- Sup, you beautiful bastards?
Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco show.
It is Wednesday, May 17th and you're watching for some news,
so let's just jump into it.
Starting with, so excited,
'cause the new culture war dropped.
He said sarcastically.
I'm gonna slam my head against a (silent) wall.
Everything's so stupid though,
so I suppose I should be more specific.
I'm talking about the war against woke advertising
that is raging again, this time taking aim at Miller Light.
'Cause they're facing backlash right now
for an ad that actually ran back in March
for Women's History Month.
Apparently people wanna be so pissed off
there's not enough stuff now we gotta look back.
But there the ad featured Ilana Glazer,
you might know from Broad City,
talking about the history of women
and brew beering. (buzzer sounds)
Brew beering, I'm a genius.
Beer brewing. (bell dings)
- Women we're among the very first to brew beer ever.
From Mesopotamia to the Middle Ages to Colonial America,
women were the ones doing the brewing.
Centuries later, how did the industry pay homage
to the founding mothers of beer?
They put us in bikinis. Wow.
- With a thing going on to show other beer ads
featuring women in bikinis, of which there are many,
and saying that it's time that the beer industry
make it up to women and then explaining Miller's
"bad shit to good shit" campaign
where you have the company, collecting their old sexist ads,
and turning them into compost or fertilizer
for female hops farmers to use,
with then those hops being donated to female brewers
all in honor of Women's History Month.
And all that made waves in conservative circles this week
I'm guessing because the whole Bud Light,
Dylan Mulvaney situation maybe is cooling off?
Because again, this whole bad shit to good shit campaign
actually came out several weeks
before Dylan posted her video drinking Bud Light.
It's like people are actively looking to be angry, which,
to be fair, is a bipartisan venture.
You know, those angered were saying things like,
"This is what happens when you give
liberal women positions of power in business,"
"Go woke, go broke, just like Bud Light,"
Tomi Lahren putting out an op-ed in Newsweek Today,
calling the ad, "Another cheap shot at straight men."
Even had the likes of Joe Rogan chiming in,
defending those old Miller Light ads.
- Those women wear bikinis 'cause they look great,
they like to look great.
It's not bad to look great.
Just like it's not bad for a guy to have a shirt off.
It's so stupid. - Oh my Lord.
- It's, human beings made beer, okay?
And some human beings look good in bikinis.
It's like, what are we doing?
- [Host] It's crazy.
- Women do it, women do it, women do it.
- It's pretty wild. - I'd like to see
a pie chart of how many women are actually involved
in making beer or drinking beer.
- And as far as what Miller Light has had to say about this,
they gave a statement to Vox saying,
"The video was about two things, worm poop
and saying women shouldn't be forced to mud rustle
in order to sell beer.
Neither of these things should be remotely controversial
and we hope beer drinkers can appreciate the humor
and ridiculousness of this video from back in March."
And so right now it remains to be seen
if this is going to continue to grow,
if it's gonna be anything like what we saw happen
with Bud Light where you heard reporting
from earlier this month that, in the third week of April,
US retail store sales for Bud Light
actually fell 21% compared to the same period a year ago.
And personally, I find myself, I don't know
if it's correct to say I don't care,
but I don't know, all of it just feels stupid.
Like what we're talking about
is advertising for legalized poison.
I'll have a beer now and then.
Granted, I don't ever drink light beer
'cause what I want is, like, the nastiest tasting bullshit
so that it forces me to sip it.
Like, there's just no part of me that's wondering,
"You know, I wonder where Miller Light stands
on the issues."
'Cause that's the thing, they don't actually stand anywhere
on the issue.
They're just trying to get you to buy shit.
But I also know I may be alone in this, right?
There are gonna be some people going, "You know,
they're raising a really important issue.
They're talking about the past
and how to, like, resolve that."
And then on the other side you have
the self-proclaimed anti-cancel culture people
once again, like, calling for a boycott
and trying to destroy a company because they see something
and they feel personally attacked.
But hey, like with all things Philip DeFranco Show,
whether you agree with me, you disagree with me,
whatever, I'd love to hear from you
in those comments down below on this.
And then let's talk about the inevitable case
that Jenna Barbee has found herself in.
She's a teacher at the Winding Waters
K to eight public school in Brooksville, Florida.
