'Sup you beautiful bastards! Hope you're having a fantastic Wednesday,
Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show and let's just jump into it.
And the first thing we're gonna talk about today, by far the one of the most requested stories of the day today,
I can't-I can't believe this is a thing.
And that is - the sports channel, ESPN, has decided to pull announcer Robert Lee from a college football game,
- wait for it! -
Because his name is similar to that of Confederate General Robert E Lee.
Reportedly, Lee was going to be one of the announcers calling a University of Virginia home football game,
But, it was then learned that Robert Lee was moved by ESPN to a different game.
Now, at first, the reaction was - 1. That's stupid, 2. You banned the guy because he had a similar name?
But ESPN released a full statement trying to explain that 'it wasn't a ban, it was a mutual decision.'
So they say it wasn't a ban, it was a mutual decision,
But still, the question remains - Why? You mention that there's a coincidence, and that all parties agreed -
But /Why?/
Well, soon after this we got more information regarding the decision-making process.
Reportedly, an anonymous ESPN exec(utive) sent an email to a reporter that read:
And my response to that is: "Really?"
You were so worried that your announcer, with one of the most common Asian last names in the world,
Was going to meme'd that you were like 'No, we can't do it.'
It just got me thinking, like, does ESPN have an 'MRAD'?
A Meme Risk Assessment Department?
Like, sirens are goin' off - they're like, "We got a code Harambe!"
"Yes, sir, the names almost match up perfectly - I mean, we're talking about memes of the Dank Variety."
Also, the argument that because people are joking about it now, they're memeing about this situation right now,
that That is evidence that the risk was /real/.
That's stupid. Rule #743 of the Internet says that when someone doesn't want you to joke about something,
and the internet finds out, they're gonna joke about it.
That's just how it works! If you let things go as is, yeah, there might have been a few people making jokes,
and a stupid Buzzfeed article, but that's it!
This is like being so worried that you're going to shoot yourself in the foot, that while you put your gun away, you shoot yourself in the dick.
It's idiotic, and what's kinda funny is that you're taking this guy, Robert Lee,
who has two decades of experience, and you're boiling him down to just a name.
Also, I've seen people try to attribute this to ESPN being a liberal organisation, but for me, this is an apolitical move.
To me, this is an example of paranoid overthinking and cowardice.
You're so worried about an embarrassing or annoying situation, you're actions then fulfil the prophecy.
But it's on that note that I do want to thank ESPN, for essentially accomplishing the same thing that Pepsi did, all those months ago..
Thank you for providing such an incredibly stupid situation that people of /all backgrounds/,
All different creeds, and beliefs, could all point and go, "Oh, that's stupid!"
In a world as toxic as it is right now, sometimes uh, the mutual making fun of something is the most we can all come together.
But! That said, I would love to know your thoughts about this situation.
Whether you agree with me, or you disagree with me.
My word is not gospel, so let me know what you're thinking in those comments down below.
But from there, I want to share some stuff I love today, and Today in Awesome, brought to you by SeatGeek.
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And the first bit of awesome is Elon Musk has revealed what the SpaceX spacesuits look like!
1, that looks badass and how I always imagined the future would look,
And 2, and, most importantly here, Elon Musk notes that this is not a 'mockup' - this actually works.
It's already been tested, to double back using pressure, and more info to come.
Main point - that's badass.
Then, we got a trailer for Season 7 of American Horror Story, and -
it - 1, I wanted to say that I'm sharing this 'cause the trailer looks kinda cool,
but 2, a question I have to ask - Is it worth it to watch all of the seasons?
I loved Asylum, but then I just stopped watching 3 episodes into the third season and never started watching again.
Any of the subsequent seasons that you would recommend?
Then, we got a brand new Carpool Karaoke video.
Then, we got a brand new Overwatch short - 'Don't even need the game to appreciate it.
If you want to see the full versions to everything I just shared, the secret link of the day, anything at all -
Links, as always, are in the description down below.
Then! A fantastic quickie update we have to talk about, h3h3 productions!
That, of course, Ethan and Hila Klein, we've talked about them on the show multiple times -
one of the big reasons is because they were being sued,
And there was this really disgusting situation where they were being sued by /another/ Youtuber for Copyright Infringement.
That Youtuber, who we won't even mention their name, was not a fan of the videos h3h3 productions was putting out on them -
At first, they demanded money, the videos were removed, that h3h3 productions put out an apology video.
And that youtuber ended up actually suing h3h3 productions.
And that's when you might remember I found out about this situation, I started a GoFundMe,
and the community just came together!
'Raised so much money for their legal fees, and then of course they had to go through just the ridiculously long process of fighting it out -
And I'll say now what I said then - I didn't do it just because like "I'm such a great guy!" -
This was an immensely important fair use case - if they lost, it meant horrible shit for everyone else.
