The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 9.21 What This "Missing White Woman Syndrome" Backlash Exposes, Gabby Petito, Joy Reid, Brian Laundrie, &

Episode Date: September 21, 2021

Is She Being Dismissive or Just Talking About 2 Things at Once? Lower your phone bill and get a $25 Ting credit at https://phil.ting.com Go to http://www.CoinbaseDeFranco.com to sign up and get $10 in free Bitcoin! Watch More News: https://youtu.be/OzpP6oUfBNQ TEXT ME! [phone] Get More Phil: https://linktr.ee/PhilipDeFranco -- 00:00 - Joy Reid Prompts Discussion With Gabby Petito Case 04:14 - Doctor Who Violated Texas Law Sued by Those Who Want to Put Law to Legal Test 06:47 - Sponsor 07:42 - Stalker Threatened Ariana Grande 08:57 - SEC Investigating Blizzard Over Workplace Practices and Disclosures 10:12 - Major Chinese Company Evergrande On the Verge of Collapse -- ✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ Joy Reid Prompts Discussion With Gabby Petito Case: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/joy-reid-gabby-petito-missing-b1923868.html https://www.insider.com/710-indigenous-people-missing-in-wyoming-where-gabby-petito-disappeared-2021-9 Doctor Who Violated Texas Law Sued by Those Who Want to Put Law to Legal Test:​​ ​​https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1440057132557111301?s=20 Stalker Threatened Ariana Grande: https://twitter.com/TMZ/status/1440328501094072333 SEC Investigating Blizzard Over Workplace Practices and Disclosures: https://www.wsj.com/articles/sec-is-investigating-activision-blizzard-over-workplace-practices-disclosures-11632165080 Major Chinese Company Evergrande On the Verge of Collapse: https://roguerocket.com/2021/09/21/evergrande/ ✩ STORIES NOT IN TODAY’S SHOW ✩ Alissa Violet Sues FaZe Clan Over Stock It Allegedly Owes Her: https://roguerocket.com/2021/09/21/alissa-violet-sues-faze-clan/ U.S. Will Ease Travel Restrictions for Vaccinated Foreign Passengers: https://roguerocket.com/2021/09/21/u-s-will-ease-travel-restrictions/ Republicans Say They Will Block Bill To Avert Government Shutdown and Debt Default: https://roguerocket.com/2021/09/21/republicans-government-shutdown-debt-default/ Trudeau and Liberals Secure Shallow Victory in Snap Elections https://roguerocket.com/2021/09/21/trudeau-and-liberals-secure-shallow-victory-in-snap-elections/ —————————— 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 #JoyReid #ArianaGrande Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So I know that there's been murmurings and rumors about this and so I kind of just wanted to address this before it got any bigger. Yes, it is true. Despite me saying the contrary for two years now, the Philip DeFranco show is actually shot on a green screen. And this is the... This is the real background. Oh, it just feels good to get that off my chest. I just hope you guys can forgive me. But with that said, oh, you beautiful bastards.

Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show. Hey, maybe hit that like button, help support the show. Get some more common sense news coverage out to the people of the YouTubes. While you emotionally recover from this grand reveal, let's just jump into it. You know, the first thing that we're going to talk about today is one of the most requested stories. Involves the Gabby Petito situation, her disappearance, presumed murder, of course, the search now of her fiance, Brian Laundrie.

That's because in recent days, we've seen more and more people sharing their frustration with how much attention this story is getting compared to similar ones involving people of color. This, yes, being a growing point of conversation on social media, but also as far as the mainstream, we're seeing the likes of MSNBC's Joanne Reed say. Now, it goes without saying that no family should ever have to endure that kind of pain.

And the Petito family certainly deserves answers and justice. But the way this story has captivated the nation has many wondering, why not the same media attention when people of color go missing? Well, the answer actually has a name, missing white woman syndrome, the term coined by the late and great Gwen Ifill to describe the media and public fascination with missing white women like Lacey Peterson or Natalie Holloway, while ignoring cases involving missing people of color. In addition to that,

we also have stories popping up like insider writing, 710 indigenous people, mostly girls, were reported missing over the past decade in Wyoming, "'the same state where Gabby Petito reportedly disappeared.'" And adding, "'Despite the extent of the issue, "'missing and murdered Indigenous people "'get less media coverage.'"

