Category Archives: News

News articles about the dark side of “new media”

News

Mike Elgum Bullies Randal Schwartz

23 Comments
Are ee ess pee ee cee tee
Are ee ess pee ee cee tee

One of the only remaining nice things TWiT does, dating back to the golden era, is give the fans a show about Linux.  FLOSS Weekly was genuinely born in a time when TWiT cared about the audience and not profit.

Another old tradition is not adhering to a schedule and having programs begin on time. When non-professionals like Elgum helm a broadcast, it is paramount that there is no time frame to follow. The length of his show can vary from seventeen minutes to sixty five minutes. He has no control of what happens nor any idea what he is doing, the chances of him starting on time are virtually non-existent.. All the hosts have always been understanding about the malleable calendar.

The girls won't go for this in 2015
The girls won’t go for this bullying in 2015

It seems power hungry News Director Mike Elgum found someone to push around. Although Gum is unable to start or finish his show on schedule he is forcing the kind and generous Randall Schwartz to start his show an hour earlier so as not to dare delay the comedy news show known as TNT. Oh how I long for what once was and what will surely never be again.  The lovely and talented Sarah Lane would never have stood by for this.

Update 1: Hilton was unavailable for comment. We are investigating why he was let go from TWiT and no longer appears in the “people” section. One possible explanation is he never worked there. Speculation that his picture and profile were  put on the site instead of actually hiring someone of color is pure speculation

Misc, News

How To Express Your Disgust Over #DickGate

157 Comments
Update: We made a mistake in the email address and have now corrected it. Thank you.
The now unoffensive picture by comparison.
The now unoffensive picture by comparison.

We are all upset by Leo displaying a penis live during The Tech Guy podcast. The question is, where can you go for closure? Well, Leo does The Tech Guy for Premiere Radio Networks and he can’t even bother to show up on time.

Premiere complaint letter being sent by a dissatisfied party
Premiere complaint letter being sent by a dissatisfied party
If you are disgusted and you’d like to express your disgust to Premiere Networks, please write a thoughtful email to them and also call, to make sure you get through. Do not be hateful, but simply express your reasons for your dissatisfaction and encourage them to do something to change the behavior.

Example reasons:

  • Displaying a penis on Sunday, May 24, 2015’s The Tech Guy podcast.
  • Gawker and Perez Hilton have now covered the story, in which Leo lies about what happened. TOMO News has spoofed it as well. These public stories are damaging their brand.
  • Not getting to the radio show in time
  • Forgetting to do the Carbonite live read even after Nathan reminded him multiple times during the show, and then joking that Nathan may be fired
  • He makes fun of callers regularly off-the-air (in terms of radio, but still goes to the TWiT live stream)
  • Leo laporte is a unrepentant misogynist

Contact information:

Main Phone: 818-377-5300 (Ask to speak to Jennifer Leimgruber, SVP of Programming, or to leave a message for her)

Email Jennifer Leimgruber
Senior Vice President of Programming, Premiere Radio Networks, Inc.
jleimgruber@premierenetworks.com

Write physical mail. This will likely have a greater impact.
Address to:
Jennifer Leimgruber
Senior Vice President of Programming
15260 Ventura Blvd
Sherman Oaks, CA 91403

Social Media: Twitter, Facebook

Please join with us to communicate our dissatisfaction to Premiere. Hopefully Leo will change his behavior.

Misc, News

TWiT Financials and Employee Relations

42 Comments

Yesterday, we were treated to an impromptu Inside SHiT during the This Week in Tech pre-show, which occurred when #Soup started blabbing about how much money TWiT makes. CeHO had to come in to correct everything as usual.

We loooooove Chad.
We loooooove Chad.
The video is pretty boring, so we are posting it without any more comment. You should win a prize if you make it all the way through, but we’re just #OneAss and our Patreon hasn’t hit the milestone where we can send prizes yet. This will never end up in a show, so we’re posting it for posterity.

