The founders of two liberal news outlets found themselves apologizing over sexist remarks and a "boy"s club" environment filled with sexual harassment. Cenk Uygur, creator and host of popular liberal news show, The Young Turks (TYT), apologized last week for a series of now-deleted blog and social media posts from the early 2000s, published by The Wrap.
Cenk Uygur
In one entry from 2000 entitled "Rules of Dating," Uygur says of third dates: "If I haven"t felt your tits by then, things are not about to last much longer. In fact, if you don"t get back on track by the fourth date, you"re done." Uygur"s "Rule 2" of dating: "There must be orgasm by the fifth date," and "Rule 3" states "There must be sex by the second month of dating."
There are a lot of allowable exceptions to this rule, but they all involve orgasms. I"ll let you slide if for unseen circumstances we haven"t gotten to see each other much, and you have been providing me with some excellent orgasms in the meanwhile.
But there are no foreseeable reasons why anyone would slip into the fourth month of dating without sex. But since you do provide a certain level of sexual satisfaction, I will give a requisite talking to you to see "what"s wrong." If you don"t give it up the date after "the talk," you"re done. -Cenk Uygur
In another post, after an apparent lack of sex, Uygur declared that "the genes of women are flawed" because they "do not want to have sex nearly as often as needed for the human race to get along peaceably and fruitfully."
There"s quite a bit more on Uygur"s past statements which have been compiled by journalist Cassandra Fairbanks.
Uygur"s defense to his old posts was to claim he was a was a different back then; "I had not yet matured and I was still a conservative who thought that stuff was politically incorrect and edgy. When you read it now, it looks really, honestly, ugly." This post from January, 2000, however - in which Uygur slams conservative Pat Buchanan, suggests his ugliness was coming from the left.
Oh boy, @TheYoungTurks need to buckle up because if 1/3 of what im hearing is true I can’t see them lasting past Spring. The death blows won’t even be coming from the right, either.
— Cassandra Fairbanks (@CassandraRules) December 24, 2017
In this week"s second exposé, the New York Times ousts left-leaning media outlet VICE for its "boy"s club" environment - from which allegations of sexual harassment and revenge were levied by over two dozen women who say they experienced or witnessed sexual misconduct at the company.
VICE co-founders Shane Smith and Suroosh Alvi (Reuters/Mike Segar)
VICE settled with four other women for sexual harassment or defamation as well.
An investigation by The New York Times has found four settlements involving allegations of sexual harassment or defamation against Vice employees, including its current president. -NYT
In a statement to The Times, CEO Shane Smith and co-founder Suroosh Alvi said “from the top down, we have failed as a company to create a safe and inclusive workplace where everyone, especially women, can feel respected and thrive,” adding that a "boys club" culture at Vice had "fostered inappropriate behavior that permeated throughout the company."
In 2016, Vice"s president, Andrew Creighton paid $135,000 to a former employee who was fired after she wouldn"t sleep with him, while earlier this year, VICE settled with former employee Martina Veltroni, who claimed that her supervisor retaliated against her after they had a sexual relationship. The supervisor, Jason Mojica - the former head of Vice News, was fired last month.
Joanna Fuertes-Knight
The $6 billion media company also reached a $24,000 settlement with a London journalist, Joanna Fuertes-Knight, who said she had been sexually harassed, and suffered racial and gender discrimination along with bullying. She claims that a Vice producer, Rhys James, made sexist statements to her - including asking whether or not she slept with black men, as well as the color of her nipples.
Vice started out in 1994 as a punk magazine in Montreal, Canada, before growing to a multi-billion dollar multimedia company catering to millennials. Walt Disney owns an 18% stake, while private equity firm TPG invested $450 million in June, valuing the company at around $5.7 billion.
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