine could have serious side effects, and warning people that it should only be taken

Starting point is 00:08:33 under the close supervision of a doctor in a hospital setting or in a clinical trial. With the FDA saying that it is aware of reports of, and these drugs can cause, abnormal heart rhythms and a dangerously rapid heart rate called ventricular tachycardia. Also noting, depending on what other drugs a person is taking or if they have a heart disease,

Starting point is 00:08:50 kidney disease, like actually I have myself, that you would be at an increased risk. You also have people pointing to a report from a study of hundreds of veteran affairs patients across the country, that study claiming to find higher rates of death in patients taking hydroxychloroquine as opposed to those who were not. But that said, to be clear here,

Starting point is 00:09:04 this study has also not been peer reviewed yet and published in a medical journal. But one of the reasons we've seen people pointing to this is not only what it shows, but who funded it because it was the National Institutes of Health. That said, yesterday while speaking to reporters, we saw Trump reference and dismiss that VA study. And if you look at that phony report that was put in,

Starting point is 00:09:20 that report on the hydroxy was given to people that were in extraordinarily bad condition. Extraordinarily bad. People that were dying. Though, here, we haven't really seen any evidence to back that claim up. In this interview, Trump also described the researchers as not big Trump fans. But, focusing on that study, researchers did say they adjusted for comorbidities, right, the presence of two chronic diseases or conditions in a patient. And that's because patients averaged around 70 years old, and many of them had other preexisting conditions, but that doesn't necessarily mean they were necessarily

Starting point is 00:09:49 in extraordinarily bad condition during the study. And also here, I do wanna note that while there are two separate studies from France and China indicating that maybe hydroxychloroquine is effective against COVID-19, those studies also faced a number of limitations. One, both of those studies were very small, and two, they didn't use proper control groups. And in fact, that French study has even since been discredited. Among those pushing back against the president's claim of using hydroxychloroquine himself, we actually saw

Starting point is 00:10:12 someone over at Fox News with host Neil Cavuto saying this. What's better than a well-marbled ribeye sizzling on the barbecue? A well-marbled ribeye sizzling on the barbecue that was carefully selected by an Instacart shopper and delivered to your door. A well-marbled ribeye sizzling on the barbecue that was carefully selected by an Instacart shopper and delivered to your door. A well marbled ribeye you ordered without even leaving the kiddie pool. Whatever groceries your summer calls for, Instacart has you covered. Download the Instacart app and enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees, exclusions, and terms apply. Instacart, groceries that over-deliver. If you are in a risky population here, and you are taking this as a preventative treatment to ward off the virus, or in a worst-case scenario, you are dealing with the virus, and you are in this vulnerable population, it will kill you. I cannot stress enough. This will kill you. So again,

Starting point is 00:11:07 whatever benefits the president says this has, and certainly has had for those suffering from malaria, dealing with lupus, this is a leap that should not be taken casually by those watching at home or assuming, well, the president of the United States says it's okay. Cavuto also saying that the VA study that Trump dismissed wasn't a political one and that it should be taken seriously. Though that of course wasn't the opinion of everyone over at Fox News

Starting point is 00:11:26 I had Greg Gutfeld of the five encouraging viewers to still take the drug But still it appeared that Trump was annoyed with Fox News adding that pressure we've seen lately Weeding Fox News is no longer the same. We missed the great Roger Ailes You have more anti-trump people by far than ever before looking for a new outlet We also saw a speaker of the house Nancy Pelosi concerned for Trump He's our president and I would rather he not be taking something that has not been approved by the scientists, especially in his age group and in his, shall we say, weight group, what is morbidly obese they say.

Starting point is 00:11:58 Now, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say I don't think she's being genuine with her concerns. And she essentially called Donald Trump an old fat fuck on live TV but in mom language. Which of course resulted in a number of different reactions. Some people loving it considering this Pelosi fighting fire with fire since Trump has a history of going after people's looks. At the same time you also people who hated it saying that no matter the target fat shaming is wrong. This because it promotes it in general you also had some claiming that there was a double standard here, right? If it was a Republican who said this about a Democrat, there'd be a much different reaction.