But, the fantastic news today is that Ethan Klein tweeted out:
And that just makes me so happy, as both a creator and a fan of what they're putting out -
And while I have a slight relief that common sense seems to prevail today,
I can't even imagine how relieved they are.
This is a point I've hit on in the past, any time there was good news, the community came together, everyone was like "Yay!"
But it was important to remember, outside of that, the people actually being sued had to continue dealing with it, day in, day out.
Also, I'll link to the full document of the judgement of this case in the links down below,
It explains why certain things were decided, but I also love that there is a legal document that reads:
But the note that I want to end this story on isn't just a congrats to Ethan and Hila,
It is also a huge Thank you.
I have to imagine there were moments of immense stress, where you maybe just felt like 'What if we just give in?'
'Let's figure out a way to settle, let's just make this go away,' but you fought it out.
Truly, thank you.
And then, let's talk about Tasers.
Axon, the company formerly known as 'Taser' claims that their tasers have only directly killed 24 people.
And they say, 'Of those who have died, it's not the shock that kills them,'
but that the deaths were either because of falls, or fires that started because of the discharge of the weapon.
But, that number has now been called into question thanks to a Reuters Investigative Report.
Reuters put out a huge report saying;
They say they also found 712 autopsy reports;
They also found that around 25% killed were suffering from mental health issues,
Most were unarmed,
And so this is a big deal for two reasons, the first being that Reuters is essentially accusing Axon of lying,
although Axon has responded to Reuters, saying that their report is misleading,
saying most of the deaths exposed involved police force -
Also saying the autopsies had not been peer reviewed,
But the argument back against Axon is that there are over 400 cases, where the report documents that specifically detail what happened -
And even if you were only counting those of the full, 1000 number,
and out of around 25% of those, the only police force listed is Taser.
And the second reason that this is a big deal is that, reportedly, 90% of police agencies use Tasers.
Seeing it as a safer alternative for guns, to which I will say is accurate,
It's not a non-lethal weapon, it is a less-lethal weapon -
But if anything, I think this report from Reuters shows that there needs to be more research into this.
Taking into consideration how lethal a weapon is will change who will use it and when they will use it.
And then we had Hate! in the news, well, for uh- a lot of reasons,
Specifically what I will talk about right now is the United Kingdom.
The United Kingdom has decided to heavily crack down on Hate Crimes being committed online.
So the CPS, the Crown Prosecution Service, along with the DPP, the Director of Public Prosecutions;
Announced a plan for more prosecutions of online hate crimes, within England and Wales.
Now, this is a big expansion of the policies already in place in Scotland,
In addition, they are pushing for stiffer sentences -
And the big thing that people are either freaking out about or they're very happy about is the decision that prosecutors will treat online hate crimes the same as face-to-face crimes.
And it's here that the CPS claims that targeting social media is a necessity, as people live more and more of their lives online.
But for a lot of you, before we go even further, we need to cover what a hate crime is in the UK.
And the reason for that is that there's quite a difference between the United States and the UK here.
In the United States, as defined by the FBI official government website;
In the UK, according to the CPS, a hate crime is;
And while the UK does have freedom of expression, there are exemptions.
And the things that aren't protected, and would thus be a crime, include;
And so that's the main difference here, in the UK hate speech is not seen as free speech, it is seen as a hate crime.
So essentially, now, saying off-colour racist remarks online is an offence if someone thinks you're projecting a prejudice against them.
In the US, you can put up a burning cross, you can chant racist slogans,
but in the UK, you have incidents like in 2010 with Harry Taylor -
He left anti-religious pamphlets in a prayer room, the Chaplain was offended,
Harry Taylor ends up being prosecuted and sentenced for that.
And just like the first story, this comes after Charlottesville, which according to the DPP, Allison Sanders, was a factor in the CPS's decision, saying;
The CPS also has more services to make reporting hate crimes easier for victims.
So what does all of this mean? Well, obviously there are free speech concerns.
Some saying that this is an attack on other-think, while others are saying this is just an update, this makes senese.
Also, most likely we're going to see the number of people being prosecuted for hate crimes go up.
Last year alone, there were 15,000 prosecutions for hate crimes, with the inclusion of the internet, that's gonna of course go up.
And that's an even bigger deal, because the CPS has been successful in convincing the courts of uplifting over half of all sentences.
That being, making the sentence harsher because of the nature of the crime.
And that's actually where I'm going to end today's show! And two things to end on here,
One, I'd love to know your thoughts here regarding hate speech and free speech, just in general -
and Two, if you were wondering, yes, it is awesome to realise that after you've shot an entire video that there is part of your hair that is trying
to succeed from the union. But yeah.
And remember, if you liked this video, you like what I do on this channel, hit that like button!
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But, that said of course, as always, My name is Philip DeFranco, you've just been [Phil'd] In,
I love your faces, and I'll see you tomorrow.
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