By Melissa Antoinette Garza
Those who watch a lot of online content producers will know of CHANNEL AWESOME and their most popular producer Doug Walker a.k.a. The Nostalgia Critic. Recently, there was a huge blow-up and a bunch of former producers came together writing a 70+ page document criticizing owner Mike Michaud, Doug Walker and his brother/producer Rob Walker for the way in which the company was operated. Everything from money issues and content disagreements to misogyny, sexism and sex abuse coverups are discussed.
Many of the former producers, I enjoyed. Some I could take-or-leave and others you couldn’t pay me to watch. As much as I like THE NOSTALGIA CRITIC, THE CINEMA SNOB, THAT GUY WITH THE GLASSES and THE RAP CRITIC, I really don’t have a horse in this race. That said, some of this stuff is pissing me off because I think it’s unfair. If the details within the document are the only allegations there are, I think 95% is bellyaching about nothing and the other 5% could be conceived as bad judgement calls by Michaud and the Walker boys.
One content creator who worked for CHANNEL AWESOME a few years back, complained about the way Michaud called her out for using unauthorized ad breaks within her videos thus making customers put on ad-block and lowering everyone’s revenue. Her take is that he was very hostile in his delivery which left her crying in the bathroom and then running to Doug. Doug said he’d look into it, did and called her later on a conference call with Michaud to discuss what they decided. Now, their decision wasn’t what SHE wanted. That sucks. She wanted to be able to put ads in and use Patreon and the owner of the company said no. That sometimes happens. Not getting your way and enduring workplace abuse is two completely different things. Now, I don’t know any of these people. It’s possible Michaud was a dick when he talked to this woman. Maybe he was unnecessarily hostile. I wouldn’t care so much if that was the end of the allegation but to draw from that scenario that the men are misogynists and the Walkers are “complicit” is ridiculous.
Honestly, Doug could have said “well, if you have a problem with what Mike said to you, go talk to Mike;” AND HE DIDN’T. From HER side, he actually got them on a three way call after talking to him. On her behalf, he injected himself into a situation he could have walked away completely from with zero fault. And rather than saying, “well, I appreciate the effort.” It’s “I didn’t get my own way and Doug was complicit.”
Most of the allegations sound like complainers who aren’t accustomed to being told ‘no.’ I’m not sure if being a content creator is the only job they’ve had, but wake-up call, bosses aren’t always going to say YES to you. Sometimes, they are going to look at the bottom line and decide what the best mode of action is.
This same individual was upset because Mike told the producers they should be happy he wasn’t taking ad revenue and she scoffed at that. I wonder if any of these people have heard shoot interviews with WWE superstars to see what kinds of deals they get overall. From what I read, if Vince McMahon implemented the techniques of Mike Michaud, Rob and Doug Walker, we’d have a lot more happy pro-wrestlers!
One of my major beefs was bringing up sexism and misogyny as a way to say “they talked to me the same way they’d talk to a man.” Women typically cry more than men do. Some of it is because of societal norms and nurturing but a lot of is embedded in our biology. Just because you cry doesn’t mean someone MADE you cry. I’m not saying Mike Michaud isn’t a dick. I don’t know the guy. I do know that I have been spoken to very sternly by male bosses before and I too ended up in the bathroom crying. Sometimes the boss was being a dick, but as long as they act the same way to me that they do to the men, it isn’t sexism. That isn’t to say it isn’t abusive. If Mike was being an abusive prick say it. Just don’t throw sexism in to get all the SJW’s ready to pounce. I hate it when people do that!
Now, there were two allegations that I thought were different from the rest.
The first regarded a woman who was being sexually harassed at work by a married man. Mike, Rob and Doug fired the guy and then relocated the woman to a safe house and protected her with baseball bats and swords.
I completely understand why this situation sucked for this woman and I hope the guy ended up in jail for stalking if it was so deserved. That said, KUDOS to Mike, Rob and Doug for putting their own safety on the line in order to protect one of their own. Why are we supposed to hate them for this?
Now, this falls in the 5% of the time where if true, it was probably a bad decision. If there was danger they should have notified authorities and obtained restraining orders. That said, if the police were contacted and orders obtained, they did everything right. Just because you had a bad experience doesn’t mean they didn’t do the right thing.