During standardized testing earlier this month,
she says that she wanted to give her fifth grade students
a brain break.
So she's like, "Let's watch a movie, a Disney movie.
It's called Strange World."
It's a PG animated film about a journey
to a mysterious underground land, which she said
would relate to the science lessons
about the environment that they were learning.
But key thing, this is Florida, and the filmmakers
committed the egregious crime
of including an openly gay character.
And so with that, school board member, Shannon Rodriguez,
whose kid was in Barbee's class, reported her
to both the principal and state officials.
And so as a result, the Florida Department
of Education announced that it's investigating
whether she broke the so-called Don't Say Gay law,
which when it was first passed in March of 2022,
banned teachers from discussing gender or sexual orientation
from kindergarten through third grade.
But then last month, the state Board of Education
expanded that to all grades in K to 12 public schools.
So Barbee there saying, among other things,
she wasn't aware of that change also defending her actions
in a recent viral TikTok.
I was told by every teacher and mentor at our school
that our method for approval by administration
of showing movies was to have
a signed parent permission slip for PG movies.
I had that from the beginning of the year.
The whole fifth grade team had signed permission slips
for PG movies with no objections to specific content.
Is a character in the movie LGBTQ? Absolutely.
Is that why I showed it? No.
I have a lot of fifth grade students who have come
to me this year, long before showing this movie,
talking about how they're part of that community as well.
And it's not a big deal to me,
so I just said, "Okay, that's awesome, do you."
Not pushing anything, just being accepting.
That's what I do.
- But yeah, now, you have state officials reportedly
planning to interview her students as part of the pro,
but also regardless of the investigation,
her students aren't gonna see her anymore anyway
because she's already submitted her letter of resignation
inciting the reason being, "Politics and the fear
of not being able to be who you are
in Florida public schools,"
which echo statements that we've seen
from other Florida teachers recently.
And then, as Caesar said, in the Rise of the Planet
of the Apes, "Strippers alone weak.
Strippers together strong."
And apparently these dancers
at the Star Garden Topless Dive Bar in north Hollywood
took that lesson to heart
because they're now poised to become the only group
of organized strippers in the United States
now that their employer agreed to recognize their union.
And that following a 15 month long effort
to join the Actors Equity Association whose 51,000 members
include workers on Broadway and at Disney World.
Though, notably, they're not technically
over the finish line yet as the NLRB still needs
to tally the votes from last year's union election,
the counting of which was delayed by legal challenges.
But they are expected to certify the union.
And this is a huge breakthrough for the labor movement.
'Cause the stigma that's existed around adult entertainment
has long stifled organizing efforts
with the dancers really not being taken seriously
as real performers.
But for now, at least the ones at this bar
are gonna have leveraged to bargain
for better protections against sexual assault
by customers and wage theft by the employer.
And we'll have to wait to see if this
is a random outlier story or if it starts
some sort of domino effect.
And then Prince Harry and Megan Markle reportedly
almost got Princess Diana-ed in New York last night.
Because apparently nobody learns from horrible things
when money's involved, with the two reportedly involved
in a dangerous car chase by paparazzi last night.
The spokesperson for the couple saying that the chase was,
"near catastrophic," and describing the paparazzi
as, "highly aggressive" and adding,
"While being a public figure comes
with a level of interest from the public,
it should never come at the cost of anyone's safety."
Saying, "The relentless pursuit lasting
over two hours resulted in multiple near-collisions
involving other drivers on the road,
pedestrians, and two NYPD officers.
And a BBC News report saying that, "There are claims
that the chase involved roughly six cars driving recklessly
by running red lights, driving on the sidewalk,
carrying out blocking moves, going backwards
on a one-way road, and taking pictures while driving."
Though very big thing here, this is still a developing story
so much more details about the chase are likely to come out.
But as far as some of the reported details,
we've seen numerous reports saying that,
"Harry and Meghan didn't want photographers
to know where they were staying,"
so they reportedly tried to evade them
during a 75 minute chase up and down a main road
before ducking into an NYPD precinct
where they could hide out before getting
into a new car without being followed.
The NYPD also confirming that they assisted
in protecting the couple as numerous photographers
made their transport challenging.
But also they're noting that the two did make it
to their destination and there were no collisions,
injuries, or arrests.
