Why…?: #ChangetheChannel Scandal

Ok…so, remember what I said Sunday about this being a positive Autism Awareness-themed Talkative Thursday?  Yeah, I lied.  So let’s talk about today’s post a little bit so you can get a little bit of the context here.  If you read my announcement post last week, each Thursday would be something a little more personal than just the usual talking about autism and Asperger’s shtick that I do every year by doing countdowns of my favorite non-anime shows and films.  I also decided to include my favorite YouTube channels as a spur of the moment.  I say this because it was originally intended to be posted in March.  This countdown was meant to be a late response to a previous video posted by Anime America trying to promote positive channels on YouTube.  Basically, after the Aokigahara fiasco instigated by the infamous Paul brothers, many YouTubers made a call to action to promote positive and lesser known channels to make YouTube, well, a more positive platform that recognizes people who aren’t self-entitled, arrogant brats who could care less who they hurt or offend.  I wanted to contribute to this effort by making a list of my favorite YouTube Channels, both popular and obscure.  I had an idea for what channels to include on my list and was ready to go in posting that for this month…and then this happened.

Why this scandal affected the potential posting of this list is because the scandal involves my all-time favorite YouTube channel, Channel Awesome, but more particularly, the Nostalgia Critic.  Having discussed the Nostalgia Critic several times on Hanime on Anime, it probably comes as no surprise that the NC would be on my planned list.  In fact, Channel Awesome was going to be number one on the list.  However, when I got wind of this scandal sometime last week, only to confirm it was real over the weekend, it left me in a tough spot.  Ultimately, I decided to scrap the YouTube list as 1.) it no longer represented my actual view of favorite channels anymore, and 2.) none of the other channels on my list could really compare to how impactful and yes, awesome, it was to me (but I’ll touch on that later).  So long story short, I’ll be talking about this sad scandal, my thoughts on it, and of course, a personal message to those directly involved.  And again, I hate to be so negative once again, and especially seeing as this interferes with my Autism Awareness event, but let’s talk about this.

 

What Happened?

This past March, a group of producers who formerly worked with Channel Awesome came together to compile a list of grievances and confirmed instances of severe mismanagement, negligence, harassment, and abuse by higher ups in the company.  In this Google document entitled “Not so Awesome,” these complaints focused on CA CEO Mike Michaud, and, sadly, the Walker brothers.  Now for those who don’t know, Channel Awesome is a website responsible for producing various online video content on a variety of topics.  While most widely known for the Nostalgia Critic, some other shows include The Cinema Snob, Angry Joe, and Anime Abandon (under the name Bennet the Sage).

In the seventy-three page document, most of the complaints and experiences at CA were incidents of awful mismanagement, blatant miscommunication with other producers and collaborators, and even harassment and abuse by Mike Michaud.  Some of the biggest highlights from the article included Allison Pregler (Obscurus LupaBoth) being cornered and badgered by Michaud to the point of tears, being told to provide food and water on the set of the To Boldly Flee special after none was provided for a full day, not to mention the haphazard production of the anniversary specials, and a particularly saddening instance for me in where Obscurus Lupa mentioned how the company thought that “[going to] conventions [were] a waste of time.”  Rob and Doug Walker were mentioned in quite a few instances themselves, with Rob in particular handling many situations with producers and guests unprofessionally.  What was even more disturbing was the mentioning of confirmed cases of sexual harassment by former CEO Mike Ellis.    But in my opinion, none of the cases mentioned throughout the document were more shocking and heinous as the cases involving former Human Resources manager Holly Brown and former producer Dr. Gonzo (also known as Nerd to the Third Power).

Holly Brown was hired on for HR since, I’m assuming, the infancy of the company.  She worked literally every day, even through holidays and vacations to install updates and upload content.  On one particular day, she had to have surgery and knew she would not be able to get any work done.  She was told not to do anything beforehand even after begging Michaud to do so.  After being a whole day late, Brown was fired without warning.  What’s worse, Brown was blacklisted for three years by Channel Awesome in order to receive her severance pay.  Essentially, she was fired and given no opportunity to find work afterwards for no justifiable reason.  In her own words, “my life was ruined.  I lost all my friends, I had to leave Chicago, I didn’t have a job…It was rough for several years.”  After making this poor woman work every day, 365 days a year, even on holidays and vacations, she has one day off that she needs and is immediately fired for it with no opportunity for her to find work elsewhere!  This however is not the only heartless thing done by Michaud.  No, that distinction goes to the treatment received by Dr. Gonzo.