That article also noting that a report that looked at media coverage found that only 30% of Indigenous homicide victims made the news compared to 51% of white victims. With Wyoming survey and analysis research scientist, Emily Grant, who worked on this report also adding, "'When the murders of indigenous people were covered, the news reports were overly graphic

compared to white people. So, you know, regarding this criticism that we've been hearing more and more, a lot of the pushback that we're seeing, I'd love to know your thoughts. In this instance, some claiming that Joy Reid's MSNBC is actually kind of being hypocritical here. Right, pointing the finger back as Fox News wrote, MSNBC has extensively covered the case and its website

Monday morning prominently featured an opinion piece on the missing woman. Fox News also characterizing Reid's actions here as dismissing the focus on Gabby. But also the counter to that we've seen is that Joy Reid and the news org as a whole can be inherently different. As well as people saying that Reid was not dismissing, but rather asking a question,

or saying that Reid is simply asking, why is this happening? What can be done about this? While at the same time, still acknowledging that what happened with Gabby Petito is horrifying and heartbreaking. And so yeah, the question I pass off to you, and I'm not saying that there's something

inherently right or wrong. I just, I really wanna know like what you're feeling when you hear this being said. Also jumping back to the core of this story, which right now is the search for Brian Laundrie. We're seeing a number of reports saying that he might've been spotted. And this after a guy by the name of Sam Bass

posted to Facebook, "'I'm not saying this is the guy, "'but whoever was on my trail camera this morning "'in Baker, Florida strongly fits the description "'of Brian Laundrie.' "'Authorities have been contacted "'by people in Northwest Florida Area B on the lookout.'" Right, claiming that he saw him around 6.17 a.m.

Right, so with that, you have the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office saying that they're looking into the reports that he was spotted in the area. Right, so it was an unconfirmed lead that the authorities were looking into, but as I was finishing up today's show, the county sheriff released a statement saying that they searched the area where the image was taken unconfirmed lead that the authorities were looking into. But as I was finishing up today's show, the County Sheriff released a statement saying that they searched the area where the image

was taken extensively, saying they didn't find anyone or anything of interest. This after using a drone and checking nearby farmlands. And saying in a statement, there are no known possible past or current connections between Laundrie and anyone in this area at this time to follow up on. So unfortunately this lead seemingly not getting us

any closer to Brian Laundrie. But just before today's show went up, we had FBI Denver tweet out, "'Teton County Coroner Dr. Brent Blue confirmed "'the remains are those of Gabrielle Petito,' adding that Coroner Blue's initial determination "'for the manner of death is homicide, "'who noting the cause of death remains

"'pending final autopsy results.'" Though notably, still at this point, FBI Denver only naming Brian Laundrie as a person of interest, and asking anyone with information concerning Mr. Laundrie's role in this matter or his current whereabouts should contact the FBI.

Yeah, I know that's a lot to take in, a number of different things, but that is where we are right now. And obviously we'll keep our eyes on this. Then remember Dr. Alan Braid? We talked about him yesterday. He wrote that Washington Post op-ed. He's a Texas physician who said that he performed

an abortion, a violation of the state's new six week ban. With one of the big questions being, okay, is someone going to sue him? Who is going to do it? Because under this new law, it allows civilians to file lawsuits against anyone, absolutely anyone who helps a person obtain an abortion after six weeks.

And that would absolutely be massive because it would be the first test case of the nation's most restrictive abortion law. And the big update today is there have now been at least two lawsuits filed against Braid, but interestingly enough, not by anti-abortion groups or even anyone in Texas. One lawsuit was filed by Oscar Silly,

which is incredibly notable because he's a former lawyer from Arkansas who was disbarred and convicted of tax evasion and is currently in home confinement serving a 15 year sentence. While Silly here is suing Braid for $100,000, he told reporters that he didn't have strongly held views about abortion and that he filed the suit in part

because as mandated by the law, he could receive at least $10,000 if he won. Saying here that he is not pro-life and that the decision should be between a woman and her doctor. Even going on to add that it was necessary to challenge the law on its merits, adding, "'If the law is no good, why should we have to go

through a long drawn out process to find out if it's garbage?' Then the second lawsuit that was filed against Braid was brought by another attorney in Illinois by the name of Felipe Gomez. And there appears to be a trend because as it turns out, Gomez was also disbarred in the state, though he was disbarred after other lawyers accused him

of sending harassing and threatening emails. And in his complaint, Gomez, who explicitly lists himself as pro-choice plaintiff, states that he believes Bray did not violate Roe v. Wade and that the act is illegal as written and as applied here until Roe v. Wade is reversed or modified. And adding that he seeks the court

to declare the act to be illegal as written and or as applied. With Gomez also telling reporters that he thinks the law is a form of government overreach and views the lawsuit as a way to hold Republicans in Texas accountable. Adding, if Republicans are going to say nobody can tell you to get a shot, they shouldn't tell women what to do

with their bodies either. I think they should be consistent. And so, boom, there we go. The first challenges to this law are playing out in a very, very unusual and bizarre way. Also of note with this story, I was very interested to know where you guys land on this topic.