Please give timestamps to interesting events and we’ll copy them up to the article here as a list. Examples:

  • 1:49 – $7 million in gross sales.
  • 3:11 – Talk about worthless net worth.
  • 5:09 – 5 figures, more on bandwidth, expenses…
  • 7:20 – Different bank accounts / puddles
  • 11:11 – Leo does not care.
  • 16:45 – Chad is doing great. He came to thank us. Some people shouldn’t be employees. Oh my god Chad is so happy. He is so thrilled. He’s so excited with what he’s doing. We love Chad. He’s living his dream. He said you know what, you work really really really hard when you’re doing this yourself. We’re going to visit him when we go to LA. That was a tough one. His loyalty was divided. Chad should be saying it himself. He says it to us. That’s all that matters.
  • 19:25 – We torture our employees a bit, but it’s kinda fun, right? He he he he.

We’re (#OneAss “royal we”) usually in our live chat if you want to come complain about wasting 21 minutes of your life that you can never get back.

Mostly Snoozefest

News

Leo Laporte, “Disgusting Little Creep”?

33 Comments

Leo can't help himself, even with works of art.
Complete utter pervert?
We (Leo says this is the “royal we”) at Total Drama are well aware of Leo’s problems dealing with women. From sexual harassment complaints during the Tech TV days from Kate Botello to present day sexual objectification, #Soup is a master misogynist.

The editorial board received a tip recently, pointing to a Reddit AMA Soledad O’Brien did many months ago. When asked about the character Dev Null, created solely by #Soup for MSNBC, this was her response.

Soledad O'Brien Speaks Out on Leo Laporte
He’s actually a feminist when not in character.

In the words we’re sure our resident Man of God would say:

Matthew 7:18: “A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.”

We now have earlier evidence of Leo Laporte’s deviance that predates even Tech TV evidence. If you have anything to report, send us a tip or join us in chat.

News

News Director Mike Elgan Ridicules Former Guest for Healthy Lifestyle Choices

24 Comments

Are you not entertained?
Are you not entertained?
Not content to simply stutter and gulp through prepared readings from a teleprompter, Elgum and #Cokerage decided it was fine to make fun of a former guest on-air with impunity. He could not even remember Greg’s name. Total Drama remembers.

Why, you may ask, is Greg the subject of an infantile dolt’s ire? Because he had the audacity to use a standing desk with a treadmill to stay healthy while working from home. We admire Greg Ferenstein for his courage in dealing with Gum, and we are sorry he is now the subject of the imbecile’s idiotic smirks, chuckles, table drumming, and freestyle humming.

Update: Response from Gum

Enough of that.

News

Leo Laporte Treated Jolie O’Dell as a Sexual Object

56 Comments

Leo can't help himself, even with works of art.
Leo can’t help himself, even with works of art.
This Sunday’s TWiT was the scene of an incredible display of how Leo Laporte feels women are beneath him. Most people would be ashamed if they acted this way when they were drunk.

But Leo Laporte wasn’t drunk; he was sober. He gawked and whistled at Jolie O’Dell, a reporter who happens to be a woman. This fact alone targeted her for his chauvinistic glances and glares. It allowed him to go after her with a sexual fervor unseen in the workplace since the 50s and 60s.

There’s not much more to say. Watch this video and come discuss it with us in our live chat.

News, Opinion

Leo Laporte is Causing Viewers to Threaten Members of Total Drama

37 Comments

Hilton A. Goring could not be reached for comment.
Hilton A. Goring could not be reached for comment.
Habitual liar and soup guzzler Leo Laporte this week felt he figured out who Total Drama is. He is desperate for his fan base to believe it’s one person, but as stated previously, We Are All Total Drama. We know he doesn’t believe that it’s #OneAss, but he needs his audience to believe it so they don’t find Total Drama. Tell everyone you know and join us in our live chat.

Witness Leo Go After a Critic Mercilessly On-Air

Ask yourself: “What “celebrity” does this with their bully pulpit, other than Leo Laporte?”

One sycophant's threats for which #Soup is responsible. It will probably not be the last.
One sycophant’s threats for which #Soup is responsible. It will probably not be the last.
News

OMGchad Continues Crushing It Outside Leo Laporte’s Clutches

35 Comments

The Editorial Board would like to congratulate Chad Johnson (@OMGchad) on the first non-TWiT episode of The Giz Wiz.

It's true.
It’s true.

Leaving the nest worked out well, for OMGcraft and now The Giz Wiz. We’re still bitter about RedditUp. Chad used a custom setup with a few webcams, Skype, and a small switcher remote (pictured below) combined with some software to make a production to rival and surpass TWiT’s million dollar studio.

