Channel Awesome #changethechannel Controversy

Yeah, I spent most of yesterday watching (the guy who does Down the Rabbit Hole videos) Fredrik Knudsen's archived live stream reading and reacting to it, a fair few producers showed up in the chat for confirmation and support of the exposure

I had mixed feelings about the departure of Spoony back in the day and kinda felt like there was no reason for me to enjoy the site much afterwards, he was my main draw, and could easily be found elsewhere at the time. I don't defend the guy, but I knew even before he was diagnosed something was going on, so his behavior was understandable (inexcusable, but understandable), I did not feel the same way about how Channel Awesome handled their end though, publicly trash-talking him and stuff

So I haven't really followed them for a few years, but they were still on my radar, mostly because I had friends who still liked the Critic, and I'd randomly watching Phelous, Bennet's, and Joe's stuff privately on YouTube, so they were never really very far out of mind

I would have had a hard time guessing this kind of BS was going on behind the scenes. The ignorance and incompetence doesn't really surprise me. The anti-intelligence and sexism kinda does. But the other outright evil stuff is beyond the pale. And unless Michaud leaves, I hope the site suffers irreparable PR from this. I think his departure would be the ONLY plausible remedy, and even then, Doug and Rob would have a lot to answer for, and have to reign in other psychopaths like Greg and a few others. There's just so many things that can't be justified. At all. There honestly should be legal action for more than a handful of things. And like Fredrik said in his stream, it's likely that this document means that nobody is even interested in legal action at this point, they just wanted to clear the air and set some records straight. Which is noble. But I think more could or should be done. But it's not for me to decide

Regardless, it's all very sad, and was so easily avoidable, if people could keep their petty egos in check. I hate the fact that people who were loyal and regular and used the side to support a family were immediately let go for just one screw up, missing one day for a video that the main site probably wasn't even going to promote properly. Just lots of egomania and anger issues and power plays all over the board

Edit: Also, Channel Awesome's non-apology was outright insulting to read. The whole sorry-not-sorry BS people do when they're sorry you're mad, but not sorry they said the thing to upset you. Which basically means they're not even sorry you're mad, they're just sorry that they're being cast in a bad light. The end

So...uh...update. I can't link anything because I am on my phone with time constraints.

Turns out JewWario was the person in question who groomed women. This was confirmed by multiple people involved with the document. The only reason why this is known is because Channel Awesome did a bad job covering up names in this second response (which while it had a good point or two, it was mostly another garbage responce).

They are down to only 4 producers on the site as of this writing.

This whole thing is smurfed up.

Can't say I'm really surprised by the whole thing, but I didn't expect it to be this bad. I really don't think they'll survive at this point.

I used to watch some of them, mainly Spoony, Linkara, and Bennett, but I haven't visited the site in a long time.

Oh the JewWario thing is true, that is probably the single most devastating thing about all this

It's so smurfed. They knew. The smurfing knew what JewWario did and they smurfing made money for a smurfing tribute video.

Needless to say I calmly talked to them on Twitter, because the constant hate and rage I feel needs to go somewhere.

https://twitter.com/sephex1982/statu...20857812283393

Yeah, apparently he outright raped at least one woman.

This is all getting more and more terrible

Now, this is far less serious but I just went to their site and noticed that they made a response where they basically doubled down on the whole controversy and said everything that was said was a lie. And apparently, this is the point where all the remaining contributors left.

I think at this point it is pretty safe to say that this is the end for Channel Awesome. And good smurfing riddance.

Agreed. Versus someone like Polygon, who after finding out one of their content creators had sent unsolicited sexually explicit messages to girls, fired him pretty much the next day.

It's possible to have integrity, even if it's hard for you at the time, CA.

The more of these "apologies" I read, the less faith I have in them getting out of this situation with anything left. Channel Awesome is done for.

The Walkers and Guru Larry are the only ones left on the site. It is over.

And the only reason Larry remains on there is for his own amusement.

Yeah I would not expect him to stay out of loyalty

well this escalated

Jesus.

I haven't watched any of this stuff since undergrad, but good riddance it sounds like.