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Statement Regarding Harassment Allegations (Patreon)

Published:
2018-06-10 02:13:32
Imported:
2026-06

Content

Please read the statement here.  

On a related note, you are free to discuss this in the comments but I (Belinda) will not be interacting with any comments or messages about this.

EDIT: Clarifying note: there were no claims made regarding sexual harassment. 

Comments

Richard Hardslab

Glad to hear that the HR cleared everything, but that their recommendations are still being taken quite seriously

Lars van der Dussen

Appreciate the transparency and glad to hear there was a clear outcome, that must’ve been tough on the entire team.

Ed

This is an example of how to handle allegations the right way: bring in a neutral outside party to investigate, maintain confidentiality, release the results when the investigation has finished. Thank you for providing a positive example of how to address these. Now back to the good work of educating and entertaining us with cool animations, badass historical events, and high pitched voices :)

The Rosamund Project

Very glad regarding how things were handled, at least as far as my understanding goes, and I remain proud to be an EC patron. :)

Tiberia Prima

*sigh* Come on, you guys being in trouble is the last thing we need right now. I don't know what happened and will try not to make it my business but PLEASE be above this kind of trouble =/

David M

As stated by others above, I'm glad this is being handled in a serious and professional manner. You have my continued support, and I hope everything turns out for the best.

Dan Ahn

Sounds like this is being handled in the best way possible.

Brian Rose

Having read the former employer's account of her departure on Twitter, I have to confess to feeling upset at the accused in question, even as I try to be mindful that it's one side of the story. I really do love the work you guys do, and want to see it and my support continue; but I think in time, I and many others here will want to know about those specific concrete steps that were recommended which you guys are now putting into place.

Dustin Cooper

What troubles me is that this isn't acknowledging that this "employee" is James Portnow. My understanding is that he basically runs this and that there's no show without him. There was no chance he'd be fired from this. I'm sorry, but as polite and professional this comes off, it still seems like defensive BS when you think about it.

Brian Rose
>>12976310

I'm asking not only for my own piece of mind, but because I think it could be a teaching moment for other employers, as well as any of us who have been seeking solid answers to challenges posed by revelations in the era of #MeToo.

General Luigi

Considering that this official statement comes a few hours after the employee who claimed to be harassed tweeted about their experience, I can't help but be skeptical of this talk of an investigation. How long has said investigation been going on?

Sifferz

Frankly, we need more specificity than this. Certainly don’t stoop to airing every ounce of dirty laundry, but this is so nonspecific and vague as to leave me erring with the story of the accuser. This is not something I stand by beyond doubt, but leaves me with questions. What firm was hired? Can they make a statement independent of EC rather than having their findings filtered through you? Could their findings be forwarded more explicitly? What did this investigation entail, methodically? I’m not asking for juicy secrets, and personal details should absolutely be revealed at an absolute minimum. But as it stands, this statement fails to acknowledge the accusations, fails to give specificity to the claim of no wrongdoing, and fails to pass a sense of genuine independence in the investigation. I’m not throwing on a tinfoil hat with the twitter feed and accusing the firm of impropriety/conflict of interest in its investigation, but this statement is fairly weak. Wishing the best to the EC staff caught up in the blast radius here.

Jonathon Wyza

I'll be honest. Had this not been posted, I wouldn't have even known any thing was up. That said. I am not inclined to believe anyone, either the accuser, or the accused without proof in either direction. I don't subscribe to mob mentality or justice by popular vote. Since I don't know either of them personally and because we lack actual details of what happened. I don't believe it should be something we as a community should judge. Maybe it is as she says. Maybe it is not. Maybe, like so many things, it is dependent on your point of view and neither are entirely true or false. In any event, I believe insufficient information exists here for us to do much.

Sifferz
>>12977334

I'm certainly not entitled to it, but I'd need it to see a compelling case in Portnow's favor at this point. Especially since this is the route the team went with rather than an apology.

David Kettler
>>12976311

If Extra Credits is a partnership, there is almost no way any of the partners can be removed (especially a co-creator who, most likely, has intellectual property rights to the show). Without a valid partnership agreement granting termination rights to business partners, the only legal means to forcefully remove partners from the business is through litigation in civil court. This is pretty standard in a LOT of small businesses. If you and the owner don't get along there isn't much you can do about it.

GooGhoul

Should this be patron only? Non-patrons can see the title, but can't access anything else so they might assume the worst.

Tommy Laukkanen

I don't know, guys. This doesn't look good. Sounds like James pulled a Dan Harmon, and should, well... pull a Dan Harmon.

GooGhoul

You should more heavily clarify the specific claims being made. A LOT of people seem to assume the claims were of sexual harrassment, which isn't a surprised since the words "attacked" & "tortured" are used in @Cavni 's tweets.

