45 thoughts on “Leo Laporte has Sad Realization About the Direction of TWiT and his Life”

    1. There have been a few times during our 24 year marriage I would have left my wife, if she wasn’t the mother of my children. Leaving her would destroy them, so I can’t.

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  1. Mother efferr uses the words boss and wife interchangeably, he deserves everything he gets.

    I wonder if he’d been inside Lisa the very day that was recorded?

    Also why did you cut out the usual fuck you? I think that’s the original clip it was taken from.

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  2. “I brought in a book keeper.. ” No, he hired someone who could kinda sorta use Excel but appealed to Little Leo. Once she figured that it was the little guy making the decisions, she took control and the results are self evident. No original content, no preparation, no quality control, no integrity and finally no brand worth saving. Just plenty of cheesy ads for whoever is willing to pay or come on as a ‘guest’, separated by recycled content, nostalgia and inappropriate jokes.

    This is TheNewQVC!

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  3. I remember when I heard this clip in the original podcast and it took me back for a moment, but I continued on and (for the most part) forgot about it. Now, looking back on this 5 years later, Leo messed up his life when he hired Lisa.

    Actually that last part is not true because the point where he messed up his life was when he let Eileen Rivera to be stolen by YouTube and then did not renew Tom’s contract. Gum might be cheaper than TM, but he sure as $hi+ destroyed TNT. From that point, TWiT’s downward spiral has been uncontrollable. And I am fairly certain that Tom’s contract not being renewed was in part a spite move for Eileen walking away from the brickhouse.

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    1. I remember when Tom announced he wasn’t returning to TWiT. I figured this was bound to happen since Tom was no longer physically at TWiT studios, so that didn’t take me by surprise. I also knew Eileen was his wife and was working in LA (and the reason why Tom moved), what I didn’t know was that there were hard feelings towards Eileen (and Tom) for her departure.

      Also, had Tom gone but iYaz and Sarah been allowed to run TNT for at least a couple of months temporarily while a suitable candidate was chosen maybe TNT wouldn’t have gone down as hard as it did, but we knew iYaz noped out of there as soon as he could (before Tom in fact) and Sarah was already eyeing leaving.

      I remember the first TNT show in 2014, new music, new intro, which sucked but hey that’s not the content… but then people started talking, it was super amateur-ish in content and quality. Then I found out that was the “pilot” and I thought things would get better (because they couldn’t get worse), but nope, it went bad very quickly.

      Then Tom started doing DTNS and even though I stuck with TNT until March of that year and still listen to TNT maybe once a week or less, the quality of content is just atrocious, the way in which they analyze the news and just the overall delivery of what is being said is sub par compared to Tom’s DTNS, which is done on hangouts, with an offsite producer and a different guest each show. DTNS should be the amateur show trying to evolve, instead DTNS is delivering world class content, analysis and delivery in a small economic package, while TNT is the total opposite.

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      1. If anything was illuminated by the whole Dvorak thing, it’s that Leo Laporte is a pathologically needy, petty and spiteful person.

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      2. You know, that is what gives me the hardest time with all the shows Leo is on. I feel like it’s mostly noise, and very little signal.

        If I’m going to spend an hour and half listening to MacBreak Weekly, would it to be too much to ask to learn something? Andy’s insights are few and far between these days, and Rene is the only one who seems connected to Apple, but doesn’t say much. And of course Leo is constantly bloviating and hijacking a Mac show to talk about Android or Windows or Samsung or HTC that they end up spending nearly half the show talking about non-Apple news.

        When I want general tech news, I feel like the DTNS respects my time, and gives me the news I’m looking for without a lot of filler. Compare that to Leo’s shows, which are way too light on informed analysis, and way too heavy on fluff.

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  4. This is an outstanding post and a brilliant find by the tipster. I am so in shock by Leo actually saying out loud the kernel of his own destruction that I am barely unable to muster the strength to call Lisa a cunt.

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    1. Go away. Nobody likes you except your sockpuppets. And stop harassing women on Twitter before they lock you up. Keywords: vagina, cunt, cum, anal, ugly, old, fat, diabetes, misogyny, sociopath

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    1. He was doing Casper on Saturday… the other companies come and go because most of them are shit and don’t have consistent ad budgets, one can only spend so much advertising Big Island Pineapple Shitnuggets.

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    2. See, I think there’s so much sponsor turnover because Leo’s ads just can’t deliver the sales. Why else would there be three completely new sponsors on MBW (Drobo, Texture, Getyounity)?

      I always thought that only the shitty sponsors advertise on TWiT. I don’t know about Texture and Getyounity, but Drobo makes completely unreliable shit.

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    1. This clip from a long time ago is fascinating. Insulting a poster for a well-meant effort, whether valuable or not, is disgusting but typical of the majority of the readership of this blog.