And this morning on the community page, I asked you beautiful bastards as well as to a smaller extent, greater YouTube, what are your thoughts on this new Texas law? And as of recording this, 96% of you are against the new Texas law. Some of the top comments included, there is no excuse for an anti-abortion law of this nature.

It's unfathomable to me that people can actually support something like this with no exceptions for rape or incest. Some saying it's just insane that the people that are suing are outside of Texas. Really, I think hitting the nail on the head, you had Hannah Wilson saying, this law is just the appetizer for the real challenge against Roe v. Wade in the Supreme Court, and I'm terrified.

Yeah, if you didn't get to take part in the poll, if you want to make sure you never miss that or a show, text me right here, 813-213-4423, and or two, feel free now to leave your thoughts and opinions in those comments down below. But from that, I wanna take a second to thank the fantastic sponsor of today's show,

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Pretty fantastic. Also, it feels like lately there's just headline after headline saying you don't want to be famous. There are massive downsides that only get attention now and then. Like y'all, I went to TMZ this morning because you know, sometimes I like trash. And the top headline when I opened it, I'll read it.

"'Ariana Grande, alleged stalker, "'brandish knife, threatened to kill her.'" Absolutely horrifying. You look into it further. She had to file to get a restraining order. Apparently this guy's been terrorizing her for seven months. Reportedly shows up, security says, leave. He has a giant hunting knife,

says I'll fucking kill you and her. Absolutely horrifying stuff, seemingly happening so much, it might as well be a searchable category. They even have related topics right underneath. Stories about how that guy snuck onto Rihanna's property, how Kim Kardashian had to get a restraining order against a man who sent her Plan B in a ring. Also, hell, remember Kim Kardashian?

It's only been a few years now. She got robbed at gunpoint and tied up in her bathroom. Which one, I know a lot of people aren't empathetic towards incredibly successful and rich people, but no one should have to deal with that. Two, it makes me so happy that I have just a minute level of fame. Because when your audience gets as big as theirs,

it's simply a numbers game. Like just statistically, you're gonna have some deranged assholes. But just to reiterate, it should never get to a point where we're like, well, that comes with the job. No, regardless of your opinions about their work or their fame, they're still people.

Then in fantastic news for Activision Blizzard, things are finally calming down. I'm lying. In the wake of their sexual harassment and company culture reckoning, things just appear to be getting worse by the day. Last week, you had Blizzard employees suing the company for worker intimidation and union busting.

On top of that, Blizzard Entertainment's chief legal officer announced yesterday that she left the company on Friday, though she didn't say why. And now we're seeing the news that the SEC is also investigating Blizzard, with them throwing subpoenas not only at Blizzard, but also several of its senior executives,

including CEO Bobby Kotick. And now with all of this, asking them to provide documents from board meetings dating back to 2019, as well as the personnel files of six former employees and separation agreements the company reached earlier this year with staffers. And it appears that the SEC wants to get to the bottom of these executives' communications

and how much they actually knew regarding sexual harassment and discrimination complaints. With outlets like Kotaku summing up the investigation as the SEC not necessarily trying to find justice for the victims of the horrible abuse, like that not being under the scope of the agency's mission, but rather looking out for company investors who may have had a right to know about these allegations.

Meanwhile, we've also just learned that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has been looking into allegations of gender-based harassment at the company since May of last year. And reportedly there, Blizzard is in talks to settle and could pay millions to resolve the issue. But also right now, we don't know if the agency will ever publicly release its findings.

