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Linus Tech Tips pauses production as controversy swirls (www.theverge.com)
submitted 3 years ago by to c/pcmasterrace@lemmy.world
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What started as criticism over errors in recent YouTube videos has escalated into allegations of sexual harassment, prompting the company to hire an outside investigator.

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[–] 53 points 3 years ago (2 children)

You would think that after so many YouTubers sucked at apologizing and got called out they would figure out how to do it the right way. But no!

That big ass team and you couldn't get a PR person to help you?

None of this was irredeemable. Sure, it will take a significant amount of time to rebuild trust but you can choose to be transparent in response and right your wrongs.

The hubris

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  • [–] 28 points 3 years ago

    This is how assholes behave. They don't even see themselves as having done wrong.

    They just know they got caught and they're pissed off and annoyed about it. Why should they need a pr person, they think.

    The whole reason for sexual assault, employee abuse, and egregious errors in test results isn't simple "oops", it's indicative of priorities and biases and behaviors from the top down.

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  • [–] 24 points 3 years ago (3 children)

    I mean the Madison stuff is pretty bad. The rest of it, was probably recoverable from.

    I think the thing is in these kind of situations they are typically no win situations. When the fuel is burning really the only answer is let it burn itself out, then deal with the aftermath. I don't think any response would be good enough because right now people are out for blood, some of it very justifiably but people would need to be blind to not see there are people who have an axe to grind and the usual drama chasers. I'm not here to say they didn't do anything wrong but people are going to try to connect some unrelated controversies to keep the fire burning (Note: This isn't about the Madison leak) like the mindchop tragedy.

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  • [–] 18 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    To some extent, I agree. But while you'll never craft a perfect response and some people will always call your response, "Not enough," or, "Disengenous," there are better and worse ways to do it. Dan Harmon sexually harassed a coworker, created a toxic work environment, and harmed one of his writer's careers. When that started to come out, he talked to her first, then he laid all the cards on the table, took full responsibility, and talked about how he's trying, not always succeeding, but trying to improve and not do the same things again. It's impossible to ever say that a simple apology is enough, but even the person he hurt said that his was the kind of apology that people should strive for. It was brutal, honest, and it didn't shy away from anything. He admitted fault and talked about the very real and non-idealized path forward.

    LMG's response... Was horrible. Even if the apology was only for the bad data stuff, it felt like one of his joke videos like the April Fool's Day slave farm video, in tone. Sponsor segues, jokes, merch promotions, things like that. I admit that maybe a little humor could be justified because some people make jokes when they're stressed out, I do that! My mom was damn near on her deathbed a few years back, barely made it out of that alive, and between the sobs, I cracked jokes because that's how I handle things, so I fucking get that! But that was a scripted video that was supposed to be their apology to the fans, and it felt like an insult. They didn't feel like they were taking the accusations seriously, it didn't feel like they were taking responsibility for the problems, and it didn't feel like they were serious about making changes going forward. It felt like a hollow, "This will help us ride out the storm," response.

    So, I agree with you that even if they'd done the best apology video they possibly could have, people would have still criticized them for it. You're right. There's no way around that. But it doesn't change that that's not what they did. They put out that apology video instead. And that was just an insult.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    I'm not super familiar Dan Harmon stuff. I'm going to assume most of the stuff about that apology was done in private, where things can be properly be talked about. This is a public apology video, so I don't think they can really get in a very nitty gritty details about what went wrong (especially around the Billet Labs prototype being sold). I agree they should have demonstrated some ways they are improving but I do believe the audience is placing blame on the executives and in some ways they are truly responsible but I think this is mostly them covering for a mistake of a lower level employee did at least for the Billet Lab's incident. I just don't think it would have done any good to throw the person who screwed up under the bus since it ain't going to look pretty for any party involved.

    I agree them monetizing the video and having the stupid jokes in it was pretty poor planning for them. They realistically should not had Linus in it seeing as its clear the team is really trying to fix his mistake of a post from Monday.

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  • [–] 9 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    I’m going to assume most of the stuff about that apology was done in private, where things can be properly be talked about.

    Nope. Public. He discussed it with his victim first just how much she was comfortable with him sharing publically, and then he shared everything that she was comfortable with him sharing all publically.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago (1 child)

    That is very fair then, thanks for the information but I don't think its as applicable as you want it to be. There is clearly some cross over but again. Many of the problems besides rushing out videos are HR problems, which may lead to people being thrown under the proverbial bus, which isn't a great look especially with the audience calling him a narcissistic (which is likely to be true) since it would look like an employer just providing a scapegoat to the problems. Its clear there are fundamental organizational problems and which is likely due to their very small start up and rapid expansion since many hats/departments/protocols/procedures weren't developed along the way. The Dan Harmon thing seems to be Dan Harmon taking responsibility for what he did personally. We do have to keep in mind the context of when this video was made when most of the issues were around test data/ethical questions/and the treatment of Billet Labs. The Madison stuff didn't caught on till slightly before the video came out but it does take time to edit/shoot the video, which was likely released on a scheduled time since I think it came out pretty early since they are on the west coast. Like I just don't think Linus could do a 180 on his criticisms of the Billet labs things since it would look so insincere. I think this will likely just lead to a more gagged Linus during the Wan show but then again this man doesn't know when to stop putting his feet into his mouth.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    I feel like you think I think that the person who put the block on the table at LTX should be the one being called out. I'm talking about Linus taking responsibility for the toxic management culture at the company, for the management and executives to acknowledge that their treatment of their employees is problematic, and accepting that they are doing things wrong and it needs to change. I'm not talking about a scapegoat and I don't know where you're getting the idea that I am.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    I might not be articulating my point clearly I think we need to remember the context this video was produced before the Madison reveal blew up. Before that reveal the toxic management problem was primarily rushing videos. That is why I keep talking about a scapegoat since beyond the lab results and rushing videos the biggest controversy of the drama was about Billet Labs. I am saying the mistakes with Billet Labs were egregious but Linus wasn't the major contributor to the prototype not being sent back and being auctioned off, he is 100% responsible for not doing a reshoot and being quite abrasive (he really should just shut his mouth on WAN) but that is why I keep bringing up the scapegoat since it clearly was a problem with an employee in the organization making a big fuck up.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago

    OK. I think I see more where you're coming from now. I would say, though, that if the management weren't rushing production and were better, well, managers, problems like that would be less likely to happen. It's not that it would never happen, but from what we've seen of LTT over the years, this isn't an isolated incident. While I like the on-screen personalities of people in their logistics department, the truth is that it's been a mess and has been allowed to continue being a mess. As CEO and owner, ultimately that blame falls on Linus, but it also falls on the head of logistics and other management positions. You could chalk it up to one innocent mistake made by one employee, but it's at least three mistakes compounding on top of each other which are part of a larger system of mismanagement.

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  • [–] 14 points 3 years ago

    That's when you hire a crisis PR firm because no operating company should have enough experience to handle the situation properly. If the new CEO knows anything they've already done that and muzzled Linus.

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