Gonzo came to Channel Awesome very early on in the site’s creation.  However, it didn’t take very long for him to be quickly isolated from other producers.  After the Blistered Thumbs project failed, rumors were spreading- supposedly by Michaud- that Gonzo was bad news and should be avoided.  Regardless, Gonzo continued to post content as Nerd to the Third Power.  However, Michaud’s lack of communication and professionalism caused problems in posting anything.  In fact, asking for simple statistics resulted in extremely harsh backlash from Michaud.  Even critiques from Michaud were unspeakably harsh and uncalled for.  The worst of it came following the death of producer Justin Carmical.  After requesting to do a special tribute for the famed producer, Gonzo was once again shot down in the following comment:

“Nowbody care[s] who you are.  They won’t care about anything you’re gonna put together.  We’re gonna have Doug [Walker] or Lewis [Lovhaug, more commonly known as Linkara] or someone put that together.  Someone people actually come here to see.”

This was by far the worst comment from Gonzo’s entire testimony.  There were a few others that made my jaw drop to the floor, but this one stung the most.  Those first five words are the most appalling thing you notice, and sadly, they’re the first thing you notice: “Nobody cares who you are.”  No decent human being ever, and I mean ever, tells another human being that, and no decent human being should ever have to hear that from anyone.  However, considering Gonzo opened his testimony stating that Michaud had no soul, assuming that Michaud is not a decent human being is rather fitting.  This, and other acts of harassment and abuse that Gonzo faced by Michaud were so traumatic that Gonzo was almost suicidal.  You heard me right; Gonzo almost thought of suicide because of Michaud’s atrocious behavior.  To make a long story short, Gonzo was ultimately let go during the transition of That Guy with the Glasses to Channel Awesome.  Without any warning, his page and content were removed.  In a very similar fashion to Brown, Gonzo was essentially fired from Channel Awesome for no reason.

 

My Thoughts on the Issue

I read through the entire document and found many of the grievances very serious and troubling.  A faculty member was fired and subsequently blacklisted for having necessary surgery and a producer was harassed to the point of suicide.  To say that I am disappointed by this is an understatement.  And I’m not only saying this as a fan, but as

 someone who works in an administrative position.  Even so, from much of what I read, it’s my understanding that Mike Michaud was responsible for much of the damage caused here.  His unprofessional behavior and repeated instances bullying are clearly stated and confirmed.  That being said, I can’t find myself completely hating the Walker Brothers.  Granted, they are just as guilty in all of this; both were just as unprofessional and complaisant.  But overall, they did not seem to be cruel or hateful in their actions.  More often than not, they just seemed unprofessional and ignorant to what they were doing.  Come to think of it, there were very few mentionings of Doug at all!  Much of what was mentioned of the Walker Brothers centered around Rob.  For the most part, Rob seemed to act as what I would considered a liaison for the poor behavior and communication problems.  He acted as a minion carrying out the duties of his superior.  Doug, more often than not, acted very naïve and aloof to what was going on around him, focusing on only what he wanted for his show.  He seemed to have blinders on the whole time when it came to taking suggestions or opinions of producers who actually had experience in the film industry.  Still, I wouldn’t be surprised if Doug acted the same manner as Rob did in all of this.  In fact, this whole scandal is a surprise to me given that the company has been around for ten years now!  And based on what I read, these were problems that had been with the company since the beginning!

Like I said earlier, disappointed doesn’t begin to describe how I feel about this.  Being a fan of the Nostalgia Critic, I find it very hard to believe that Doug would allow something like this to happen.  At first, when I heard about this, I didn’t believe it.  When it came up through another channel on YouTube I was subscribed to, I was shocked.  But after reading the document, I was livid.  How this behavior was allowed to continue for ten years is beyond baffling, and it’s something that I refuse to ignore or condone.  Ultimately, my actions in part to this consist of the following notes I have for both Michaud and the Walker Brothers.

