×
  • remind me tomorrow
  • remind me next week
  • never remind me
Subscribe to the ANN Newsletter • Wake up every Sunday to a curated list of ANN's most interesting posts of the week. read more

Forum - View topic
INTEREST: Former Dark Horse Editor Brendan Wright Accused of Sexual Misconduct




Note: this is the discussion thread for this article

Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
FireChick
Subscriber



Joined: 26 Mar 2006
Posts: 2385
Location: United States
PostPosted: Fri Jun 19, 2020 1:52 pm Reply with quote
This is horrible. I hope that Wright guy gets what he deserves, and that the people he harassed receive some justice for what he did. That kind of harassment is not okay in any situation at all.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Kougeru



Joined: 13 May 2008
Posts: 5521
PostPosted: Fri Jun 19, 2020 1:52 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Comic book writer Jeremy Whitley and artist Kelly Williams wrote on Twitter that they were working with Wright on an upcoming publications but Wright was removed from the projects in the last 24 hours. Multiple creators in the comic book industry have since vowed not to work with Wright in light of the allegations.


As much as I believe these accusations, which is a lot, I think this is a bit hasty unless they've seen evidence that I have not.

Edit: to clarify - I don't think it's wrong to cut ties after someone is accused. I just personally would take a few days to absorb it all and see if more evidence pops up before reacting in any professional way.


Last edited by Kougeru on Fri Jun 19, 2020 1:57 pm; edited 1 time in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message AIM Address My Anime My Manga
whiskeyii



Joined: 29 May 2013
Posts: 2242
PostPosted: Fri Jun 19, 2020 3:20 pm Reply with quote
Kougeru wrote:

Edit: to clarify - I don't think it's wrong to cut ties after someone is accused. I just personally would take a few days to absorb it all and see if more evidence pops up before reacting in any professional way.


I feel the opposite. For professional outlets, silence is seen as complicit or tacit approval; thus, distancing oneself from the accused as fast as possible seems to be the better PR move, and seems to have only really backfired in the case of James Gunn (who was later let back into the fold).
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
gloverrandal



Joined: 20 May 2014
Posts: 406
Location: Oita
PostPosted: Fri Jun 19, 2020 3:55 pm Reply with quote
Kougeru wrote:
As much as I believe these accusations, which is a lot, I think this is a bit hasty unless they've seen evidence that I have not.

Edit: to clarify - I don't think it's wrong to cut ties after someone is accused. I just personally would take a few days to absorb it all and see if more evidence pops up before reacting in any professional way.


I normally would agree, but Brendan Wright was a staunch believer of listening to women and to believe them when they talked about their stories of abuse in the industry. So we should respect his wishes. He was very vocal about not wanting predators in the comic industry.

whiskeyii wrote:
I feel the opposite. For professional outlets, silence is seen as complicit or tacit approval; thus, distancing oneself from the accused as fast as possible seems to be the better PR move, and seems to have only really backfired in the case of James Gunn (who was later let back into the fold).


There's also Johnny Depp, Jim Cummings, and Jesse Smolette just to name a few regrettable cases. Looking back at the numerous outlets and sites that were so adamant on their stance with disclaimers like "we're not going to give a platform to anyone entertaining the notion that Amber Heard is lying" is a bit of a huge L to walk back from. But I suppose the truth is usually eventually revealed in the end, however long it takes and even if the initial stages are messy.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
all-tsun-and-no-dere
ANN Reviewer


Joined: 06 Jul 2015
Posts: 604
PostPosted: Fri Jun 19, 2020 5:49 pm Reply with quote
#910126 wrote:
There is something called innocent until proven guilty


When are people going to realize that applies to legal proceedings and sentences handed down in the court of law, not private individuals and companies?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Lynx Raven Raide



Joined: 01 Nov 2017
Posts: 412
Location: Central Coast, AU
PostPosted: Fri Jun 19, 2020 7:52 pm Reply with quote
all-tsun-and-no-dere wrote:


When are people going to realize that applies to legal proceedings and sentences handed down in the court of law, not private individuals and companies?


