The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 9.29 Dear Youtube... We Need To Talk. Teen Driver Runs Over 6 Cyclists & Then Walks Free

Episode Date: September 29, 2021

This isn’t a slippery slope situation. It is actively a huge problem now… Go to https://noom.com/phil and take your free 30-second quiz! Thank you #noom for sponsoring today’s video! Watch More News: https://youtu.be/ZcKeozW4hiI TEXT ME! [phone] Get More Phil: https://linktr.ee/PhilipDeFranco -- 00:00 - Teen Who Ran Over 6 Cyclists Outside Houston Walks Free 05:00 - Artist Given $84k To Make Piece, Returns Blank Canvases Titled “Take the Money and Run” 07:04 - Sponsor 07:53 - YouTube CEO Claims Company Values “Free Speech” After Removing Navalny Videos 12:01 - CNN Becomes the First Major U.S. Outlet to Restrict Australians from Its Facebook Page 13:02 - U.S. Declares Over 20 species Extinct After Exhaustive Searches -- ✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ Teen Who Ran Over 6 Cyclists Outside Houston Walks Free: https://roguerocket.com/2021/09/29/teen-ran-over-cyclists-free/ Artist Given $84k To Make Piece, Returns Blank Canvases Titled “Take the Money and Run”: https://www.npr.org/2021/09/29/1041492941/jens-haaning-kunsten-take-the-money-and-run-art-denmark-blank YouTube CEO Claims Company Values “Free Speech” After Removing Navalny Videos: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-09-26/youtube-ceo-says-google-sees-free-speech-as-core-value-in-russia CNN Becomes the First Major U.S. Outlet to Restrict Australians from Its Facebook Page: https://www.reuters.com/technology/cnn-quits-facebook-australia-citing-defamation-risk-2021-09-29/ U.S. Declares Over 20 species Extinct After Exhaustive Searches: https://roguerocket.com/2021/09/29/youtube-says-it-supports-free-speech-after-removing-navalny-videos-at-request-of-russian-government/ ✩ STORIES NOT IN TODAY’S SHOW ✩ YouTube Is Now Banning All Vaccine Misinformation https://roguerocket.com/2021/09/29/youtube-misinformation/ Rihanna Faces Backlash for Putting Non-Black Models in Braids During Fashion Show: https://roguerocket.com/2021/09/29/rihanna-braids-fenty-backlash/ India Cuts Off Internet for 81 Million To Stop Exam Cheating: https://roguerocket.com/2021/09/29/india-cuts-off-internet-for-81-million-to-stop-exam-cheating/ —————————— 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 #YouTube #Houston ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sup you beautiful bastards! Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show and hey, take a second to hit that like button, help promote and share some common sense news coverage here on the YouTubes and let's just jump into it. And y'all, the first thing we have to talk about today, the premise sounds like it is legitimately a country song, so I figured that's how we tell part of the story. There once was a boy in Texas Riding around in his, come on, you guessed it, pickup truck And what this boy, oh, what he saw He saw six cyclists driving by And he thought, should I be a dick?

And he was the biggest dick, the biggest dick of them all. He hit them with his truck. Like legitimately, he hit them with his truck. So this past Saturday, you have this group of cyclists that are training for a triathlon in Waller County near Houston. And according to one of the cyclists, Chase Farrell, about 75 miles under their ride,

there's this black diesel pickup truck that's intentionally slowing down, swerving into his lane, accelerating to blow smoke in his face. It's a dickish and dangerous move called rolling. And after that, the driver, who has now been identified as a 16-year-old male, he tried to do the same thing to a group of six cyclists

that were riding ahead of Farrell, but this time he hit them. Farrell explaining to reporters the reason he couldn't stop is because he was accelerating to blow more diesel fuel on these cyclists. And adding, he ended up hitting three people before his brakes even started. I thought someone was dead.

I heard a lot of crunching, I heard brakes, tires screeching, people screaming. In closing, there was no reason for this to happen. It wasn't like he was on his phone. He definitely meant to try and scare these people, intimidate them in some way, and made a mistake and ran them over. Before the six cyclists were hospitalized,

including two who had to be airlifted and Farrell sharing pictures that he took of the ambulance and helicopter, as well as others showing mangled bikes, heavy damage to the pickup from its impact with a cyclist. With Farrell also telling reporters that after hitting the cyclist, the teen got out of his car and asked,

"'Do you think I'm going to jail?' And for those that are like, well, obviously yes, it turns out the answer was no. According to Farrell, the teen's parents showed up within minutes of the incident and Waller police were on the scene shortly after. After they questioned the 16 year old, he wasn't arrested, he was in charge, he just walked free.