And so for now we have to kind of just wait and see what will happen with what will likely be the continuing fallout in the months ahead. Then absolutely massive international business and money news, we should talk about the stock market and Evergrande. And so for those that never heard of it, or maybe you've seen Evergrande in a headline,

you're unfamiliar, it's a major Chinese real estate company, but it also owns an electric car maker, a mineral extraction group, a soccer team, and a headline you're unfamiliar. It's a major Chinese real estate company, but it also owns an electric car maker, a mineral extraction group, a soccer team, and a theme park. And in fact, at its height, it was a fortune 500 company. But for years now, Evergrande has been accruing a massive pile of debt. So much so that it eventually climbed to a whopping $305 billion,

or equivalent to 2% of China's GDP. And as far as how the hell it got there, that largely comes down to the company's business model. Essentially, they were incredibly aggressive borrowing money and buying land to develop homes and while that wasn't such a huge deal to Chinese regulators at first last year regulators imposed a three red line system on developers and their borrowing habits making it so that the more you owed the less you'd be allowed to borrow notably Evergrande crossed all three of those red lines so regulators barred it from borrowing any more money So Evergrande is like oh shit. What do we do?

We need a way to generate income if we wanna stay afloat. So what they did is that they pre-sold more than 1.4 million apartments that they hadn't yet finished. So in other words, Evergrande stopped borrowing money from the government, yes, but they essentially started borrowing from everyday homeowners,

asking them to go ahead and pay these major deposits before their homes were actually completed. And so surprisingly, that ended up being a massive disaster. Some people have been waiting now for years for their homes to be ready. And in fact, at one point, Evergrande became so strapped for cash, they forced their own employees into a corner telling them,

"'Hey, you, the employee, need to provide the company "'with a short-term loan, or you're gonna lose your bonus.'" Right, so all of a sudden you had these everyday people going out and taking out loans for Evergrande. And so with all that uncertainty and just general insanity, Evergrande's stock value has been steadily falling for over the past year. Down from around $4 last September to now just 30 cents

today. And to make matters worse, which is quite a feat considering everything we just talked about, the news we're seeing now is that Evergrande likely will not be able to meet more than $80 million in interest payments due later this week. Alongside that, earlier this month, it also stopped paying back the loans from its employees.

And hey, while obviously this is horrible news for the homeowners as well as the company's employees, everyone could be impacted. This could be incredibly far-reaching for one, if Evergrande defaults. Banks and other firms that they owe money to will potentially be forced to then lend less money out given that the company owes money to around 300 institutions. If that happens, it could lead to a credit crunch, aka companies would struggle to be able to borrow money at affordable rates, meaning that some might be forced to close up shop for good. Two, the value of existing homes will likely become depressed, and since homes are such a valuable asset,

that will likely lead to a decrease in consumer spending. And three, all of that could have major global effects. Hell, the Dow yesterday plunged nearly a thousand points just as this news broke, with other major US industries also seeing sharp immediate pullbacks. Right, so you have a ton of people asking, is China about to face a Lehman Brothers situation?

Or that in reference to the events that caused the 2008 recession? But all that said, for now, there's no major market crisis just kind of jitters. And while a full-scale crisis is not off the table, many believe that the Chinese government will step in to bail out Evergrande. Many calling the company too big to fail.

One analyst saying, rather than risk disrupting supply chains and enraging homeowners, we think the government will probably find a way to ensure Evergrande's core business survives. Though notably nothing is certain. It's possible that China could refuse to bail out Evergrande to avoid what's being seen as setting a bad precedent

as it tries to rein in corporate debt. But for now, it's still pretty much all in the air. We're gonna have to look, yes, a few days out, but also specifically tomorrow. And that's because Chinese markets were closed today, but they'll be open tomorrow, and that could give us an indication of what's going to happen,

both regarding how investors are feeling, as well as what is the government going to do. Also, hey, if you're thinking about diversifying because you're worried about the stock market and or you just want like a $42 for free, head on over or just click the link to coinbase.defranco.com. You sign up just for signing up for free,

you get $10 in Bitcoin. And then a lot of people overlook this. They have a reward system where you just spend a few minutes learning about crypto and I think you can get about $32 more in crypto. So yeah, great service. I use them, I love them. But also the Defranco hookup for a 120 McNuggets

worth of crypto. Oh, McNuggets, I love them. But also the DeFranco hookup for 120 McNuggets worth of crypto. Oh, McNuggets, my favorite unit of measurement. Yeah, ultimately that is where this story in today's show ends. Let me know what you're thinking in those comments down below, whether it be this story, really anything else that stood out to you today.

And of course, as always, say it with me, weirdos. My name's Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love yo faces and I'll see you tomorrow. You're not a weirdo. That's gotta keep you on your toes. I love your face, I'll see you tomorrow.