Starting point is 00:12:27 Also, this aspect of the story has now resulted in a number of articles asking, is Trump actually morbidly obese? Which I'm not even gonna jump into, but with all of that said, I do wanna pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts on this whole situation? Trump claiming that he's taking this drug,

Starting point is 00:12:42 the drug in general, where we're at with it all now. I'd love to know what you're thinking and why in those comments down below. And then the last thing I wanna talk about today is a very serious problem with coronavirus testing that's not being talked about nearly enough in mainstream discussion. The fact that there are huge differences and discrepancies

Starting point is 00:12:56 with the ways that states are reporting COVID testing, and this is a massively important thing to think about when we talk about testing in the United States. The reporting of testing data is crucial, both to politicians and the general public to accurately understand how this pandemic is impacting the state, so they can make informed choices about public health,

Starting point is 00:13:11 like whether or not to reopen. But what we've been seeing recently is a lot of states, including those with some of the broadest and most aggressive plans for reopening, are being criticized for poor reporting, and even in some cases, misreporting and misrepresenting testing data. And the most notable of these examples is Georgia,

Starting point is 00:13:25 where the State Department of Public Health has had numerous mishaps with reporting and has even recently been accused of sharing misleading data. This because about a week ago, the agency shared a graph on its website showing the number of confirmed cases in the five most heavily hit counties

Starting point is 00:13:37 over a range of two weeks. When you look at the graph, it looks like the cases are steadily declining. But when you actually look at the bottom axis of the graph, you see that the dates aren't in order at all. It goes from April 28th to April 27th, then to April 29th. At one point, it even jumps from May 7th to April 26th,

Starting point is 00:13:52 then back to May 3rd. And what's more is that the colored bars, which represent different counties, were also arranged in different orders on different dates, which also contributed to the appearance that the graph was showing declining data. According to an analysis of the data by the Atlanta Journal Constitution,

Starting point is 00:14:05 in fact, there was no clear downward trend. The data is still preliminary and cases have held steady or dropped slightly in the past two weeks. So with this, there was a ton of backlash. The health department eventually updated the graph. You had Governor Brian Kemp's office issuing an apology. Writing on Twitter, the X axis was set up that way to show descending values to more easily demonstrate

Starting point is 00:14:22 peak values in counties on those dates. Our mission failed, we apologize, it is fixed. But then at the same time, the state's health agency had a different explanation with a spokesperson telling the AJC that the chart was incorrect because of an error in how it sorted dates. But it's also not the first time that that health department has made a really significant reporting error.

Starting point is 00:14:39 In fact, according to reports, observers have noted sloppiness in case counts, death counts, and other measures that are fundamental to tracking a disease outbreak. With it also being reported that in recent weeks, issues with the department's data caused confusion over whether novel coronavirus deaths had topped 1,000, and that the agency erroneously posted at least twice that children died.

Starting point is 00:14:56 And while the AJC notes that some of that could be forgiven as mistakes made during a chaotic time, the chart seems to step over that line. Which is why some are skeptical that this was even an accident. You have people like state representative Jasmine Clark, who has a doctorate in microbiology and molecular genetics, telling the AJC,

Starting point is 00:15:12 "'I have a hard time understanding how this happens "'without it being deliberate. "'Literally nowhere ever in any type of statistics "'would that be acceptable.'" Right, especially because it is a mistake that portrayed the data in a way that favors Kemp's early easing of restrictions. Additionally, the Georgia Health Department

Starting point is 00:15:25 has been accused of moving the goalposts, this over how they portrayed and represented data. For example, they have a map of the state that colors counties in shades of blue and red based on rates of infection. Recently, that health department raised the bar on how high an infection rate needs to be before a county is colored red.

Starting point is 00:15:39 And as a clinical associate professor at the Georgia State University School of Public Health pointed out, based on the key they were using a couple weeks ago, a good third to half of our state would show up as red right now.'" But adding, "'Because they keep moving the goalposts, if you will, it doesn't look that way.'"