On that topic, take a look at the Giz Wiz website that was put together in a few days by t2t2 and blendermf. It cost effectively nothing, since Chad has smart friends, was thrown together in a few days, and it still looks and works better than #Soup’s $350k abortion of a site.

If you like The Giz Wiz and want to ensure its future success, donate to the Giz Wiz Patreon. Total Drama is not affiliated with The Giz Wiz or Chad in any way. We’re just fans. Good luck, Chad!

Interesting (“inner resting” for Patrick Norton) aspects of the show and chat:

  1. FatFuckSJ tried to tell them how to run their audio production in their chat (not part of TWiT’s chat).
  2. ScooterX was in their chat (with no power, which is funny).
  3. The shutins/sheep were going nuts without mods, like asylum patients set free and who don’t know how to live on the outside. Dr_Mom freaked out about someone saying a wordy dirty.
  4. No one was K-Lined or muted.
  5. They don’t go into nazi mode there because of us running a bridge, unlike #twitlive. In fact, they gave us permission.
What isn't really?
What isn’t really?
News

TWiT Morons Misspell Their Own City in the First Episode of The New Screen Savers

24 Comments

Incompetent buffoons Leo and Lisa can’t manage a new flagship show debut without misspelling the first lower third on the screen. Did they have EffenDumb (Jason C. Cleanthes) on the job?

Possibly homeless man announcing the first episode of "The New Screen Savers"
Possibly homeless man announcing the first episode of “The New Screen Savers”

This story was sent in as a tip. Keep them coming; we can’t do it without you. We are all Total Drama.  #IAmTotalDrama

Our tipster writes:

In literally the first scene of the first episode of TNSS, they misspelled Petaluma in the lower third…. Off to a great start.

When this show is a HUMONGOUS success and historians look back on the first episode, I’m sure they will be nothing but impressed.

In case you think we’re liars like Leo Laporte, it’s still in the posted episode as of the posting of this article, but we suspect they will fix it after this post (at least in the download version).

Misc, News, Opinion

Leo Laporte Doesn’t Understand Fair Use

9 Comments

Lecherous Leo Laporte had quite the Reddit AMA yesterday. The shutins and nazi mods were out in full force to downvote any criticism or opposition. Unfortunately for #Soup, unlike the chat room they can’t ban you there; they can only hope you don’t view the downvoted comments (you should).

Here’s one interesting tidbit (there will be more to come from this AMA which was a gold mine as we expected):

That's not how that works. That's not how any of this works!
That’s not how that works. That’s not how any of this works!

Old License

Seems reasonable.
Seems reasonable.

New License

We knew something smelled fishy.
We knew something smelled fishy.

Hilton A. Goring could not be reached for comment.
Hilton A. Goring could not be reached for comment.
Total Drama noticed this license change within weeks and we figured it was for this reason, but now that Leo has publicly confirmed, we felt it was time to school him in the US doctrine of Fair Use under the United States Copyright law. He may want to ask Denise Howell for more advice.

From the “What Is Fair Use?” page at Stanford University’s “Copyright & Fair Use” section:

What Is Fair Use?

Leo Laporte
Transformative.
In its most general sense, a fair use is any copying of copyrighted material done for a limited and “transformative” purpose, such as to comment upon, criticize, or parody a copyrighted work. Such uses can be done without permission from the copyright owner. In other words, fair use is a defense against a claim of copyright infringement. If your use qualifies as a fair use, then it would not be considered an illegal infringement.

Commentary and Criticism

This is what he thinks of the chatters
We certainly criticize this guy.
If you are commenting upon or critiquing a copyrighted work — for instance, writing a book review — fair use principles allow you to reproduce some of the work to achieve your purposes.

Parody

Parody.
Parody.
A parody is a work that ridicules another, usually well-known work, by imitating it in a comic way. Judges understand that, by its nature, parody demands some taking from the original work being parodied. Unlike other forms of fair use, a fairly extensive use of the original work is permitted in a parody in order to “conjure up” the original.

Dear reader, we’ll leave it up to you to decide. Please join us in our live chat room to discuss this further, a place free of censorship, unlike the TWiT Live Chat Room or #Soup’s AMA. Feel free to say things like “All the king’s horses and all the king’s men, couldn’t get Leo to fit in an amusement park ride again.”

This story is a result of a tip sent in by a reader via the “Feedback & Tips” link on the right. Keep ’em coming!