The Philip DeFranco Show - What Amber Heard v Johnny Depp Defamation Trial Exposes & Today's News

Episode Date: May 18, 2022

Start your free trial today: http://www.Squarespace.com/Phil & enter offer code “Phil” to get 10% off your first purchase! News You Might Have Missed: https://youtu.be/8aiIjF9I5Rw TEXT ME! [phone] Get More Phil: https://linktr.ee/PhilipDeFranco Tell Us About Your Personal Pandemic Experience: https://roguerocket.com/2022/04/29/we-want-to-hear-from-you/ – 00:15 - Frustrations Emerge as the Depp Heard Trial Turns into Entertainment Frenzy 03:42 - Twitter Plans to “Enforce” Elon Musk Merger 05:54 - Sponsor 06:41 - U.S. Officials Suggest China Eastern Flight’s Nosedive Was Intentional 08:24 - Recap of Tuesday’s Primaries – ✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ Frustrations Emerge as the Depp Heard Trial Turns into Entertainment Frenzy: https://roguerocket.com/2022/05/16/snl-heard-depp-backlash/ Twitter Plans to “Enforce” Elon Musk Merger: https://www.axios.com/2022/05/17/elon-musk-twitter-will-enforce-merger U.S. Officials Suggest China Eastern Flight’s Nosedive Was Intentional: https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-eastern-black-box-points-to-intentional-nosedive-11652805097 Recap of Tuesday’s Primaries: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/17/us/politics/winners-losers-nc-pa-elections-primaries.html ✩ STORIES NOT IN TODAY’S SHOW ✩ YouTube Touts MrBeast and Mainstream Appeal in First Upfront Presentation: https://roguerocket.com/2022/05/18/youtube-upfronts/ Russia Takes Over 900 Azovstal Fighters Prisoner as Mariupol Surrenders: https://roguerocket.com/2022/05/18/russia-takes-azovstal-fighters-prisoner/ —————————— 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 #JohnnyDepp #AmberHeard Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sup you beautiful bastards! Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show. Quick reminder, this is the week of after shows. Today is no different. In fact, today I give you a little sneak peek of the brand new set for the PDS. I'm calling it the lazy one because it's my work from home office.

But hey, buckle up, hit that like button and let's just jump into it. Because y'all, the first thing that we're gonna talk about today is Johnny Depp, Amber Heard, and the defamation trial. And rather than just talk about what's been happening with this trial over the last 24 hours,

because I really think just covering that Would do a disservice. We're on 18 days now. There's so much information coming out I think like you have to dedicate an entire channel or like your entire job to just covering this which is Something that a number of people have done personally if I'm trying to consume something on this I've mentioned in the past I just watch Emily D Baker rather on today's show I want to talk about the conversation and debate happening about the public consumption of this trial. We're starting to see a lot of criticism regarding the way this has kinda turned

into a meme machine, though. There's also been pushback there, so let's try and talk it out. So to start, there is literally no way to overstate the public interest in this trial, because based on social media interactions, America is reportedly more interested in this case than things like abortion rights and the war in Ukraine.

With stories popping up about scalpers apparently even trying to sell black market access to the courtroom. So that's led to a lot of people questioning why people are so excited, even reveling in a case that deals with domestic abuse allegations. Because a lot of the content that's out there, it's not like the stuff that Emily D. Baker

or a number of people are doing. Like a lot of the content is jokes, making fun of it, specifically of Heard. With places like Rolling Stone noting that one audio of Heard alleging that Depp hit her is very popular online with people spoofing it, putting cats and wigs of it, specifically of Heard. With places like Rolling Stone noting that one audio of Heard alleging that Depp hit her is very popular online with people spoofing it, putting cats in wigs over it, people in the comments eating it up. And while there are a lot of different types of content,