      Leo has said a lot of this many times before, especially how Lisa runs the joint now. He seems to get a thrill by giving over his autonomy to a woman and then talking about how he’s just a slave now. I think it’s a sex thing. A variant of masochism or B&D.

      Poor Dane. I don’t think he has ever fully recovered from the shafting he got from Leo/Lisa.

      The best video, by far, of Leo’s second thoughts about the long-term viability of TWiT is a one hour interview Kevin Rose did with Leo as the interviewee about 6 months ago, maybe more. It was for Kevin’s entrepreneur podcasts.

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    1. > and what happened to Dane, was he forced out by Lisa?

      Yes. Before Lisa arrived and it was just Leo, Dane (and Colleen, Tony and Frederique, I think) Dane handled lots of both production and business responsibilities. Lisa arrived and starting taking on more and more of the back office work, and Dane shifted to more straight-up production work.

      When you’re in a normal “start-up”, people have lots of different responsibilities, they’re doing things they’ve never done before, they make mistakes, they learn, and they don’t make the same mistakes again. There’s lots of work to go around, and you try to just back each other up and get as much done as you can.

      But when you’re in a start-up with somebody who wants more power and control, every mistake somebody else makes is an excuse for them to grab just a bit more responsibility and leverage to use against the person.

      Watch some of those Inside twit videos where Leo and Lisa have public conversations about some topic where Lisa doesn’t approve of something and is convincing Leo not to do it. Then imagine she doesn’t have to hold back what she thinks because they’re on air.

      That’s what happened to Dane. Lisa leveraged his mistakes against him until eventually she convinced Leo they didn’t need him any more. it was a pretty bitter break since Dane considered himself a co-founder, but there was no real ownership/stock structure in place.

      Same thing happened to Erik, Tom, NSFW, Kiki, Amber, Ray Maxwell, and on and on. In Dane’s case it was worse, because he was a direct threat to Lisa’s control.

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    2. Dane was leaving when Lisa came along. Leo is a psycho who is hard to work with. Eileen quit for the same reason. Lisa is a small-time country girl who saw an opportunity and pounced. It’s fun to watch her pretend to be a big shot. It’s obvious she does have influence, but her judgement will be small town, uninformed, and most often wrong-headed.

      This video is a rare look at Leo’s repressed self-reflection. It’s probably the most pathetic thing ever posted on this blog.

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    3. Dane was Leo’s right-hand man and kept the books at the cottage when TWiT was small. Leo made Dane the “President” of TWiT. (Probably in lieu of a $20 a week raise.) Lisa came in to do the taxes or something and, according to Leo, found TWiT’s financial affairs in disarray and told Leo. The President of TWiT was fired. Lisa took over.

      How badly Dane actually mismanaged things (if he, in fact, did mismanage them at all) is not known. Whether Leo and Lisa were sleeping together at that early point is also unknown. It’s quite possible that the whole “Dane fucked-up” thing was just a way to get rid of him so Lisa could move in and take over.

      Leo’s public bad-mouthing of Dane must have hurt him and his career. It was an early example of Leo’s insensitivity to the plight of others.

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  5. Ugh.. 2010. Truer words.

    The Fat Man’s not fit to run a business. Too emotional too fragile too insecure.

    It’s ok for him. He’s piling up the cash in stacks getting ready for the day when Lisa leaves him for a real cock. He’ll be fine but will leave a disaster in his wake.

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  6. Before Dane, Leo only had a few shows. Dane helped him move to the next level to the point he needed a someone to do the books. I do believe Lisa pushed him out, but without Dane, the business would have never been more than a few shows. I agree Leo was not good to Erik, Tom, Eileen, etc but Dane was with hime the longest. So Sad.

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  7. Considering the state of the working relationship with Paul at the time, this is some pretty gauche and awkward footage. For starters, being dramatic about your salary obligations with someone who in all likelihood was making a pittance for his end of the arrangement.

    Lisa came along at the right time and knew exactly how to work the situation. It’s pretty clear they were already involved during this video, just from observing Leo’s behavior over the years.

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  8. If this video teaches us anything it’s that at some point in our lives we show our true selves without reservation. Paul’s comments were actually more poignant and accurate. If he made them today Windows Weekly would be gone. This clip defines what TWIT has become while at the same time foreshadowing why we’ve gotten here.

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    1. When Leo’s affair with Lisa was disclosed, Leo stated they had been dating and wanted to keep the relationship a secret to the TWiT employees. I remember when Leo moved out of Jeniffer’s home and was Apartment hunting, I just don’t remember the time frame, before or after the sex chat release. But, with Leo’s history of hitting up female co-workers, co-authors and booth babes, I’m willing to wager he and Lisa were going at it fairly early in their employer/employee relationship.

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  9. I remember going to the TWiT cottage for the Tech Guy right before the move. It was clear that everything was going to change despite assurances to the contrary. Maybe after it hits rock bottom we’ll get the old TWiT back.

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