LMG's sudden yet predictable downfall

Back in October, I posted an open letter to Linus Sebastian, at that time CEO of Linus Media Group, and currently their Chief Vision Officer (?), in which I laid out what I perceived as critical, and potentially crippling, flaws with his entire leadership style.

The focus of controversy in that moment was his then-recent dispute with a sponsor named Ōura, a company about which neither he nor any of his team had bothered to learn much of anything, resulting in a video sponsored by Ōura in which Linus repeatedly mispronounced the company's name. At the time, he seemed to regard their pulling of their LMG sponsorship as some sort of personal sleight, essentially blaming Ōura for the fact that his fuckup had cost LMG Ōura's business.

That open letter goes on for a while, so I won't drop the entire thing in here as a quote. Near the end, though, I proposed some actions that Linus should be taking in order to ensure that he didn't end up in another, similar situation in the future, including:

1. posting an apology video, 
2. making changes to their workflow which would allow for better error avoidance or correction, and 
3. making changes to LMG's leadership to ensure that his team would have someone available to them in a crisis, who would be able to deal with that crisis like a grown adult, and not a petulant adolescent.

I very much doubt that Linus ever saw my open letter; he'd already pretty clearly established that he, like a certain former U.S. President, hates to read. 

To his credit, though, Linus did make a leadership change anyway: he hired an experienced CEO, Terren Tong, to take over as the "boss" of Linus Media Group, with himself staying on as Chief Vision Officer.... and, of course, one of two owners, along with his wife, Yvonne. So, still the boss, since LMG's CEO still reports to him, but not responsible anymore for anything that goes wrong. Perfect!

With this being the only change visibly made to any part of the way LMG operates, it should not be a surprise that another crisis has arisen. And, as is they way of such things, this one is much, much worse.

The story is quite involved, and has been covered much better elsewhere, so I'll just direct you to some of that (very thorough) coverage.

Now, finally, Terren and Yvonne seem to have decided to grab the reins of this runaway stage coach, and begin implementing exactly the changes that I suggested in my open latter back in October, beginning with the obligatory apology video:

With all that out of the way.... how did the apology video actually go?

Honestly, mostly pretty good, although I have two big bones to pick:

1. "What? Somebody had to say it."

Multiple times during their sombre, sincere apology video, they do fake-out throws to non-existent sponsors, including their own store, which are just utterly inappropriate here. I know it's on brand for LMG, but seriously, WTF? If there was ever a time for LMG to post a video in which nobody undercuts the seriousness of the message by shouting out LTTStore.com, this was that video.

2. "The speed at which the pitchforks came out"

I'm going to address this next part to the man himself.

Linus, you're still trying to present yourself as some sort of victim in all of this, even after several other people had already spoken quite plainly to you, and your failures of leadership, basically being the problem. I understand why that would sting, and why you would take it a little personally, but I can't stress this enough: YOU, LINUS, WERE THE PROBLEM. AGAIN. 

 

Every other problem mentioned in this video is a direct result of your leadership, and the crisis that necessitated this reassessment was a direct result of your carelessness, your thoughtlessness, and your lack of maturity. You started by talking about owning problems that resulted when you were still CEO, and then ended by whining about being held accountable.

So, no, Linus, the speed at which the pitchforks came out was not unfair, or unreasonable. Your behavior was egregious, your subsequent responses ranged from dismissive to offensive, and everyone who called you out for your bullshit was correct to do so. Steve Burke did you, and your community, a service. You owe him, and the entire Gamers Nexus team, an apology, and some heartfelt thanks for finally making you stop and think for a damn minute.

Sponsor shout-outs aside, everyone else seems to have mostly understood the assignment, and done the necessary, but your self-serving self-pity significantly undercut the effectiveness of the entire exercise. I understand why the team would have wanted to include some sort of appearance from you, given that you were the problem here, but you needed to do a second take in which you were less defensive about that. Was there not time? Again?

Overall grade: B-

It's better than most apology videos I've seen, and most of the people involved seemed genuinely emotional about, and clear about, what changes they needed to make and why. Luke was once again a stand-out here, as was Yvonne, and I have praised them both in the past for being willing to call out Linus' bullshit to Linus' face. Whether it actually works this time is anyone's guess. but I'm fair certain that this shift in tone and messaging wasn't Linus' idea, so maybe it will.

But wait: What about Madison?

I couldn't help but notice that LMG's apology tour didn't mention Madison Reeve, but I feel that I have to.  I don't know if Madison's X thread had happened yet when LMG were cutting the video, but some of the problems she cites as reasons for leaving LMG certainly sound like part of the overall pattern of problems, though:

Madison worked at LMG for two years, starting in 2019. She explains that the ill-treatment and poor management began from day 1. She initially hailed from Arizona and shifted to Vancouver to take the job. To make matters worse, her brother had died a week before joining.

Things took a sharp turn when Madison joined LMG. The contract terms changed, and loads of more work was given to her. When she reached out to Linus regarding the issue, he reportedly told her to "change her priorities."

[...] In addition to all of this pressure, Madison had to face extreme misconduct and harassment in her job. In her threads, she repeatedly mentions that co-workers and managers resorted to s*xual comments and curse words that dropped her mental health to an all-time low.

Linus? The problem? Again? Say it ain't so...

Linus, for his part, is once again "in a state of shock" about it all, and doesn't understand how things could possible have come to this. LMG are "taking Madison’s allegations seriously," and "conducting an internal assessment," although they're also "bringing in a third-party investigator to look into the allegations."

Normally, this sort of self-investigation results in zero action being taken, but LMG are also "committed to publishing the findings and implementing any corrective actions that may arise due to this," so I guess we'll see. Stick a pin in this one, and watch this space.