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The Tragedy of Andy Signore, or Don’t #believewomen, Instead #believeevidence
My favorite movie-parody YouTube channel is How it Should Have Ended, but a close second is Honest Trailers, formerly published under the Screen Junkies banner (now Fandom Entertainment). I’ve been watching it for years. One of the founding figures of the channel, Andy Signore, was fired by Defy Media (which owned Screen Junkies) in October 2017 over accusations of sexual misconduct. A woman by the name of April Dawn had publicly accused him of luring her to a hotel room, trying to force himself on her, taking pictures of her without her consent, and other misdeeds. Several fans had also shared flirtatious messages he had sent them on social media.
I remember when this all went down, and the video that the Screen Junkies crew posted in the aftermath of his firing. These were colleagues of Andy, whom I’d watched interact and laugh with him on many videos in the past. They basically threw Andy under the bus. I don’t recall them really piling on him, but I don’t recall any of them questioning the accusations or standing up for him. They all seemed to be operating under the presumption that he was guilty.
Well, in August 2018 Andy brought a lawsuit against Defy Media for firing him. He also stated that much of what he was accused of doing was false, but that he could not share the full details until after his case against Defy Media was settled.
Well, the case was settled about a month ago, and now Andy Signore has released a video detailing what really went down between him and April Dawn, all backed up with screenshots of the chatlogs and emails between her and him.
Long story short, Andy was an adulterous jerk, but he WAS NOT a sexual predator. April was 100% a willing participant in their affair, and much of what she accused him of is demonstrably false. His career and reputation were destroyed, and he was slandered across the web on the basis of lies.
Below I’ve posted Andy’s video, and a video by YouTuber The Quartering (which is what led me to Andy’s video). The Quartering’s video also includes a screenshot of April’s response to all of this, a slimy statement that includes use of the phrase “my truth” (barf).
In looking at the comments on these two YouTube videos, I found it interesting that multiple commenters brought up how this yet more proof of the wisdom of the Mike Pence rule. Indeed.
I’m very curious to see if the Honest Trailers crew will release a video addressing Andy’s situation now in light of the truth being revealed.
***Also, don’t want to claim credit for coming up with #believeevidence myself; somebody in the comments of one of the videos used it.
Published in General
Well, ain’t that sumthin’?
From Andy Signore’s twitter feed today:
Once lost, reputation never allowed to be found again.
Who here is surprised by this? Raise your hand.
👇
Yep. He has done the best he could, though, and I am glad he spoke out. I wish I thought it would meaningfully change the direction of the conversation.
Not I. He’s a jerk; she’s a liar on the make. Tale as old as time. Perhaps he’s learned something; she’ll probably write a book and appear on The View. Or maybe she’ll hire Michael Avenatti to appeal her case. Oh, wait . . .
I don’t know what else we should expect, in a “Reality TV” culture-–in much of which the buzz about which contestant is having sex with other contestants (or why not, as though that’s some sort of defect), or which contestant will “win” either the man or the woman on the auction block at the end of any given series–captivates such vast swaths of the population that any pretense of, or interest in, producing shows of quality or discernment has gone with the wind (lower case) because they just won’t sell. It’s hardly surprising that every attention-grabbing little vixen can’t wait to fit herself in a leading role in some equally prurient drama, and absent an actual vehicle for her to star in, that she invents her own. And for every one of her, there’s a cheater, or a cad, who doesn’t take too terribly much convincing to go along. And absent one of those, well, she (and on occasion he) will just invent that too.
It’s also hardly surprising that the outrage mob on the Internet, starved of, and eager for, its daily dose of prurience and the opportunity to take down another instance of the patriarchy, supports her in creating yet another completely artificial and manufactured situation to reflect “her reality” and “her truth” when she decides that circumstances are ripe to cash in.
The old saying (attributed in some form to many, from Thomas Paine, to Mark Twain, to Winston Churchill) that “a lie travels half-way round the world while the truth is putting its boots on,” was never more apt, and of course, it’s not news either.