if you look online, it's not surprising that a lot of these jabs are specifically aimed at Amber Heard. Because just a quick Twitter search shows you that way more people appear to be on Depp's side right now. But as the trial has continued on, we have more people going, ah, is it okay to joke about this? With people arguing that it doesn't matter

who you side with in this situation, you still shouldn't turn this case into clickbait comedy with a piece in the Guardian saying, saying regardless of whether an individual believes Heard's testimony, they should believe that nothing good can come from minimizing and mocking descriptions of abuse. The trial has made it clearer than ever

that a culture of toxic fandom has poisoned our brains. And the thing is, it's not completely black and white, right? There are those that believe Johnny Depp, they don't believe Amber Heard, but they're still afraid of what consequences could be from all of this. With a number of them hitting on a note that USA Today hit on saying,

"'The loudest voices on the internet may not believe Heard, "'but millions of women have had experiences "'like the ones she describes. "'When people mock her, experts say they're inadvertently "'laughing at every person who has said "'they are a victim of abuse.'" And understand, this is not me trying to tell you who to believe or not believe.

This person's on the right, This is the person that's wrong This is solely about the constant mockery and entertainment aspect of this trial Well, this has been a rampant thing since pretty much the beginning I feel like a lot of attention on this debate started because of SNL They parodied the trial with a judge and that's good even saying this trial is for fun and that resulted in a ton of headlines and just not sitting right with a lot of people with people saying things like Domestic violence is not a joke rape is not a joke abusers using the. With people saying things like, domestic violence is not a joke,

rape is not a joke, abusers using the legal system to continue to terrorize their victims is not a joke, abusers using accusations of defamation to silence their victims is not a joke. In 20 years, people are going to look back at this trial and all of the media coverage and be disgusted. As well as you're free to have absolutely no opinion

on the Depp-Herd trial, but thinking it's for fun is for someone with a diseased heart and brain. With that, we've seen instances pop up where you have big creators like Pokimane even deleting a tweet after facing backlash for posting a meme about the trial. People saying it's out of line and insensitive.

And so that's why with this story, I do wanna pass a question off to you, but first I want you to separate your opinion of what you think is reality in the Johnny Depp Amber Heard defamation trial. Whether you think she's telling the truth or she's in the minority of accusers telling a lie, what is your opinion of this kind of being turned into entertainment and memes and parodies and jokes?

Do you think it's all fair? It's all good. This is just what entertainment has evolved into. Or do you think, no, a line is being crossed here that this is scary and it sets a bad precedent for those who have been abused and may scare those from speaking out. And really any and all thoughts you have on this,

I'd love to hear from you in those comments down below. And then let's talk about these strange, oh my God, so strange, will they, won't they, story of Twitter and Elon Musk. Because what the fuck, let me off this roller coaster. So we have gone from Elon Musk just trolling on Twitter to him buying 9% of the company, seemingly he's gonna get on the board.

Then he says, no, don't want that. I'm gonna take over the whole fucking thing. You've got Twitter freaking out, all these headlines popping up of Twitter may, you know, they might swallow a poison pill to keep Elon Musk away, but wait, no, the deal is gonna go through. Elon Musk is gonna buy this fucking company and he's gonna be the temporary or interim CEO.

Then Elon says, hey, wait, actually the deal's on temporary hold. I have an issue with the bots on the website. And now Twitter's like, ha ha, you put a ring on it, we are enforcing this merger agreement. Or to put it another way, in case Elon Musk is watching, I know you primarily communicate via memes. Call an ambulance, call an ambulance, but not for me.

Now as far as is this going to kill the deal, is that even possible? What happens from here? I don't know. The CEO of Twitter put out a big thread on Monday talking about all the efforts they do to take down spam accounts, that they remove half a million accounts a day,

that they lock millions of accounts a week and still At the end of that they think that the number of spam accounts is less than 5% But even with that let's say you don't believe the CEO of Twitter You're not sure that he is actually right as Brian Quinn an associate law professor of Boston College argues Not only has Twitter disclosed the uncertainty of its estimates for years The company gave him the opportunity to engage in due diligence and kick the tires and look around Musk did not take up that offer because as the Associated has noted, Twitter has disclosed its bot estimates to the US Securities and Exchange Commission for years while also cautioning that its estimate might be too low.