The couple's spokesperson also asking the public not
to share images of the incident, saying dissemination
of these images, given the ways in which they were obtained,
encourages a highly intrusive practice
that is dangerous to all involved.
And of course adding an extra layer to this story, right?
It's impossible to hear this
and not think of Harry's mother, Princess Diana
because she died in a car crash in Paris
after being chased by paparazzi, which is also
something Harry's made very clear multiple times
that he's afraid could happen to Meghan.
Because even as far back as when they just started dating,
there's been an insane tabloid frenzy around her.
You know, with all this, with the chase,
you had people saying things like,
"Happy now?
Is this what you want, for history to repeat itself?
Just leave them the fuck alone.
You say you want Harry and Meghan to disappear,
so why are the paps chasing them down for the money shot?
'Cause y'all keep buying the rags and lapping it up."
You also a New York City mayor, Eric Adams,
invoking Diana while speaking about the incident saying,
"I don't think there's many of us
who don't recall how his mom died.
And it would be horrific to lose an innocent bystander
during a chase like this and something
to have happened to them as well.
I think this was a bit reckless and irresponsible."
With this bouncing between things,
adding that he finds it, "hard to believe
that a chase would've lasted in the city as congested
as New York for two hours."
But they are saying even a chase as short
as 10 minutes could be incredibly dangerous.
But there's also been a debate around the characterization
of, like, what happened during the the supposed two hours.
Like, does that amount of time include the down periods
between the most dangerous things that happened?
And obviously with this, like I said,
it's a developing situation, more details will come out.
But as we wait for that, I'd love to know your thoughts
in those comments down below on where you're landing here.
And then have you ever given a Father's Day gift
that didn't get you excited to give to your dad
or your father figure?
And you constantly hear it, gifting dad can be hard.
But thanks to the fantastic sponsor
and longtime partner of today's show, Ridge,
it's got a whole lot easier.
Y'all, Ridge has redesigned the wallet.
It expands to hold up to 12 cards and have room for cash
while remaining as slim as possible with RFID-blocking
and a lifetime guarantee.
And for those that tend to lose their wallets,
Ridge has the option of AirTags
so it doesn't get lost for long.
You know, their sleek design is what I love the most.
There's over 30 colors and styles to choose from
and I can't forget to remind you of their durable key case
that holds up to six keys.
That sucker takes a whole jingle
outta the key ring experience and it's just cool.
You know, with over 3 million customers,
50,000-plus five star reviews, the Ridge team
is so confident that you're gonna like it,
they'll let you test drive it for 99 days.
You don't love it, send it back for a full refund.
So find the best Father's Day gift right now
using my link, ridge.com/defranco,
and you can save up to 40% through June 15th.
That's ridge.com/defranco.
And then gamers are pissed right now.
And not in the rage because you gave up a goal
in the 93rd minute while you're playing a bullshit,
scripted FIFA game, Philip DeFranco way.
Rather, because of one of the most common things
we see in the gaming industry, broken promises.
And specifically right now there are a lot
of gaming fans that feel completely wronged
by Blizzard Entertainment, with them casually dropping
that they were scrapping a massive feature
that they promised in 2019 for the game Overwatch 2.
And even if you're not into gaming,
it's a very interesting business story.
Because the company promised that eventually it would have
a deep narrative-driven story mode that people could play
with their friends and progress through
with that being in addition
to the player-versus-player experience
that it currently has.
And fans were hyped as hell for that
because Overwatch's characters hint at a deep
and interesting story that's never really explored
outside of the random cinematics they release.
You know, the company wasn't ignorant to the fact
that they were gonna get backlash for this new plan
with it seeing the executive producer trying
to defend the decision to drop the story content.
- With everything we've learned about what it takes
to operate this game at the level that you deserve,
it's clear that we can't deliver on that original vision
for PVE that was shown in 2019.
What that means is that we won't be delivering
that dedicated hero mode with talent trees,
that long-term power progression.
Those things just aren't in our plans anymore.
We know that this is gonna be disappointing to many of you,
which is why we wanted to bring it up
before we talked about the Roadmap.
And to be perfectly honest, it's been really difficult
for many of us and and a lot of folks on the team
who've poured their heart and soul into that.
- With the team also going on to explain
that this doesn't mean that there wouldn't
be any story-driven content, just more one-off,
seasonal things similar to what they've done in the past
for Overwatch 1.