Typical! Right now it appears that he's still out and about because yesterday the Waller police department posted a statement on Facebook saying, saying they were still investigating the matter and adding that once the inquiry is complete, the department will submit all information and generated reports to the Waller County

District Attorney's Office for review. Then after examining the facts of the incident, the District Attorney's Office will determine what criminal charges may be warranted. With Waller County District Attorney, Elton Mathis telling reporters, I'm very troubled by what I've read. If what I read was true, we've got some issues.

But also adding, I don't have the evidence in front of me at this point to say why he wasn't arrested or should he have not been arrested. Waiting for the investigation report to get here so we can make those determinations have not been arrested? I'm waiting for the investigation report to get here so we can make those determinations to seek justice. But I'm also saying the possible charges could include aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, but noting that all the evidence will be presented

before a grand jury, likely sometime in the fall, and they'll decide whether to indict the teen. Though, very notably here, just today, the official Facebook page for the Waller County DA made a post that seemed to imply that there might be more that the police could do, with the office saying that rolling coal is at minimum

an assault that is easily elevated to a jail eligible offense and adding, while our county law enforcement agencies all across the county are being reminded today of the availability of these and other charges, which can be brought against individuals acting in such a criminal manner. Right, so unsurprisingly, there was a ton of backlash.

It became a trending topic. Many people saying the teen should have, of course, been arrested, that the officers need to explain themselves, they must be held accountable. But this whole situation is likely to spark even more outrage because just this afternoon, we saw a lawyer for the teenager issuing a statement saying,

"'My client is a young man in high school "'with college aspirations. "'He's a very new and inexperienced driver. "'This was a serious accident, "'but did not involve any criminal intent.'" With the lawyer going on to claim that the teen called 911, helped with the injured, cooperated with police, and my favorite, saying he and his family

are sending nice thoughts and prayers. Though, notably the attorney refused to answer follow-up questions, asking whether or not he was disputing the rolling coal allegations. Right, it kind of makes you wonder, is he avoiding that question, because he doesn't know if there's GoPro footage

or something of it. You know, actually looking into this story further, it's kind of odd that Waller County didn't take this more serious. Like this isn't even the first incident of this specific nature in Waller County that has gone national. Back in 2017, two cyclists were killed in the county

after a driver intentionally ran them over. In fact, just this summer, that driver was sentenced to life in prison on a capital murder charge and two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Right, so while this isn't expected to be like a plain murder case, it is gonna be interesting to see how this plays out

and if we see similar aggravated assault charges brought. But also I do have to ask how, like given the specifics of the story that we've talked about, right? 16 year old in a big ass truck, mangled bikes and bodies. People having to get an airlifted to the hospital and no arrest is made? Like were the authorities somehow under the impression

that six cyclists decided to attack a boy in his car, right? A young defenseless boy in his car with their bicycles and bodies. What was the thought process? Anyway, that's where I'm gonna end it, and of course pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts with all of this? Whether it be the 16 year old or the police involved,

I'd really love to know any of your thoughts and opinions, the whys and why nots in those comments down below. Then in easily my favorite piece of news today, we should talk about artist Jens Honing. Right, so the way this story goes is you have this modern art museum in Northern Denmark. They give Jens $84,000 in cash in order to recreate a series of works that he did

in 2007 and 2010. Works that he created to show the pay disparities between Danes and Austrians as part of an exhibition about the labor market. And reportedly with this, the belief would be that the cash would literally be put on the canvases, but Jens instead delivered blank canvases titled, Take the Money and Run.

Honing's saying in an interview, as far as his mindset, why do I not make a work that is about my own work situation? Also in an interview, justifying his move and arguing that others should do the same, saying, I encourage other people who have just as miserable working conditions as me to do the same. If they're sitting on some shit job and not getting money and are actually being asked to give money to go to work, they should take the money and run. Right, so there, Honing's trying to say

that he had to lose money in order to make the artwork, but you've also had people pushing back, saying the museum gave him up to $7,000 for his work expenses, so that claim is dubious. Also, not only that, on top of that, Honing would receive a base pay and a viewing fee that would have been determined by the government. Or with people saying, you know,

the vast majority of the cash that he was given wasn't supposed to be his payment, it was meant to create the art. But you've got Honing arguing that it's perfectly in line with what the museum wanted for its exhibit and encourage others to take a look at their work conditions. And actually we saw museum director, Les Anderson kind of agreeing with that part.