But still from the outside looking in there's really no way to know what the fuck is gonna happen from here. When you have this much money at play, a guy like Elon Musk that really doesn't fucking care about the rules because usually just results in fines that he can just throw money at, the deal could die and then all of a sudden Elon Musk should be doesn't fucking care about the rules because usually it just results in fines that he can just throw money at. The deal could die and then all of a sudden Elon Musk should be on the hook for a billion dollars, but then that could go to just lawsuit after lawsuit, drag out. This could also just be a way to negotiate Twitter to a smaller price, which Elon Musk even said, if I did buy it, I need to buy it at a lower price now. Right on top of all the bot stuff, Twitter stock has tanked 25% over the past couple of weeks,

far below the $54 per share he initially offered, and even further below the $77 high. Not to mention that Tesla has also fallen over 30% since the beginning of April. But yeah, main point, this is just a big gigantic mess that's playing out in front of everybody. But from that, I wanna take a second to thank the fantastic sponsor of today's show, Squarespace.

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see if it's perfect for you, go ahead and start your free trial today over at squarespace.com slash phil. When you realize you love it, make sure you enter an offer code phil to get 10% off your first purchase. And then do you all remember a couple of months ago when the China Eastern Airline plane crashed,

killing all 132 people on board? With flight trackers showing that it just out of nowhere plummeted from 30,000 feet, hitting the earth around 90 seconds later? Well, that mystery just got a hell of a lot more mysterious because of a stunning revelation that comes out of sources who spoke to the Wall Street Journal, right? Initially, Chinese authorities said

they were investigating the crash, but since the plane was a Boeing 737-800, US officials claimed the right to access the black box too, which they did, and now they're suggesting that the crash may have been intentional. With one person familiar with the preliminary assessment saying, the plane did what it was told to do by someone in the cockpit. And others agreeing that the evidence suggests inputs from the controls pushed the plane into a dive. With that same person saying, Chinese investigators have not flagged any mechanical or flight control problems with the plane. Which does make sense, I know there were a lot of comparisons to what happened with the 737 Maxes,

but the 737-800 is different. Right, although both models are part of Boeing's next gen narrow body jets, the 737-800 is older, used all over the world, and belongs to a family of aircraft with one of the best safety records in commercial flight. And so now, the journal's sources say that American officials are turning their attention towards the pilot's actions. As well as the possibility that someone else on the plane

could have broken into the cockpit and forced it down though I do want to stress with this it is important not to rush to conclusions here because another source told the journal that US officials don't have access to all of the same information the Chinese ones do and noting This is only a preliminary assessment so more evidence could either bolster or undermine its findings now as for what China Eastern has said it Claims that no evidence has emerged that could determine if the aircraft had any problems. And adding that the pilot's family, health, and financial conditions were good. Also calling the cockpit break-in idea implausible and saying no emergency code was sent before the crash. But also China itself has disclosed very little

about its investigation, only saying officials are still probing the incident, but not commenting on any potential causes. And so now we have to wait for the official findings, which could shine a new light on all of this using restored data from the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder. And then yesterday was the busiest primary election day

of the season with major elections taking place in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Kentucky, Oregon, and Idaho. Starting off with the closest race here, the Republican primary for Senator in Pennsylvania. The two main contenders for that seat were Mehmet Oz, better known as Dr. Oz, and David McCormick, a former hedge fund CEO.

