- So, wow. Wow. Wow.
Dave Chappelle fire and shots this morning.
Ooh. I looked like a pretty boy with this camera.
My skin so soft.
No, it's not, but yeah, let's talk about it.
So in all likelihood,
you were at least somewhat familiar with this story because
somehow this has stayed in the news cycle.
It feels like longer than the botched Afghanistan exit.
Which is kind of wild when you think about it.
But main thing, he and Netflix of course,
has been facing a lot of backlash
after his new standup special, The Closer,
was accused of being transphobic.
Lot of online debate happening.
Netflix employees staging a walkout
demanding that the company
to be more inclusive and considerate to the trans community.
But for his part, Netflix co-CEO,
Ted Sarandos has largely defended Chappelle.
And as far as Chappelle himself,
you have people wondering if he and trans employees
at Netflix are going to have a sit down
and talk it out, right?
Because it was being reported by the media that he was
invited to speak to trans employees,
but you actually had Chappelle posting a video on Instagram
and starting things off by saying,
- It's been said in the press
that I was invited to speak to the transgender
employees at Netflix and I refuse.
(crowd cheering)
That is not true.
If they had invited me, I would have accepted it
although I am confused about what we're speaking about.
- I'm going on and say that he has seen
what everyone has said about him and adding,
- And you want a safe working environment at Netflix.
Well, it seems like I'm the only one
that can't go to the office anymore.
- He then says that everyone's painting this
as though it's him versus the LGBTQ community,
but saying he doesn't see it that way.
He views it as a problem surrounding corporate
interests in what he is and isn't allowed
to say on the stage.
Regarding the idea that he's being canceled,
he noted that he made a documentary and was invited to a
bunch of film festivals, but after the controversy,
he's no longer welcome at those.
- And when this controversy came out
about The Closer,
they began disinviting me from these film festivals.
And now
today
not a film company, not a movie studio,
not a film festival, nobody will touch this film.
Thank God for Ted Sarandos and Netflix.
He's the only one that didn't cancel me yet.
- Though in this, he announced dates and select cities
where fans can attend a screening of that documentary.
Which Chappelle then going on in his set to say,
he's willing to meet with the trans community,
but he doesn't want to be summoned by them.
He refuses to bend to their demands.
And in fact, issuing three demands of his own.
- First of all, you cannot come if you have not watched
my special from beginning to end.
(crowd applauding)
You must come to a place of my choosing
and a time of my choosing.
And thirdly, you must admit that Hannah Gadsby is not funny.
- And the shots were fired. And in case you missed this,
Hannah Gadsby was one of the many people who spoke out about
the controversy.
If you don't know her, she's a comedian
slash performance artist with shows like,
"Please Like Me", who also has a hugely popular
Netflix special "Nannette" a few years back.
With Gadsby actually becoming apart of this story
because Sarandos actually named her
in one of his statements right back
when he was trying to say, "Hey, wait, Netflix
is actually an inclusive platform
because we've showcased content like hers.
Though we saw Gadsby shooting back at Sarandos at that time
on Instagram writing, "Just a quick note to let you know
that I would prefer if you didn't drag my name
into your mess. Now I have to deal with even more
of the hate and anger that Dave Chappelle's fans
like to unleash on me every time Dave gets $20 million
to process his emotionally stunted partial worldview."
- (beep) you and your amoral algorithm cult.
I do (beep) with more backbone than you.
That's just a joke!
I definitely didn't cross the line because you just told the
world there isn't one."
So after Chappelle released this new video,
Gadsby was in trending on Twitter.
Tons of people offending her.
Tons of people going after her.
Those defending saying things like "Gadsby used her comedy
platform in order to talk about how being constantly
dehumanized wears away the soul.
She broke what to Chappelle is the Cardinal rule of comedy
and stop taking the (beep) joke.
Those [Inaudible] had some accusing Dave Chappelle of
being guilty of the thing that he's accusing Anna Gadsby of
with the likes of Hasan Piker chiming in,
- "It was just like a (beep) boomer
yelling about things that he cannot understand.
- (Philip DeFranco) And tweeting
"Dave Chappelle is doing "Nannette"
but for transphobia.
But places like Gawker,
even leaning into that aspect saying, "Yeah,
Dave Chappelle and Hannah Gadsby, they're less comedians
and more people that make organized rants.
So of course there were many on Chappelle's side saying,
"Yeah, Gadsby isn't funny."
"When you look and hear the audience reaction in the video,
he's getting tons of applause and support.
People also sticking up for him online saying that he
shouldn't have to bend to anyone
that he should not be canceled.
So, yeah, another day of everyone on the internet
fighting everyone else on the internet.