And herein lies the problems with the court of popular opinion. People are too quick to judge on individual cases and by the time something has been verified to be untrue the damage has already been done, sometimes irreversibly. Flip side is that even when it is found to be true, some people cant accept it either.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
DavetheUsher



Joined: 19 May 2014
Posts: 505
PostPosted: Sat Jun 20, 2020 1:11 pm Reply with quote
Almost all of these cases of public social media callouts take place in freelance industries where employment laws have no jurisdiction or application. Freelance writers, artists, actors, influencers, etc an't be 'fired', they just no longer will get any gigs. And the comic book industry is entirely about gig work and connections you make. There's a reason you don't see this type of stuff happen in the traditional workplace. Any sexual harassment claims would go through HR and internal investigations and be done more by-the-book and often kept private unless it was a major criminal activity and then it might be in the news.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
ANN Forum Mod / Admin



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 6
Location: This account can not receive PMs
PostPosted: Sat Jun 20, 2020 5:06 pm Reply with quote
Did some clean up and removed a bunch of posts and edited others. Let's make some things crystal clear. As with any other topic of this nature there will be no victim blaming allowed. Period. Do it and you're posts will be removed and you will probably wind up on moderation.

There will also be no more personal insults (calling people chumps), flame bait comments ("in b4 "X" people show up" - which only invites said people), trollish comments tring to start the innocent until proven guilty flame fest, and there will surely be NO comments that compare people speaking out against harassment to terrorists/terrorist groups. The next person who tries that last one will be banned immediately.

Now I suggest everyone keep it civil and on the actual topic.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Cutiebunny



Joined: 18 Apr 2010
Posts: 1746
PostPosted: Sat Jun 20, 2020 8:23 pm Reply with quote
all-tsun-and-no-dere wrote:
#910126 wrote:
There is something called innocent until proven guilty


When are people going to realize that applies to legal proceedings and sentences handed down in the court of law, not private individuals and companies?


The problem is that this prevents people from getting a fair trial. If all potential jury members have seen the story covered on various news sites and TV, they've already formed their opinion before all facts have been presented. While that might sound ok if the person is guilty, it's a horrible situation to be in if you're truly innocent and the victim of someone who has an axe to grind.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
nargun



Joined: 29 Mar 2006
Posts: 924
PostPosted: Mon Jun 22, 2020 2:41 am Reply with quote
Being falsely accused of sexual harassment actually does about the same harm as one instance of actual sexual harassment. Regardless of the system; a false abuse accusation is itself an act of abuse and will be handled about as well as the system handles any other abusive acts.

Since most sexual harassers commit more than one act, the balance of harms in "suppressing potentially true accusation" vs "promoting potentially false accusation" is fairly clear, even before you allow for the rarity of false allegations.

(it's also... look, false allegations usually show a number of distinctive features. I'm not going to say what they are here, exactly, for the same reason people aren't encouraged to talk about the content of psych tests, but the knowledge "how to spot plausibly-false abuse accusations" isn't what I'd call narrowly held.)
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23669
PostPosted: Mon Jun 22, 2020 2:34 pm Reply with quote
Glad to see that another abuser has been unmasked.

I do have a question, however, not that it is a burningly important one, but I am curious.

I notice this item has been categorized as an Interest item instead of a News item. My former understanding of Interest items is that they tended to be "lighter" fare related to some aspect of anime, manga, games or other related activity. This seems to be more of a news item. Again, hardly a pressing issue, but I am a little curious.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
Ryuji-Dono



Joined: 26 Apr 2018
Posts: 1207
PostPosted: Mon Jun 22, 2020 2:37 pm Reply with quote
It seems he can talk the talk, we must wait and see if he can walk the walk.

If I'm being honest, all of this just further reminds of my past which more or less followed certain behaviors would do, and even today, I'm thankful for these very women I've wronged before for showing me the proper ways we should handle women, and the MeToo movement played a huge part on my change of attitude which I'm still being careful up to this day. It stings to me even more because most of those things were done by adults, a stage in which they should know better compared to my teenage days which was a process even though it does not justify some of the cruder actions like mine

Sorry if I looked like I was rambling, just getting something off my chest from this because it hits close to me over the past I'm ashamed of and while I haven't gotten an incident like this so far, I'm still cautious over the people I interact with.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
BadNewsBlues



Joined: 21 Sep 2014
Posts: 5888
PostPosted: Tue Jun 23, 2020 1:46 pm Reply with quote
Cutiebunny wrote:


The problem is that this prevents people from getting a fair trial. If all potential jury members have seen the story covered on various news sites and TV, they've already formed their opinion before all facts have been presented. While that might sound ok if the person is guilty, it's a horrible situation to be in if you're truly innocent and the victim of someone who has an axe to grind.


To be fair getting a fair trial in certain cases is going to be hard even without the jury being aware of the details of a case before the trial starts.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Page 1 of 1

 


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group