Tyler Christensen

While I dont know the specific details in this case, it is rare to see this level of transparency. Humans are messy things and business usually opt for a clean cut appearance. This is the truth though, business is messy and even well intentioned people can find themselves in a corner regardless of how they saw it at the time. HR firms exist for a reason and I think it was smart to reach out quickly. The trick is to not let these experiences leave you jaded, and to continue forward with all the hope and enthusiasm so started with.

ConspicuousCompiler

This is really an insufficient address to the very serious claims laid against James Portnow. Not even mentioning his name in your post and claiming an investigation took place without any evidence leaves me heavily in doubt about the honesty of EC. I can't remain a patron of your work when you fail to properly address serious allegation of harassment by the man in charge.

Kapten-N
>>12977334

Why should they apologise when there's no evidence that the accusation is true? And why do you want to see a "compelling case in Portnow's favour"? Do you not believe in 'innocent until proven guilty'? The burden of evidence is on the accuser. You can't have justice if you're forcing people to prove their innocence.

Anthony Gilberti

Having read what is available to me and having some time to think about it, I’m sorry to say it, but I’m done. I’ll come back when EC is under new management.

Brett

I have to say, this sort of deliberately obfuscating statement about an "employee" that is obviously James Portnow - more a boss than employee, really, with all the changes in power dynamics that brings with - comes off as pathetic. I expect more of James, and more of Extra Credits. With Dan Prime having separated himself from the show, James stands as the remaining pillar of the original team, and it is beyond disappointing to see this sort of behavior from him - not only Soraya's allegations, but also this lackluster reaction that seems to ooze guilt. It makes me think that Dan's departure and much of the other staff shakeups are likely due to James's behavior behind the scenes.

Brett
>>12979587

Yeah, I first heard about this from the Patreon email, then checked Twitter. And roughly 90% of reactions were claiming that James had sexually harassed Soraya. Upon reading her actual claims, it sounds more like a bad breakup that spiraled into workplace harassment because James wanted to get back together and Soraya didn't.

Brett

It makes me sad, since I've been a patron since the beginning of Extra History, but I'm pulling my pledge after this. With the loss of Dan and what seems to be a clear lack of accountability for James, my money is better spent elsewhere.

Christopher Lin

Dunno what to say, have to stop my supporting.

Tim Zubizarreta

It's terrible, but as they so often advocate, we have to vote with our wallets and in light of the other victims coming forward, I have to stop supporting until they announce a change in leadership.

coffeelemental

This hurts. I looked up to you guys so much. I hope I'm wrong about all this, but the evidence just doesn't look good so far. I'm sorry, but I'm out.

Jo-Herman Haugholt

Dropped my pledge, I can't in good consciousnesses support this channel after the allegations against James Portnow

Highland Fox

I feel sorry for all those who have been on the receiving end of poor behaviour, and will drop my patronage in support. Perhaps once the issue has been dealt with more thoroughly then I will resume.

Trevor Sullivan
>>12977334

There is no evidence that it is false either. "innocent until proven guilty" is a criminal standard, last time I checked, we are not standing in a court of law. Testimony is evidence.

Alexander S
>>12994863

What evidence? as far as I know see there is only Soraya's accusation, which isn't really evidence

Scott Singer
>>13003977

I agree. The defensive tone of this statement combined with the details of the credible allegations makes me feel that the organization has not taken this sufficiently seriously. I will also be withdrawing my patronage until such time as James steps away from the organization. I have already unsubscribed on YouTube.

Christian Jensen

I am not going to throw James Portnow or Extra History under the bus. The allegations that I have seen thus far does not paint a fantastic picture of the man, but I am going to wait until emotions have died down a little and take stock then. At such a time, I would also hope that a more comprehensive statement by EC and/or James himself is available.

Jim Land

Do any of you that are talking about dropping your pledge have any evidence other than the accusation? I will go along with your assumption that this is James for arguments sake. How is James supposed to prove that he didn't do anything wrong? If there is something other than one accusation, I may have to follow suit, but I don't want to be apart of a lynch mob.

Crissa Kentavr
>>12994863

...And even those allegations are, well... Kinda meh and similar to any not-great break up. Like, how are the allegations any different from the... Well, allegations? Her allegations are as far as 'he said some intemperate things about me' while... saying intemperate things about him in public?

Crissa Kentavr
>>12983680

So you're saying it would have been better of them to name names and do the things that they're being accused of doing? That seems contradictory.

Brett
>>12983680

No, not at all. Simply admitting that the alleged harasser was James is not "naming names" or harassment in itself, as you claim. It's a factual statement. The statement they put out attempts to equivocate with its use of "employee", which clearly implies that it was just one of the lower rung employees of the show being accused, rather than the guy who owns the show and is in charge of running it.