With many established Republicans being wary of Oz, fearing that he lacks conservative credentials, but he did manage to secure the endorsement of former president Donald Trump. But currently that race is too close to call. We're likely to see a recount. There was also the race in North Carolina between representative Madison Cawthorn

and state Senator Chuck Edwards for the state's 11th congressional district. And while it's rare for an incumbent to be elected out of office, and it's even more rare for them to have an actual challenge in the primary, somehow Madison Cawthorn pulled it off. And by pulled it off, I mean he lost. You're done.

You're done. Like this guy just made so many unforced errors because like Madison Cawthorn, he could be in controversies and like we've seen with many other politicians, like it could be beneficial. But he really seemed to shit where he eat when he said that members of Congress

have offered him drugs and to join in on orgies. Because that led to among other things, Republicans getting angry, many of them openly supporting Edwards in the race. Also, somehow around the same time, photos and videos of him doing things like humping a friend's head while he was naked. However, while Cawthorn was in many Republicans' bad graces, he did still get Trump's endorsement, who asked voters to give Cawthorn a second chance. But very notably, Trump's request from his base did not end up being enough, with Cawthorn losing the race by about 2% of the vote. With him conceding to Edwards last night, tweeting out, "'Congratulations to Chuck Edwards

on securing the nomination tonight. It's time for the NC11 GOP to rally behind the Republican ticket to defeat the Democrats' nominee this November.'" Which, while it is literally the least he could do, I at least gotta give a shred of props to Madison Cawthorn for actually doing the thing his messiah would not do, and that is immediately concede.

But still, I mean, the guy makes it so hard not to revel in his failure. But with all that said, right, you have Cawthorn's defeat and Oz's close race. It's led many to wonder whether Trump's endorsement still holds any weight or if it's counterproductive. And this isn't some abstract thing. Many pundits think that Trump only endorsing people

who backed his election fraud claims might end up hurting them in the midterm. And so if we pull out, we get a wider view. We look across all races. Trump endorsed 26 candidates, with the vast majority of those either running unopposed or an extremely safe seat And of the actually contested seats Trump's success was mixed with losses in Idaho North Carolina and possibly Pennsylvania Depending on whether Oz wins or not

But in many of those same states Trump's picks won this controversial choice for Pennsylvania governor secured the primary and another contested North Carolina Primary went to his candidate and if you look at before last night I don't think JD Vance gets the nomination without Trump But of course the real test is gonna happen in November, where it remains to be seen if they can capture votes from independents and even more centrist Republicans and Democrats, all of which are groups that generally don't buy into Trump

and his preferred candidates claims about a stolen election. But that said, remember, the primary wasn't just about Republicans with Democrats also going to the polls. And for them, the big question was how well would progressive contenders end up doing? And leading up to the races, there was a major discrepancy in how much money was being sent to more mainstream

Democratic candidates versus their more progressive opponents, leading many to believe that it was a done deal. However, it's also been a mixed bag there. For national seats, progressives came up short losing major races in two North Carolina districts and a Kentucky district. Though that kind of makes sense, you don't normally think of Kentucky and North Carolina as bastions of progressive politics. Which is why in states where progressive politics are more mainstream, they did have more successes, scoring victories in Pennsylvania's 12th and Oregon's fifth congressional districts. But of course with this, remember, this isn't where it ends.

We still have to see how Dr. Oz's races go, not to mention the many more primaries coming up along the next few months. So remember, no matter what party you are, whether it be, you know, the big election for president, whether it be the midterms, whether it be the primaries, you should be voting. It's very easy to feel small and hopeless,

but I mean, we have seen what one election can do. And obviously you can use that to reference a number of elections, but like the world is going to be different for people in the United States for the next few generations because of the 2016 election. Specifically with primaries, without those, you can't even begin to attempt to get candidates

who support the same shit as you do to get into office. But ultimately that is where that story and today's show ends. As always, thank you for watching, liking, being a part of the conversation down below. If you wanna check out the new after show, click or tap right there. But as always, my name's Philip DeFranco.

You've just been filled in. I love yo faces and I'll see you tomorrow.