While, yes, those were popular and fun for many,
they're a far cry from what was promised.
So in no way was it surprising the fans were pissed off.
Sometimes you're gonna be critical of gamers
'cause you're like,
"Okay, you have absolutely wild expectations,
they're unrealistic.
You just wanna complain."
But this feels very different, with many pointing out
that the whole story mode was essentially the whole reason
Overwatch 2 was made.
And popular creators and gamers like MoistCr1TiKaL
blasting the decision in a 13-minute video.
- The whole point of it having a two in its name
and being marketed as a sequel is that there
was this promise, this little pinky promise,
that the PVE and story mode, the hero mode,
all that, it was coming.
You know, trademarked, right around the corner,
it's on its way.
Which begs the philosophical question
that would have Socrates scratching at his noggin,
"What the (beep) is Overwatch 2 then?
Why is Overwatch 2?"
If the whole thing that was supposed to be the identity
of this title, the PVE story mode, is no longer in it,
then what makes Overwatch 2?
- And with this, I'm also wondering, did they know
they were lying from the get-go,
with other massive creators like Ludwig pointing out
that when Overwatch 2 was announced, Activision Blizzard
wasn't really doing hot, financially.
- But I think this was a lot of internal pressure
from higher ups to deliver on a product
and over-hype a product to get them out
of a tumultuous time, which led to disaster
for the game itself.
- And all of this leading to some awkward questions,
such as what have the developers actually been doing
for the past three and a half years?
Especially as many have seen that PVP experience
essentially being Overwatch 1, just with tweaks.
And so with this, many are saying this is a prime example
of what Blizzard is now,
that generating profit is the only priority,
that in the past, you had a Blizzard that had a reputation
of killing off nearly finished products
that didn't meet its then-high standards,
rather than what we're seeing in this moment
of releasing something and then killing
off a promised part of it, leaving fans disappointed.
But at the same time, of course, gamers are not a monolith.
You have some saying, while you can be disappointed,
a lot of what we're seeing is an overreaction,
by noting that Overwatch 2 is free to play.
But there you also have people pushing back saying,
"Yes, it's free to play, but people get invested
in the game, they buy skins, they spend money on it anyway,"
possibly for some with the expectation
that this PVE mode comes out.
That's also why I wanna pass the question off to you.
What are your thoughts here?
And I'd love to hear from you whether you're a gamer
or you're not a gamer, though most non-gamers
use those time codes to skip these kinds of stories.
But for the seven of you non-gamers that didn't,
would love to hear from you as well.
And then Jimmy Fallon is facing so much backlash right now
because he just gave Tears of the Kingdom
a two outta 10 rating.
Not really, rather, that was that was a simple post
that Jimmy Fallon had put out,
you know, seemingly going like,
"Hey, I'm trying this new game,"
with him then just getting absolutely bullied
and dog piled on for what's happening
with the writer's strike, right?
Because while Fallon's getting some Switch time in
with the whole WGA strike happening,
there are reports coming out that he's putting his staff
on unpaid leave with one of his staffers tweeting yesterday,
"This Friday is our last day of pay.
We, non-union staff who aren't writers,
will be put on an unpaid leave of absence during the strike.
Meanwhile, I hear folks at Late Night with Seth Myers
and the Late Show with Stephen Colbert
will continue to be paid.
Solidarity with WGA!"
And HuffPost speaking to an unnamed source close to NBC
who confirmed that, after this week,
non-writing staff members will not be paid.
Another source is confirming that other late night shows
will actually continue to pay their staff.
And to make sure you get some extra context here,
when the strike started, NBC agreed to pay staff
for two weeks and Fallon saying he would cover a third.
So now you have tons of people slamming Fallon and saying
that he could afford to continue paying his workers,
writing, "Fallon's cheapness is a choice
and a loud one at that."
Now, on one hand you have people saying Fallon
deserves every bit of this criticism,
especially because it's his choice
to have such a punchable face.
But on the other hand you have people saying it's not fair
to solely target Jimmy Fallon here
because right now he's recovering from just years
and years of forcibly laughing at unfunny jokes.
His brain is actively healing right now,
something that's probably evident if you went
into his Tears of the Kingdom save file
and saw some of his subpar builds.
But for now, we're gonna have to wait
to see how all this is gonna play out
and I mean that both for Jimmy Fallon and his staff
as well as the writer strike in general,
which WGA is saying is costing
the California economy $30 million per day.