Brett
>>13010253

It's no assumption about it being James - the allegations directly name him as the only person involved. It's only this Extra Credits statement that refuses to name him. And I think it's that attempt to muddle the situation and misdirect from James that is throwing a lot of red flags for people. In the time since the original accusation, several other people within the games industry have come forward with their own stories of harassment by James.

Brett
>>12991664

In the time since Soraya's accusation, several other members of the games industry have come forward with their own stories of being harassed by James over the years.

Dustin Cooper
>>12991664

Someone started a Reddit thread about other people making claims against him here <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/ExtraCredits/comments/8q6h6u/compilation_of_further_claims_of_james_portnows/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.reddit.com/r/ExtraCredits/comments/8q6h6u/compilation_of_further_claims_of_james_portnows/</a> So far, game developer and former Destructoid writer Holly Green and game developer and EC guest writer Jennifer Scheurle have both said that James treated them poorly, but didn't go into specifics. Russ Pitts, his former boss at The Escapist, posted a large segment of his book about his interactions with James and what went on before they both left the site. While some of that is clearly due to the deteriorating situation at that site with regards to Russ' bosses rarely paying anyone, some of the behavior predates that, such as the whole bizarre thing with James refusing to have a basic discussion with Russ about video content until he surprised Russ by taking his call in the middle of a Digipen class and putting him on speaker for some reason.

David Kettler
>>12977334

As a customer you help fund every company you purchase something from. This doesn't give you rights to internal company information. If you think $2-5 a month buys you some kind of special access then you are mistaken.

David Kettler
>>13010253

They have already made up their minds, the pitch forks are out and the torches are lit. The mere accusation is enough to convince many here that JP is guilty and needs to go. I do find it a bit amusing that JP is getting some of his own after going after TotalBiscuit. Never mind that an independent investigator found no wrong doing. Another excellent example why you don't date people at work.

Christopher Smowton

James, my continued funding is contingent on either an apology or a specific refutation of Soraya's allegations.

Jim Land
>>13010253

For sure. Plus if you date people at work it really shouldn't be a subordinate/supervisor relationship as well. That virtually never ends well. If nothing else James is certainly guilty of that.

Matt Lakits doesn't have the mental energy to update their Patreon name anymore, but still listens to every episode avidly!

I am pulling my pledge. I'd been considering it for a while, because I wanted to support other less-succesful creators and I have limited income, but this situation is what pushed me to take a decision. I do not know the facts, obviously, but your statement is too short, and on the other hand the harassment allegations too detailed, for me to keep supporting you in good conscience. Be more open about this.

Aldo de Leeuw

I stopped my funding because of the way James is handling this situation. You need to shape up and can't hide behind a super generic statement that doesn't even acknowledge the fact that it was directed at *you* and not a random employee.

Shorewood

*watches the pitchforks come out* guilty until proven innocent seems to be the name of the day and I am quite sick of it. They got a 3rd party to take a look and found no wrong doing. People don't realize that a public apology is an admission of guilt and thus usable in a court of law in case she wants to sue him. Its why the accused always release these extremely neutral statements. Its the only way to protect themselves. If the accusation was serious she would have gone to a lawyer not to twitter to lodge her complaints.

Kacie Rowlette

I’m reducing my pledge until Extra Credits provides some clarification regarding the issues that the investigation found and what they’re doing to fix the problem. If nothing changes and/or more allegations come out, I’ll pull my pledge entirely. I don’t want to unfairly punish the writers and artists who contribute to Extra History, but given the nature of the existing allegations, I can’t continue funding EC at the level I have been.

Christopher Smowton
>>13041080

That would only apply to apologising for things he *did* do. If he didn't do it then he should say so (as opposed to what he *has* said, that an investigator paid by him and which he was prepared for didn't find anything, which is pretty weak IMO); in the meantime his silence smells terrible

Tara Kay

I'm not sure how I feel about this. It really seems like James needs to take some sort of penalty for the clearly corroborated claims of HR violations and harassment, but I feel like boycotting the Patreon would only hurt the writers and artists and not much else.

Shorewood
>>13041080

Have you seen the internet torch and pitchfork mobs before? Denying accusations is worse than admitting them to the witch hunters.

Franek Korta

To all that requests clarification: what kind of clarification would make You happy?