Just like everyday before and every day that will be
until the sun explodes, consuming our little mole hill
among the stars and finally the universe
will get that peace and quiet.
♪ This is the news show ♪
(monkey sounds)
- Yeah, the Earth's eventual doom aside,
I would love to know your thoughts
regarding the Dave Chappelle, Hannah Gadsby Netflix story.
I have seen takes from Dave Chappelle's an icon,
a free speech hero, we need to support him, he's the best.
All the way to people saying no, Dave's horrible,
He's acting like a victim, but he's the person
that's spewing all this hate.
Yeah, I'd love to know what camp you land in
or if you're somewhere in between.
Any and all thoughts, I'd love to hear from you
in those comments down below, then,
then you better hit the like button for this story.
Let's talk about cocaine hippos.
So unless you're a big cocaine and or hippo aficionado,
you might not have known that Colombian drug kingpin,
Pablo Escobar had cocaine hippos.
Legally smuggling several hippos onto his estate back in the
1980s. But after his death in 1993,
their offspring were abandoned on the property.
And with no natural predators, they thrived and multiplied.
With scientists long warning
that hippos threatened biodiversity, urging the government
to either kill or sterilize them.
The government decided to do the latter option
using a chemical contraceptive developed
by the US agriculture department.
That leading to an animal rights lawyer suing arguing that
there was a safer alternative.
And then recently in a parallel lawsuit filed in the US by
the Animal Legal Defense Fund,
they asked the US district court in Cincinnati
to give the hippos interested person status
so that two experts in wildlife sterilization
from Ohio could be deposed in the Colombian case.
And the court did just that.
And while experts have said that, you know,
this US court order, it might not have weight in Colombia.
This is very big because this ruling is believed to be the
first of its kind in an American court.
And as a result, you had animal rights groups
celebrating the move as a major historical victory.
The US justice system just granted animals
personhood status.
The ALDF calling this ruling a critical milestone in its
fight to have the legal system recognize enforceable rights
for animals.
But, yeah, I guess the main point of this story is that
animal rights in the US may have just drastically advanced
because drug kingpin, Pablo Escobar
could not just stop at flooding Columbia with cocaine,
he had to flood it with hippos too.
But from that, I want to take a second
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Then in, wow, this is going to get way uglier
before it's over news.
We should talk about what's happening with Kesha
and Dr. Luke.
To bring you back up to speed
because it's been a minute, back in 2014,
Kesha accused music producer, Dr. Luke of sexual,
physical, verbal, and emotional abuse
to the point where she said she nearly lost her life.
And since then there's been a legal back and forth,
lawsuits filed, cases dropped and dismissed.
But today we're talking about a continuing lawsuit
where Dr. Luke is suing Kesha over the rape accusation
and Kesha is counter suing.
And it's very likely we are going to be learning a lot
because last week, a judge denied Sony's requests
to keep certain documents
and contract information confidential.
Also today you have the Hollywood reporter saying
that Dr. Luke plans to allege the Kesha's rape allegation
has cost him $46 million.
Apparently saying that he made $78 million
between 2006 and 2015 for producing
and writing billboard chart toppers.
But saying that after the allegations from Kesha,
artists stop working with him and his income has died.
Also, we learned that a judge will soon start deciding what
evidence is admissible in the case
and there's going to be a ton of back and forth there.
With the [Inaudible] reporting the Kesha wants to prevent
Dr. Luke from having a psychiatrist testified, that her
allegations are consistent with a false report.
Also aiming to block a witness from claiming that Dr. Luke
is incapable of rape as well as trying to keep her
personal life out of it, including the questions surrounding
who her biological father is.
But also the Hollywood reporter saying that Dr. Luke
is likewise trying to shut things down,
reporting that he wants to get rid of testimony
about his wealth, their copyright claims,
as well as anything alleging that he's a drug dealer.
With them also allegedly trying to get rid of testimony
involving a Lady Gaga rape claim,
as well as general "Me Too" discussions.
But yeah, ultimately that's where we are.
We're going to have to continue to follow it
but this has been several years in the making and we're
closer than ever to see how the chips are going to fall.
Then in a big what the (beep) update
regarding the Alec Baldwin
shooting tragedy that we talked about yesterday.
Though the outlet, The RAP, reporting,
the gun that killed "Rust" cinematographer, Helayna Hutchins
last Thursday was used by crew members that morning for live
ammunition target practice.
With The RAPs citing an individual with knowledge of the set
that insider allegedly saying, "A number of crew members
had taken prop guns from the set,
including the gun that killed Hutchins to go plinking,
a hobby in which people shoot at beer cans with live
ammunition to pass the time."