 

To Mike Michaud

To start this note off, and in the most censored way possible given I have friends, family, and colleagues reading this…

HOW DARE YOU TREAT YOUR PRODUCERS LIKE SLAVES WHILE YOU REAP THE REWARDS FROM THEIR TALENTS!!!  YOU SHOULD BE BEYOND ASHAMED OF YOURSELF!!!  You have no right to be in a position of power in any company in any industry!  I have never seen such an appalling display of poor leadership and management!  Being in charge of a company is more than a nice paycheck.  You have to look out for your employees; they’re what keep your company alive!  I waste no time bragging on or thanking my employees for the wonderful work that they do, and giving them that support and encouragement is what makes them do such great work.  Treating you’re staff, producers, or whoever no less than human beings is not some privilege for them, it is an obligation AND a duty for you! I may be new to my position, but I know this better than anyone, and any one of my librarian colleagues could back me up on this instantly.  In fact, if you were a manager working with my library system and I found out you were doing these kinds of things, I WOULD FIRE YOU IN A SECOND!  And with little warning or explanation that you gave any of the other producers you fired!  Based on what I read in this document, the only thing that you’re fit to run is out the door!

To Doug and Rob Walker

Me with Doug and Rob at Kamicon 2018

To hear about these awful things is very heartbreaking.  Doug, you have been such an influence to me.  In fact, you’ve been an influence and an inspiration to Hanime on Anime itself!  I’ve learned so many things from watching the Nostalgia Critic like not being afraid to critique well-renowned movies and not being afraid to nitpick here and there.  You’ve even taught me not be afraid to talk about what I want to talk about and not be afraid of who doesn’t share the same views as I do.  In fact, I’ve had one post earlier this year that was inspired by one of your videos!  And meeting you at Kamicon this past January was an opportunity I never thought I would have in a million years!  Granted, the conversation we had was a bit awkward- as mentioned in my “Why Spirited Away didn’t Spirit Me Away” post last week-, but it was still a dream come true!

Even though I am a fan, and have been for many years, I can’t ignore or condone what you’ve allowed to happen.  And while I’m angrier with Rob than you-speaking of, shame on you Rob-, there’s no excuse for this kind of behavior or lack of professionalism.  I do sincerely believe that both you and Rob are good people.  The fact that you feature charities at the end of your NC videos shows you have a big and caring heart.  I just wish that you could have shown that same heart to the producers you hurt or allowed to get hurt.  And so, it is with a sad and heavy heart that I say I will no longer be watching anymore of the Nostalgia Critic videos-current or past-, or any other videos made by you or Rob until you issue an explanation AND an apology to the staff and producers hurt by this.  I know that you were not the cause of most of the egregious actions carried out here, so I don’t hold you entirely responsible.  But based on what I read, Mike Michaud makes it apparent that you are the only asset to Channel Awesome that he cares about and makes you the face of CA because of it.  Therefore, I do hold you responsible for making a sincere statement and apology.  Because of the recognition you hold not just with CA, and not just with YouTube, but with the Internet in general, you are in a position to speak up and speak out about all of this.  You’re fans deserve to know the truth.  And you owe it not only to those people that were hurt and your fans like me, but also to yourself.  Even if you have to deal with the fallout of this-that would include lost subscribers-, I believe that admitting you’re involvement in all of this to the world will save your soul in the end.  I implore you to PLEASE make the right decision here, tell us what’s going on, apologize to the producers affected, and do right by the fans who love and care about you.  Because in the end, we remember it so you don’t have to.

 

So…yeah.  Like I said, this totally derails from my usual Autism Awareness posts, but I couldn’t let this go.  Anyways, to wrap today’s post up, this weekend is going to be pretty busy, however, I do plan to post a review as usual.  If that doesn’t happen, I will announce it!  So stay tuned till then.

-Hanime on Anime

P.S.:  If you’re curious, here’s the “Not So Awesome” document left itself: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WZFkR__B3Mk9EYQglvislMUx9HWvWhOaBP820UBa4dA/preview#