Starting point is 00:15:51 Also notably, it's been pointed out that there's another graph on the agency's website that has led readers to think that cases were dropping dramatically, even though lower case numbers were actually the result of a lag in data collection. And it's actually that last part that is very important because it speaks to a broader issue

Starting point is 00:16:04 with the very methodology behind how this agency reports the data at its core. Georgia here used to report cases based on testing date, but in late April, right when Kemp began to reopen the state, they began reporting based on when people had symptoms. And so what that reportedly means is because it can take weeks for case information to come in, the new method always appears to show that cases

Starting point is 00:16:21 are declining even if they are not. Also adding the data lag caused by how the state records cases meant that counts for recent dates are often a fraction of what they turn out to be when the data is more complete. And so as a result, experts have said that these daily numbers are actually a representation of what the case count was about two weeks earlier.

Starting point is 00:16:36 Therefore, as Business Insider pointed out, Georgia's optimistic looking data from recent weeks may be reflecting the success of the state's lockdown measures, rather than reflecting the success of lifting those measures. And at a time where people are more desperate than ever, more people are saying we need to open now,

Starting point is 00:16:50 these data issues can be incredibly dangerous. Because as anyone who has ever played an online game can tell you, lag equals death. When you're not navigating with the most up-to-date information while others, in this case, I guess COVID-19 is, that's not great for you. Understand, I say this as someone that is hoping

Starting point is 00:17:05 that everything can trend downward. But transparency, due diligence, and trust in this data is important. And also, Georgia isn't the only other state with data reporting problems. Like Texas, for instance, which is arguably the broadest plan for reopening, according to the Texas Tribune,

Starting point is 00:17:19 the state's testing data quote, "'Now includes antibody tests, which can detect whether a person previously recovered from COVID-19 in its daily testing totals. Noting the state reports do not differentiate those figures from standard nasal swab tests, so it's impossible to know how many tests show active infections and how many show previous infections.

Starting point is 00:17:36 Right, so the situation here is that things may actually look worse than they really are. But it also artificially inflates both the number of tests the state says that it has done and falsely improves their positivity rate, which compares the number of people who have tested positive to the total number of people tested. And that is a huge deal because both increased testing

Starting point is 00:17:51 and decreasing positivity rates are the two main factors that the CDC and the Trump administration recommend for reopen. And even beyond that, experts have said that combining these two totally different data sets basically makes a positivity rate data unusable. Virginia, another state that's begun to reopen, also did the same thing,

Starting point is 00:18:05 but after receiving a ton of backlash, a state announced last week that it would stop doing that. And then of course you have Florida, which at the time it began to reopen, reportedly actively tried suppressing county coroners from releasing COVID-19 death tallies. And we're also seeing reports today like that from the Miami Herald, reporting,

Starting point is 00:18:19 "'The state official managing Florida's public dashboard "'of COVID-19 data says that her office "'has been removed from the project and questioned the Department of Health's commitment to accessibility and transparency. But ultimately, that is where we are right now. We're gonna have to wait and see. And with this story,

Starting point is 00:18:32 I did wanna pass the question off to you. What are your initial thoughts about everything? Given what we've seen, what we're kind of talking about, do you trust the data? Why, why not? And that is where I'm going to end today's show. And hey, as always, thanks for watching, liking, being a part of the conversation in those comments.

Starting point is 00:18:45 Also, if you're new here, you want more of my dumb face spewing the news at you, you hit that subscribe button. Definitely then tap that bell to turn on notifications. Also, if you're looking for more to watch after today's show, you can click or tap right there, I got you covered. But with that said, of course, as always, my name's Philip DeFranco, you've just been filled in. I love yo faces and I'll see you tomorrow.

Starting point is 00:19:03 I hope you liked this video. Subscribe if you like it.

Your Ad Here

The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 5.19 Ariana Grande Fraud Claim, Justin Bieber, Joe Rogan's Spotify Deal, Charli D'Amelio, & More

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.