Elizabeth Sullivan-Burton

This is likely to be a crucial crossroads for EC. Here’s what I bet happened. Most likely the statement is true that there is no *evidence* of misconduct. This is probably accurate—one of the issues in dealing with harassment is that people who do it generally know how to do it in ways that there isn’t going to be a lot of evidence. Moreover, there’s often a huge amount of risk in speaking up if you do know something; it’s usually easy to determine from context who spoke up, and that can put the whistleblower’s career at risk. (I have read the Twitter thread but I wouldn't be surprised if at least some of the emails referred to came from email accounts not under EC’s control and therefore difficult to audit properly.) In the absence of ‘hard’ evidence, the default tends to be to assume that no misconduct occurred. It’s even somewhat understandable. Most of us wouldn’t want to get fired because we were accused of something that can’t be proven. There’s also more pressure not to fire someone who is important to the organization. Nonetheless, there are a few things that I think you’re missing, and like others, I am going to put my pledge on hold until they’re resolved. 1. You need to share what steps, exactly, you’re going to take to prevent similar issues from happening again. For instance, from what I can gather, it sounds like James was in a relationship with someone and it went south. What is your fraternization policy? Was James in authority over her? If so, why was that permitted? In most companies, a manager can (and should be) disciplined for a relationship with their subordinate because of the power imbalance. 2. You need to become more transparent in terms of how you approached this. Right now, because you’ve been so vague, it makes it sound like you simply assume that because a woman ran the investigation, it must be right. Not every detail needs to be shared. But you need to share enough to explain why the HR company disagrees. I really hope you folks get this right. In the past, I think EC has said many things that *should* be said, and I think they’ve advocated for a lot of great things. This could be an opportunity to show you’ll do the right thing even when it’s hard—or it can be an opportunity to show your hypocrisy. PS: If someone contends that they were forced out of a job because of a failed romantic relationship, they *are* claiming sexual harassment.

Elizabeth Sullivan-Burton
>>13058840

A general explanation of why they don't consider the allegations accurate. Obviously some people will disagree, but in a situation like this, you're really better off going into a bit more detail. For instance (and I'm not saying this is actually the case, but this is an example if this were true): "Soraya provided all the emails in question, and the HR company also reviewed all emails between her and James on the company email system. Overall, we found that there had been heated disagreements between them on professional matters before, during, and after the relationship. As a result, we do not feel that the disagreements were due to the relationship breaking down but were instead a case of two professionals disagreeing in how to approach their work." In general, I feel a good response should include 1) What you did and why it was appropriately thorough, 2) Enough evidence to explain why you came to the conclusion you did, and 3) What your conclusion is (in this example, they disagreed but not because of the relationship). Not everyone will accept such an answer, but it demonstrates better faith to show why you've come to the conclusions you have. Edit: Here's a company that handled this extremely well (though honestly a bit more detail than I would personally expect). <a href="http://oneshotpodcast.com/uncategorized/harassment-investigation-stament/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://oneshotpodcast.com/uncategorized/harassment-investigation-stament/</a>

J-Omics
>>13053663

I am also super conflicted about this. EC is more than just one man and has been a strong positive voice on a lot of issues. However it's silence here speaks volumes. If I pull my pledge I might be hurting un-involved creators who make work I greatly appreciate. but if I maintain my pledge and there is no greater transparency of what happened and no clear information on steps taken to prevent it happening again I am contributing to a culture that could be directly hurting those creators without any inclination to change. The waters are still very murky and this may take some time to resolve, but I am too uncomfortable to remain a patron to EC at this point. It's entirely possible that this is the wrong choice, and I hope sooner or later I find out that it was.

Fried (Fridge)

Not only is it disappointing how you have chosen to deal with allegations made by Soraya against James (Not addressing the issue, just saying "we did nothing wrong and even some HR company said so" and calling James an 'employee' rather than what he really is, the boss) Now there are further allegations from several others of a pattern of behaviour from James, and Will's claim that the HR review found no improprieties because it did not extend to all staff The statement released only makes it easier to believe the claims made, there is an air of arrogance to it a sense of "I did nothing wrong so why should I have to apologise" If the statement had acknowledged the allegations somewhat, apologised for the hurt feelings she has, and that she felt she had to leave the EC team, then put in the bit about the HR enquiry and then include the recommendations made by the company, it would have been easier to stick by you guys. I wanted to wait a while before I made any judgements, after all, it could be a difference on how people perceive things, unfortunately with the other sources coming out backing up the claims made against James, and with James being silent and hoping this vague and misleading statement is enough (and yes it is misleading because again, James is the boss / owner, not an employee) I do not feel I can support the path that Extra Credits has chosen to take here.

ExtraCredits
>>13107842

That is being addressed separately and in a different manner, as it is unrelated to Soraya's situation. I was planning to post an update on that later today --Belinda

Kakirtog, the Charr in gold
>>12977334

David Kettler, you are absolutely correct. We do not have any entitlement to information, just because we give money. HOWEVER: Extra Credits, likewise, doesn't have the right to our money. And I think that, morally, you would be right to question your donation after these accusations. And it is then EC's part to make sure we feel they take the right steps to earn our trust again.