The recent news and complaints about LMG are concerning and do need to be addressed, and if we are to believe the statements of LMG, they are. They hired a third party investigator (whatever that means) and they halted all production on their company, in order to work on their methods.
While I don’t take everything they do at face value, I do think that those are the right steps to solving their issues (besides maybe going to the police about the sexual harassment allegations, but I’m also not sure they can without Madison filling a complaint).
The main criticisms I’ve heard from people is how they joke around about sponsors and shove their merch and FP down our throats in an apology video. While it is in bad taste, I don’t understand why people are surprised, have you been paying attention at all?
You see, LMG presented itself as a media corporation from day one. They were always profit oriented and their goal was always to make money. They have two sponsor reads, one floatplane ad and at least two lttstore.com mentions in every single video. Linus clearly states whenever he can that he’s here for the money and nothing else. He also says that he believes that maintaining trust with his audience is the way to make more money, so our interests align, but he really states that journalistic standards and accurate reporting are not his motivations, money is.
This along with the statements about wage discussions and Linus’s disdain from workers unions, and the fact that they don’t use twitch bits or superchats but the leave them open, really shows how the company thinks and operates.
So I don’t think the criticism is well placed, they were upfront about their intentions and you should have known what company you’re following.
As for their handling of the recent news, there is no way of knowing what will happen. It seems like they want to do the right thing but we can’t know until they finish the process.
Counter point - just because they said "they're in it for the money", it doesn't make it right. If anything, it makes it worse because they're putting out a bad product.
Criticism comes from the circumstances that LMG found themselves in. Most people aren't surprised, just disappointed.
It does not make it right, but you knew it in advance. They are well within their right to act as they do and they did announce it beforehand.
I think people thought that the corpo stuff was a means for some nerdy guy to do videos as a full time job. It may have been partially true at some point, but the actual goal was always money. The corpo stuff was not only the means, it was also the ends.
Nobody is arguing what their rights are. If someone is, then they indeed don't understand what makes a company.
People criticize companies usually for things that go against the basic human values (ethics, morals, etc.) and by doing so, they're being kept in check. And this is exactly what is happening to LMG.
As for those emotional extremists who want LMG cancelled over this because it went against their beliefs of what they are - yeah I see where you're coming from. Those people really should calm down.
LMG is a corporation and as Steve put it, they should be held to scrutiny just like any other. That doesn't necessarily include immediate cancellation, though.