Saying, I want to give Jens absolutely the right that a work has been created in its own right, which actually comments on the exhibit we have. However, he added, but that is not the agreement we had. So right now, as things stand, the museum expects Honing to give the money back by mid January, since he didn't actually deliver what he agreed to do. Honing is standing firm saying it's not theft

It is a breach of contract and breach of contract is part of the work So ultimately we're in this situation where it is very likely going to fall into a legal battle What makes it even weirder right because there is this pending legal battle the museum's still displaying take the money and run. With Anderson even telling local papers It's a comment on how we all work. And it's probably also a comment on the value of what he creates. So there are lots of layers that we think are interesting. And honestly, while I understand contracts are contracts,

it really feels like because there's so much free press coverage because of this, they probably got their money's worth. But that said, this is the Philip DeFranco Show. I would love to know your thoughts, right? Do you think this is genius or no? It's simply theft with a story. But from that, I wanna take a second to thank today's sponsor, Noom.

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and take Noom's 30 second quiz for free to create a truly custom program for you. That's Noom.com slash Phil. Then we should definitely talk about this huge YouTube news and it is a critical story. So if this video gets lower views, I'm blaming that. And I'm gonna call up Ethan Klein and say, talk to your friend, Susan Wojcicki.

Help me out, I'm kidding. But actually YouTube CEO, Susan Wojcicki.'" Help me out, I'm kidding. But actually, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki is right now facing serious backlash after saying that free speech is one of the company's core values. And as far as why would that be a controversial thing to say, right? Don't we want free speech?

Isn't that a core value? Well, as it turns out, it's because those words came out of her mouth after YouTube and other tech giants gave in to Russian government demands to silence jailed politician Alexei Navalny and his smart voting app. But if you missed it, Google, Apple, and other tech companies were required

to remove references and search results related to smart voting from their platforms after the Moscow arbitration tribunal claimed that the app was illegal. But it appears that all the app actually did was connect voters with the few opposition candidates left in the election, because I mean, nearly all of them were barred from running by the government

or even just showcase candidates that were not completely pro Putin. But the alleged issue for the Russian government here was that the app was linked to certain of all the backed organizations that they said to be extremists earlier this year. So in the end, what we saw were these companies caving, taking the smart voting app off their platforms

with YouTube following their lead, taking down a smart voting video, which then all brings us back to Wojcicki's comments, which came after a conversation with Bloomberg on Monday. Or because just after saying that free speech was a core value, she went on to say, "'But when we work with governments, "'there are many things that we have to take in consideration,

"'whether it's local laws or what's happening on the ground. "'So there's always going to be multiple considerations.'" With Wojcicki also declining to comment on the specific requests from the Russian government. And so a lot of people saw her comments as insincere with Navalny himself even tweeting from prison. "'If something surprised me in the latest elections, "'it was not how Putin forged the results,

"'but how obediently the almighty big tech turned into his accomplices. With them going on to add, I know that most of those who work at Google, Apple, et cetera, are honest and good people. I urge them not to put up with the cowardice of their bosses. So with that, right, there were Google employees

blasting the company for taking down the smart voting app. But at the same time, we've also seen people saying YouTube and Google, they're just in a tough spot. Noting that Russian authorities not only threatened hefty fines against companies that refuse to take down smart voting app. But at the same time, we've also seen people saying YouTube and Google, they're just in a tough spot. Noting that Russian authorities not only threatened hefty fines against companies that refuse to take down smart voting, but they also reportedly threatened to bring serious criminal charges

and arrest local staff if the companies didn't bend to the government's demands. Which actually Navalny also touched on this writing, "'The media write that the Kremlin forced big tech "'to make concessions by showing them a list "'of their employees to be arrested. "'If so, then keeping silent about it is the worst crime. "'This is encouragement of a hostage taking terrorist.

Right, so for many, they say the decision is simple. Companies like Google should leave Russia. But also, with that, you have people worrying about the possible precedent set by this. Arguing that maybe there is a net good to Google doing what they have to do to stay there. And people noting that many who oppose Putin in Russia rely on searches from Google, YouTube videos,

and Telegram chat rooms to stay informed and share their experiences. With YouTube in particular being described as a safe haven for free journalism and anti-government opinions. Wojcicki herself also kind of touching on this in her Bloomberg interview, saying, "'I think we really want to make sure

"'that we're working and serving audiences "'as much as we possibly can.' And adding that, "'If it comes to a point "'where there's an issue with the government, "'we'll do our best always to work that out.'" But unfortunately, that is not where this story ends. It appears that this conversation, this whole situation has landed Navalny in even more hot water.

