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Did Leo Laporte sexually harass Sarah Lane?

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In one of the most blatant displays of inappropriate office behavior since Clarence Thomas found a pubic hair on a can of Coke, tech monster Leo Laporte wades into unsavory territory with Sarah Lane on a recent pre-show for “iPad Today.” Tell us what you think? Do you think Leo is a pig and should mend his ways?

Update: see annotated raw footage of the incident. Thanks to the commenters on this article for putting it together.

9 thoughts on “Did Leo Laporte sexually harass Sarah Lane?”

  1. There is no question about it, this is clear cut sexual harassment and he did it while her own mother (bunnyemerald) was watching the show.

    The Evidence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwoiZ-XitJI

    11:01 – Leo kisses photo he took of Sarah’s lips with his smartphone
    21:30 – “Cross your legs” – Leo
    21:31 – “No” – Sarah
    25:30 – “If I cross them it’s actually worse” – Sarah
    25:40 – “You can’t see anything except a dark triangle” “…A triangle of darkness” – Leo
    25:56 – “I just want to say for the record that’s underwear you’re seeing” – Sarah
    26:01 – “I am not looking (laughing)” – Leo
    26:11 – “Its my fault, I should not wear skirts” – Sarah
    26:50 – “You look really good today” – Leo
    28:41 – “You are a smart, intelligent, powerful woman, don’t let that Leo guy bring you down” – Leo

    He’s made his intentions very clear 2 years ago.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xzd5mWSJe84

    1:50: “I have gotten in trouble for sexual harassment many times” – Leo Laporte

    He went on to describe an incident where he made lewd comments towards Kate Botello back in 1999 and got in trouble for it.

    http://youtu.be/VA-jwncEA3M?t=55m42s

    He has no shame meanwhile so-called feminists like Gina Trapani continue to turn a blind eye to it and laugh it off.

    https://totaldrama.net/2014/10/leo-makes-some-jokes/

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    1. This is how the State of California defines Sexual Harassment

      The Fair Employment and Housing Act defines harassment because of sex as including sexual harassment, gender harassment, and harassment based on pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.

      The Fair Employment and Housing Commission regulations define sexual harassment as unwanted sexual advances, or visual, verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature. This definition includes many forms of offensive behavior and includes gender-based harassment of a person of the same sex as the harasser. The following is a partial list of violations:

      – Unwanted sexual advances

      – Offering employment benefits in exchange for sexual favors
      Making or threatening reprisals after a negative response to sexual advances

      – Visual conduct: leering, making sexual gestures, displaying of suggestive objects or pictures, cartoon or posters

      – Verbal conduct: making or using derogatory comments, epithets, slurs, and jokes

      – Verbal sexual advances or propositions

      – Verbal abuse of a sexual nature, graphic verbal commentaries about an individual’s body, sexually degrading words used to describe an individual, suggestive or obscene letters, notes or invitations

      – Physical conduct: touching, assault, impeding or blocking movements

      and it goes on…

      All employers are prohibited from harassing employees in the workplace. If harassment occurs, an employer may be liable even if management was not aware of the harassment. An employer might avoid liability if the harasser is a non-management employee, the employer had no knowledge of the harassment, and there was a program to prevent harassment. If the harasser is a non-management employee, the employer may avoid liability if the employer takes immediate and appropriate corrective action to stop the harassment once the employer learns about it. Employers are strictly liable for harassment by their supervisors or agents. The harasser can be held personally liable for damages. Additionally, Government Code section 12940, subdivision (k), requires an entity to take “all reasonable steps to prevent harassment from occurring.” If an employer has failed to take such preventative measures, that employer can be held liable for the harassment. A victim may be entitled to monetary damages even though no employment opportunity has been denied and there is no actual loss of pay or benefits.

      Source: http://www.dfeh.ca.gov/Publications_StatLaws_SexHarrass.htm

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  3. In fact if you listen Sarah you will find that she didn’t chuckle in the ‘jovial’ sense it was more of the “I don’t believe you just said that to me” type of response.

    It is very much a sexual joke and it very much against the law for anyone including the employer to make such a comment to a co-worker whether it is in jest or not. Leo Laporte needs to learn to control his mouth and his comments. Just because it is ‘his channel’ he is not excluded from the same rules governing harassment in the workplace.

    He has shown himself to be uncouth, arrogant, abusive and harassing. The continued statements about his personal parts on air, the continued comments towards women. Does he not realize that it is very offensive for people to see or hear that type of comment.

    In fact he makes these comments and they are connected to advertisers. These advertisers start to become associated with him. It was this very reason that he got into trouble on the Screen Savers and it was this same reason that his job with TechTV became untenable and why he was let go. If you have a cancer you cut it out and TechTV had to cut that cancer from themselves and sent Leo on his merry way.

    I would say that Leo Laporte needs help, he is a psychologically damaged being. He has this overwhelming desire for attention. No it is not Attention Deficit Disorder like he claims it is a much more serious problem, I believe he has Histrionic Personality Disorder.

    You see, ADD is an abused term. People use to justify how shitty their kids are and blame it on a disorder. HPD is an actual issue and many adults that claim they have ADD really have HPD.

    It causes a person to believe that the world should revolve around them. They tend to get angry and block out those that do not treat him as the center of their world and give him that attention that he adores.

    I believe that Leo Laporte suffers from it, I believe that Jeff Jarvis suffers from it and the biggest sufferer of it is Mike Elgan.

    They all want to be the center of the world! They all desire attention from everyone. Jarvis operates under the idea that he is an important person and his rants and raves mean something. Elgan thinks that the world adores him. In fact so much that he begs people to follow him on ‘Ello’ because he cannot handle not having 3+ Million followers.

    Leo was so overwhelmed after being kicked from TechTV that he eventually started his own podcast so that he could recover some of that glory. He clings to the Tech guy show simply because it brings in money that he can help support his ailing Media service.

    In fact the biggest indicator of HPD that Leo Laporte gave was during his stint as the 100th Chat Room Guest Celebrity on that mediocre Saturday show. There he referred to those that did similar projects as ‘betraying’ him. The fact that when they left a visual media system why would they not want to try and build their own service.

    The anger or ire that he shows towards them, especially Kevin Rose, whom managed to sell on his Revision 3 while nobody wanted to deal with the tarnished Leo Laporte and didn’t want to ‘buy him’.

    In fact this sudden desire to do meet up’s is part of his HPD. He needs to try and get people to adore him again.

    Leo will never understand that he is the toxic individual and he will never seek help for his issues. He will continue to operate his little dwindling empire, try and keep a few of those others that he sees kinship with because he identifies with their issues close and he will continue to make inappropriate comments on air because any attention even if it is negative attention from the world is better than being lost in a back water where the world starts to pass you by.

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  7. If this behavior has really been going on for years, isn’t now the right time for women in podcasting, and the participants on the TWiT shows who must know about it, to start saying #metoo?

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  8. Probably doesn’t pay to joke around with a trouble maker like sarah lane. The first thing she’s gonna do whenever she gets a chance is play victim about something.

    LePorte has been doing all kinds of things for decades.
    But what does sarah lane do for a living?
    Other then Leo LePorte giving her a job.

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