To put it in perspective, I worked at LIBERTY MUTUAL. I’m an incest survivor. A manager I worked with was caught with child pornography. Not only did they not fire him, but they promoted him in fear of being sued by him. I begged to work a different schedule, but was denied. I was told “You’re a big girl. You can handle it.” I ended up having a nervous breakdown and when the perv plead guilty he was fired. Now, that’s a WRONG way to handle a situation. That creates an UNSAFE work environment and makes the victim feel at fault.
The group at CHANNEL AWESOME, by all accounts, got rid of the weirdo and protected the one needing it. I wish I was a content creator, I’d be applying!
The last situation is the most disturbing. It seems that a content creator by the name of Justin Carmical aka JewWario, who committed suicide a few years ago, was a sexual abuser. The original claim against CHANNEL AWESOME is that they knew he was a pedophile rapist scumbag and they kept him aboard. CHANNEL AWESOME provided documentation that upon corroboration of the allegation they fired him.
If anyone from CHANNEL AWESOME knew Justin was a rapist and kept it quiet for monetary purposes, they’re scum. Plain and simple: scum. That said, I don’t believe that’s what happened. The most likely scenario is this: Victim comes forward – C.A. corroborates story, consults attorney, fires Justin – Justin commits suicide – Everyone who knows what happened is torn.
This is the position CHANNEL AWESOME is then in:
- Don’t acknowledge his death at all raising eyebrows and questions.
- Acknowledge his death but say: FYI there are allegations of sexual abuse, thus causing more pain to Justin’s wife who probably had NO idea, putting pressure on the victims to come forward even if they weren’t ready, and having the entire internet world talking about whether or not Channel Awesome handled it right.
- Or they could do a small farewell that helps them deal with their own mixed grief and allows the victims to decide whether they want to come forward or not and avoiding unnecessary pain for Justin’s widow.
I can’t say what I’d do in that situation. As someone was raised by a pedophile and survived sexual abuse, I can tell you that the death of the abuser does bring some peace. When they are alive, there is unearned guilt that weighs on you. You feel guilty if the person is still out there and capable of doing it to someone else. All the possible victims weigh on your soul as much as the ones you know were abused. It’s a difficult life to live. It makes it impossible to deal with the trauma on your own terms because regardless of what you do it impacts someone.
When my father died as much as I was burdened with mixed feelings, I felt a peace I don’t recall ever feeling. I knew he wouldn’t hurt anyone ever again and I didn’t have to have that monkey on my back anymore. I don’t know if that’s how the victims of Justin felt. Everyone is different, but my point is there are no right answers here. Doug, Rob and Mike were in a Damned-If-You-Do/ Damned-IF-You-Don’t Scenario that wasn’t their own doing.
Overall, the allegations all seemed business-as-usual to me. In the last 20 years, I’ve worked for a financial institution, an insurance company, a family owned automotive business, Blockbuster video and a hardware store and there were a couple constants: not getting time off that I wanted; having to work days I thought were unfair; getting paid less than I thought I was worth; having ideas ignored that I thought were better than what the company implemented; and once in a while, getting yelled at. That’s life and if the content creators don’t know that, perhaps stepping outside the comfort zone of their fans and diving in to a brick-and-mortar job would provide some perspective. It’s about life experience and all these guys in their 20s and 30s, seem to really lack it.
The most laughable complaint was from a producer’s allegation that can be summed up like this: “My spouse and I broke up, because of it I didn’t live up to my contractual agreements, and then complained on Twitter. They then fired me so, …..homophobia?”
Beyond that we’re dealing with “Doug’s more popular than I am and they use his picture and put his videos up and mine get pushed back.” Whether he’s your favorite or not, THE NOSTALGIA CRITIC is the most popular character and Doug Walker is the most popular producer that ever came from Channel Awesome. Again, I side with CA here. This is so reminiscent of shoot interviews by former pro-wrestlers upset that John Cena was in the forefront. That’s the entertainment business. You guys quit. Good for you!! I hope you all have a lifetime of success but don’t bellyache about how The Nostalgia Critic’s popularity held you back. Use that as momentum to strive and be better.
Those former producers involved in this started a #ChangeTheChannel movement where due to mass hysteria and the joy of jumping on a bandwagon, it certainly has traction. That said, just because it’s popular doesn’t mean it’s right. It would’ve been far easier for me to write a supporting “YOU GO GIRLS AND GUYS” style post, but it’s not genuine and this is all faux outrage – and nothing makes me more sick than faux outrage. #ThinkForYourself