And that's because there are now reports that Russian authorities are investigating whether he and some of his core allies founded extremist groups. And so with that, when he is found guilty, and I say when, because it's Putin, right? We're not living in a fantasy land. We know this has already been decided by Putin and his thugs. But yet when that happens, Navalny and two of his allies

will face up to 10 years in prison, with other key members of his team looking at six years in prison for participating in an extremist group. Which also regarding that, right, labeling it as an extremist group, we had one of Navalny's allies pushing back against those claims saying,

"'We've never been any kind of extremist. "'We took part in elections, "'participated in peaceful protests against injustice. "'We worked on investigations that received "'dozens of millions of views on YouTube "'and corruption of officials, lawmakers, Putin, and his inner circle, our activity has always remained within the law.

And it's also not a surprise that the Russian government, right, Putin would be doing this because currently, Navalny would be out of prison by the time that the next presidential election in 2024 happened. And so it's very likely that they want to just keep him locked behind bars. But yeah, ultimately that is where we are with this story. And I want to pass the question off to you.

What are your thoughts here? Are the Google, YouTube, all these other companies of the world, are they kind of just having to do what they have to do to be a net good? Or do you agree with that? You think the situation is tricky or no, you're in a situation where you're like, the big tech companies are completely in the wrong here.

Or do you think, fuck the idea of a net good, they are being complicit. I'd love to know where you stand, what you think, and why in those comments down below. Also in other news about companies trying to operate within the limits of certain countries, we should definitely talk about Australia. We actually talked about this issue a few weeks ago

when Australia's high court ruled that news organizations can actually be held liable in the country for what people comment on their Facebook posts. Right, and so with that, we saw CNN originally trying to get Facebook to allow it to just disable comments on all their pages in Australia. Facebook reportedly refusing to do that,

instead offering to help CNN disable comments post by post. But in addition to obviously being very time-consuming there's also the potential that a post could get missed resulting in a lawsuit anyway. So we've now seen a CNN saying it essentially had no choice but to block Australians from its Facebook pages. With CNN saying we are disappointed that Facebook once again has failed to ensure its platform is a place for credible journalism and productive dialogue around current events among its users. And looking further into this, right, this isn't gonna be a massive hit to CNN. CNN's not huge in Australia,

but there are major downstream implications here. What's gonna happen to everyone else there, both big and small? If an organization is big and well-funded as CNN's, like, it's just not worth the effort, that's not a great sign for everyone else. Like, whether you like them or hate them, that's concerning. Then in, please nobody tell Hank Green

I don't know if he can emotionally handle it news, with the Fish and Wildlife Service announcing today that 23 species native to the US are now extinct. Also, I'm kidding. I don't know if there's a thing that Hank Green does not know about. Now, reportedly this list of 23 species includes 11 birds, eight freshwater mussels, two fish, a bat, and a plant.

With one of the most notable standouts being the ivory-billed woodpecker, which was the third largest woodpecker in the world when it was alive. And its history is actually kind of interesting. It was one of the first notable standouts being the ivory-billed woodpecker, which was the third largest woodpecker in the world when it was alive. And its history is actually kind of interesting. It was one of the first animals ever recognized in the US as facing extinction. In fact, their decline actually helped push Congress

to pass the Endangered Species Act in 1973, though obviously the act came a bit too late to save them. Though, to be fair here, according to the New York Times, many of the species that were deemed extinct this week were actually already extinct, or nearly so before the Endangered Species Act was passed. But still with all of this, you have the Fish and Wildlife Service saying

that each of these extinctions shows how human activity can drive species decline and extinction by contributing to habitat loss, overuse, and the introduction of invasive species and disease. And adding the growing impacts of climate change are anticipated to further exacerbate these threats and their interactions. These extinctions highlight the need to take action

to prevent further losses. And actually this is one of the few times on the PDS, it's not all doom and their interactions. These extinctions highlight the need to take action to prevent further losses. And actually this is one of the few times on the PDS, it's not all doom and gloom. Since the passage of the act, 54 species in the US have been removed from the endangered list because their populations recovered. And while not a complete win,

another 48 have improved enough to go from endangered to just threatened. And ultimately that is where I'm going to end this story and show, because honestly with the news cycle, this is the closest thing I can get to, to ending on a positive note. Unfortunately, that note is like, we haven't ruined everything yet.

Yeah, whether it be this last story, or I mean, there were plenty of heavy hitters today. Anything that stood out to you, I'd love to know your thoughts in those comments down below. As always, whether it be this last story, or really anything else that stood out to you today, I'd love to know your thoughts

in those comments down below. And of course, let's close it out together. My name's Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love yo faces and I'll see you tomorrow.