The RAP reporting when asked for comment,
the producers of "Rust" referred to a previous statement
where they said, "the safety of our cast
and crew is a top priority."
You also had Fox news reporting this and saying that
representatives of production did not respond
to request for comment.
With a number of people in the industry reacting to this
news shocked, including the likes of James Gunn,
who tweeted "Jesus", as well as,
"For the record, this is not something crew members
should be doing with a gun from set."
Then in big social media news,
while a lot of the focus this week is understandably
on Facebook with the release of the Facebook Papers,
there's also more happening.
And specifically I'm talking about earlier today,
you had leaders from Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube
all testifying before Congress over child safety.
Notably this is the first time Snap
and TikTok have ever testified.
And this is coming as platforms are getting hit and focused
on regarding minor's mental health.
One of the key takeaways from the hearings today concerns an
update to a law passed all the way back in 1998.
COPPA, if the proposed law was passed,
the updates would make it so that social media companies can
no longer collect the personal info of teens
between 13 and 15 without their consent.
But also verbally established a digital marketing
bill of rights for teens that limits the collection
of their personal information.
It would also ban targeted advertising directed at kids
as well as create several other standards
including an eraser button that would eliminate personal
information from a child or teen account
when technologically feasible.
Well I had each of these companies generally saying
that they support legislation to
boost online protection for kids.
It was very hard to get them to commit to anything specific.
With one of the most notable and frustrating exchanges
happening between Senator Ed Markey and a Snapchat exec.
- (Senator Ed Markey) [Inaudible] Could you support
my child's protection, my teen protection law.
Do you support it?
- So Senator, we agree that there should be additional
protections put against young people
to protect them further from
- (Senator Ed Markey) Right. So you've had a chance
to look at the Child Online Privacy Protection update
that I've introduced. It's been out there for years.
Do you support it or not?
- I think Senator, we'd love to talk to you
a bit more about
- (Senator Ed Markey) No. No. Listen,
this is just what drives us crazy.
We want to talk, we want to talk,
we want to talk.
This bill's been out there for years and
you still don't have a view on it. Do you support or not?
- I think there are things that we would like
to work with you on, Senator.
- It's like trying to ask my wife what she wants for dinner.
I'm like you want pizza?
You know, I think it's a great question.
I think it's something that we should definitely talk about.
Okay. Chinese food, you know, I think that we agree with you
that food definitely needs to happen tonight.
I mean, I just don't know how you, pun intended,
wouldn't snap at that executive.
But Yeah, if anything, I think this is a showcasing
of a conversation and debate that's going to be happening
more and more moving forward.
Especially because the fight for kids' attention is on.
It's been raging and
it's just going to get more complicated.
Especially with Facebook saying, hey,
the kids are the future.
Whether it be Facebook specifically or a lot of social media
platforms in general, I don't think a lot of the trust
is there or shouldn't necessarily be there.
And then we should only talk about Kyle Rittenhouse
back in the news.
It's been a minute. So to bring you up to speed,
as the Chicago Tribune explains,
"Rittenhouse killed two and wounds another,
by shooting them with an AR-15 style rifle
while patrolling downtown Kenosha.
I made the turmoil surrounding the shooting of Jacob Blake,
a black man by a white police officer,
and noting despite not being old enough
to openly carry a gun, Rittenhouse volunteered
as an armed security guard after businesses had been burned
and vandalized during demonstrations
held the previous night.
With Rittenhouse then being charged
with First-degree intentional homicide,
First-degree reckless homicide,
and attempted First-degree intentional reckless homicide.
But Rittenhouse and his lawyers claim that he is innocent
because he was acting in self-defense.
The huge news coming out today
is specifically about that defense
because circuit judge Bruce Schroeder
just made clear to the lawyers,
they can not call the two men that were killed victims.
The Judge Schroeder saying,
"The word victim is a loaded, loaded word."
With that clearly frustrating the prosecutors
who, according to the Tribune, suggested the
judge was creating a double standard here saying,
okay, these two people that are no longer here
to defend themselves, we can't call them victims.
But the Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger,
noting that the defense is going to use words like riot,
or looter and arsonists.
And saying those words are loaded,
if not more loaded than the term victim.
Yeah, ultimately what we're seeing here
is a very notable update in the setup for a very big trial
that's going to be getting a lot of attention.
Jury selection will start on November 1st
and then it's off to the races.
But ultimately that is where this story
and today's show ends.
As always, whether it be this last one, the first one,
anything in between, I'd love to hear your thoughts
and those comments down below.
And of course, as always, my name's Philip DeFranco,
you've just been filled in.
I love your faces and I'll see you tomorrow.