And then, so now there's an understandable concern
that students are just using ChatGPT
to finish their assignments.
Well, on the flip side of that concern,
ChatGPT just prevented these college seniors
from getting their diplomas.
And that's because a professor from Texas A&M decided
to give his students zeros on their assignments
because ChatGPT falsely took credit for their essays,
with a Reddit user, reportedly the partner of one
of the affected students interviewed by Rolling Stone
and sharing the email, which said the professor
copied the last three essay assignments
into ChatGPT twice and, if it took credit for the essay
both times, the students received a zero
with the university then holding the diplomas
for many seniors in the class.
But the problem with that is that's not how ChatGPT works.
The AI is reportedly very quick to just take credit
for anything you ask.
Rolling Stone, even saying that it took credit
for writing "Crime and Punishment".
And when you had students responding
with time codes on Google Docs showing their work,
proving they didn't use AI, their professor responded with
"I don't grade AI bullshit."
And so now, while the diplomas are on hold,
you've got the university investigating the incident.
I mean, this is absolutely insane.
And then the North Carolina legislature just voted
to ban so-called elective abortions after 12 weeks.
So you can can get an exception up to 20 weeks,
but it has to involve incest or you have
to have been raped to qualify,
as well as there being an exception
for lethal fetal anomalies through 24 weeks
and a general exception for cases
when the mother's life is in danger.
And all of this is massive news in general
for a number of reasons, including a law like this
would've been unthinkable in North Carolina
as little as a month ago.
'Cause with Democrat Roy Cooper as governor there,
any proposed ban would simply get shot down by his veto.
But then in April that changed because Democrat
Tricia Cotham defected from her own party
and joined the Republicans, which dun da da,
gave them a veto-proof super majority,
a move that shocked her colleagues
for a number of reasons, including just earlier that year,
she backed a bill that would've legalized abortion
until 22 or 23 weeks.
With this, you had Governor Cooper not just giving up,
instead aggressively targeting moderate Republicans
who pledged to oppose further abortion restrictions
during their campaigns.
Because if you could win back just one single vote,
either from the Senate or the House there,
then abortion rights in North Carolina would remain intact.
Which, a very key thing, is something a majority
of the state actually supports according to a recent poll,
with over half of voters wanting to keep
or extend the 20 week limit that was in place there.
But ultimately what we saw when the bill went up
for a vote in the Senate and then the House yesterday,
is that it cleared the bar.
And this is a crowd in the gallery erupted
in a chorus of shame.
- [Crowd] Shame, shame, shame!
- And also notably, because the vote was so tight there,
hard-line Republicans had to compromise
with their more moderate colleagues on the bill
which is why it's not as extreme
as some of the other laws we've seen.
Because some state Republicans wanted the ban
to be six weeks, but due to the compromise
that they had to make here,
this is one of the first laws since Roe v. Wade
got overturned that doesn't outlaw all or most abortions.
Because reportedly over 90% of abortions happen before
or during the 13th week.
There are also things in this bill seemingly meant
to deflect accusations that Republicans are pro-birth,
not pro-life, things like it allocates tens of millions
of dollars to childcare, foster care, and paid family leave.
With all this, you had Democrats arguing
that it's much more complicated than that,
with them pointing to examples like a requirement
that patients have an in-person consultation
with a doctor at least 72 hours before the abortion
in addition to the visit required for the abortion itself,
something that'll make it much harder
for out-of-state patients to travel to North Carolina for.
By the day becomes a bigger and bigger issue
since that state has become a refuge
for women from red states.
So they're saying that even though this ban
is technically 12 weeks, it actually helps other states
with much harsher laws enforce their bans,
such as with their neighbors, South Carolina
where GOP lawmakers are pushing through
their so-called Heartbeat Bill that would ban most abortions
after about six weeks.
And there, even six weeks was a compromise,
with them actually trying to pass a here total ban
three times since Roe v. Wade fell.
But female GOP lawmakers blocked those efforts.
And so, of course with this, I gotta ask you
what are your thoughts on the continued fallout
we're seeing post Roe v. Wade?
And for now, that's where the news ends.
But of course, remember, my name's Philip DeFranco,
you've just been filled in,
I love yo faces, and I'll see you tomorrow.