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At Netflix, a star and employees pressure a top executive over Dave Chappelle

nytimes.com

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Re: At Netflix, a star and employees pressure a top executive over Dave Chappelle

#11

Post by refenestrator »

routrage wrote: post #10
refenestrator wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They will absolutely forget all about this in a few weeks.

Interesting speculation, is it based on anything at all? Louis CK was highly criticized for going back on tour by the same people that criticized him for the sexual misconduct he admitted to in 2017.

How many people are mad at Joe Rogan on this issue at this moment? None, they're all on Chappelle right now, it'll be someone else soon.

One other note, on CK, I wonder the overlap between people who want him punished forever and those who support rehabilitation of actual felons.

Re: At Netflix, a star and employees pressure a top executive over Dave Chappelle

#13

Post by gspencley »

virtuous_signal wrote: post #5
Miner49er wrote: post #3

Whether or not you agree with Netflix or not, they are being hypocritical and inconsistent. They went and removed a bunch of shows for having blackface last year (from what I can see, used typically or maybe always for comedy and often in a way that's making fun of racism.) [1] Yet now their CEO is defending this new show and saying, "Adults can watch violence, assault and abuse – or enjoy shocking stand-up comedy –…

Thanks for sharing that list, it definitely challenged some of my preconceptions. As someone who watched The Closer and didn't think it went too far, I think most would agree that there should be some fixed line to judge what goes too far and shouldn't be on their platform. It's sad that this line doesn't seem to be determined by any principles -- or at least any explicit principles. These 2 examples make me think th…

"I think most would agree that there should be some fixed line to judge what goes too far and shouldn't be on their platform."

I can see the need for things like parental filters, or better user controls to be able to get recommendations for things you actually want to see.

I would also be the first person to agree that Netflix has the right to decide what content they want to distribute.

But from a customer point of view what I want from Netflix is to give give me maximum choice. Give me absolutely every kind of content imaginable, offensive or G-rated, and then give me the tools to be able to limit what my children can view and to fine tune the sorts of recommendations I get.

I'm a huge believer in "if you don't like it, watch something else" and "if someone else likes it, that's none of your business."

Re: At Netflix, a star and employees pressure a top executive over Dave Chappelle

#14

Post by handoflixue »

GaryTang wrote: post #12

Dear Netflix: Please fire every single individual that walks out. There are thousands of individuals who have been rejected from roles at your company that would look at this situation in a rational light.

So you're calling on Netflix to "cancel" these employees because they're expressing political views you don't agree with?

And the political views you're so bothered by are... employees calling on Netflix to "cancel" someone who expressed political views they don't agree with?

How is this not just flagrant hypocrisy

Re: At Netflix, a star and employees pressure a top executive over Dave Chappelle

#15

Post by angryasian »

uzakov wrote: post #4

Politics aside: how much operational and technical risk is staff walkout for companies like Netflix? Ie if 2% of their DevOps engineers leave immediately, would it create any noticeable operational/technical effect for Netflix?

in the short term, unlikely. If they can't manage to keep their systems running for a few hours during off peak hours, then they have bigger problems.

Re: At Netflix, a star and employees pressure a top executive over Dave Chappelle

#16

Post by handoflixue »

gspencley wrote: post #13
virtuous_signal wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for sharing that list, it definitely challenged some of my preconceptions. As someone who watched The Closer and didn't think it went too far, I think most would agree that there should be some fixed line to judge what goes too far and shouldn't be on their platform. It's sad that this line doesn't seem to be determined by any principles -- or at least any explicit principles. These 2 examples make me think th…

"I think most would agree that there should be some fixed line to judge what goes too far and shouldn't be on their platform." I can see the need for things like parental filters, or better user controls to be able to get recommendations for things you actually want to see. I would also be the first person to agree that Netflix has the right to decide what content they want to distribute. But from a customer point of…

Unfortunately, from a business perspective, there will always be a trade off of "buying a license to X means we can't afford to license Y or Z". They spent millions to get this special, and probably could have gotten a dozen works from less-famous comedians for that same money.

Re: At Netflix, a star and employees pressure a top executive over Dave Chappelle

#17

Post by angryasian »

Its interesting to me that at one time the idea of separating politics and work used to be standard decorum.

I do think we as human beings obviously can not shut off our feelings, its important for companies to realize this and allow their employees to disagree and express themselves. In the end, its still up to employees to be mature about it.

Re: At Netflix, a star and employees pressure a top executive over Dave Chappelle

#18

Post by lacker »

Miner49er wrote: post #3

Whether or not you agree with Netflix or not, they are being hypocritical and inconsistent. They went and removed a bunch of shows for having blackface last year (from what I can see, used typically or maybe always for comedy and often in a way that's making fun of racism.) [1] Yet now their CEO is defending this new show and saying, "Adults can watch violence, assault and abuse – or enjoy shocking stand-up comedy –…

Netflix is simply following public opinion. As far as I can tell, most Americans think that blackface is wrong.

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/02/11/about-a-thi...

By comparison, most Americans think that gender is determined by your sex at birth.

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/11/08/transgender...

Platforms like Netflix do have to draw a line somewhere. The question is just where the line should be.

Re: At Netflix, a star and employees pressure a top executive over Dave Chappelle

#19

Post by jjk166 »

routrage wrote: post #10
refenestrator wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They will absolutely forget all about this in a few weeks.

Interesting speculation, is it based on anything at all? Louis CK was highly criticized for going back on tour by the same people that criticized him for the sexual misconduct he admitted to in 2017.

Pretty big difference between saying something inappropriate during a comedic performance and jacking off in front of non-consenting people.

Re: At Netflix, a star and employees pressure a top executive over Dave Chappelle

#20

Post by wutbrodo »

handoflixue wrote: post #16
gspencley wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I think most would agree that there should be some fixed line to judge what goes too far and shouldn't be on their platform." I can see the need for things like parental filters, or better user controls to be able to get recommendations for things you actually want to see. I would also be the first person to agree that Netflix has the right to decide what content they want to distribute. But from a customer point of…

Unfortunately, from a business perspective, there will always be a trade off of "buying a license to X means we can't afford to license Y or Z". They spent millions to get this special, and probably could have gotten a dozen works from less-famous comedians for that same money.

That's driven by how many people will watch it (demonstrably, very many, in Chappelle's case), not by the magnitude of offense taken by some number of people.

The proportion of people not watching a show will always be far higher than those watching it, so there's room for offense from non-watchers to drive product decisions. The parent comment is saying that he doesn't want that to factor in at all, which is orthogonal to the question of Netflix needing to allocate resources between content.

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