But the metaphor goes back much further than that. Best exemplar of it, IMHO, (bluestocking alert) is from The Aeneid, where Virgil writes of Fama:
It’s taken 2000 years, but we’ve actually reached a point in human history where the modern iteration of Fama can match the speed of Virgil’s creation, and in which we can, in an instant, find her suddenly, unavoidably, everywhere at once, and people are ruined in an instant as a result. A variant of Moore’s law in action, perhaps (I shudder to think what’s next.)
Really, there’s nothing new under the Sun.
I hope he gets his life back. If social media sites are, one by one, pulling his video, that doesn’t bode well. And that’s not surprising either.
@She, unfortunately I had to snip your amazing comment to reply.
There are a few (scattered) thoughts I have:
The first is that Orwell was definitely right, in that the proles are allowed to be as prurient as they desire, but those who want to remain in good standing with the Party have to remain chaste.
The second is, wouldn’t be funny (amazing/unexpected) for Generation Z” to actually become Puritan as a result of all of this “#metoo” stuff? I wouldn’t blame them. We would have thought that the AIDS epidemic in the 80s would have had this affect on kids’ manifestations of their libidos, but, nope, it’s the 24-hour news cycle and the panopticon of social media. When anyone can become famous, everyone will try to become famous, regardless of talent or skill.
Third, yeah he f*cked up. At least he admits it. From the way he talks in the linked video, it sounds like he’s lost his family, which is deserved. I agree that he probably shouldn’t have to lose everything else.
Fourth, what absolutely kills be about this modern Puritanism is it is missing the entire point. There is no forgiveness. It’s Original Sin meets Hell. If you’re white, you’re fraked. If you touched someone wrong ONCE, you’re fraked. Jesus told the thief beside him on Golgatha that he would join Him in Heaven. Modern theology (and that’s what it is) makes no room for forgiveness.
And since it’s constantly changing the rules as to what’s “allowed”, we’re all fraked according to it.
Fifth, that girl is a b*tch. She should be held accountable. At the very least, what she did is blackmail, and the dude can prove it. Her “boyfriend” is a conspirator. Both of which are Federal crimes. Where’s the prosecution, rushing it to take them down?
When it’s worse to run an “unlicensed(?)” lemonade stand than to blackmail someone? I weep.
And liberals think OT rules of rape accusations are draconian.
It’s almost like old Israel knew something we don’t. What was it?
Oh… women are fallen critters, too. They lie and are vindictive. Who knew.
This, in so many different realms. You ain’t seen a lack of grace or forgiveness until you’ve seen a bunch of woke knitters turn on someone who, until about five minutes ago, was one of their own, but who’s deviated every so slightly from the narrative of the moment, and therefore must be utterly destroyed. They have moved on to new vistas and expanses of differently oppressed groups, and their old allies are no longer part of the “conversation.” Crimenutely. As another (male) knitter said about the situation:
My Lord, would Nathaniel Hawthorne have had a field day with these people, or what?
Amen to that.
I tried to participate in the group reading of 1984 on here, but couldn’t keep up with the reading. This nugget was pulled out in one of the first posts and it wasn’t something that I’d noticed.
You’re so right. Others too have pointed out that Leftism has replaced traditional religion for so many. It follows so many of the patterns, but misses in one big area–redemption. A lot of time a public apology is demanded, but it does no good. It’s one area that seems to work for Trump, never apologize. Keep moving, because even a sincere apology is rejected.
By the way this is one of those cases that shows the Liberal Order is aimed at the higher good. Mobs are bad and make terrible judgements. Liberalism, in the classical sense, says we should never give into the mob and we need to find evidence for our conclusion. All of society functions better this way.
A woman can be lured to location and abused in such a way as to make charges hard to prove. Adversarial legal systems can be hard to deal with. But giving power to manipulative liars, grifters and demagogues is worse!
Rule by the mob and justice by the mob is the worse kind of justice possible. Even when the mob does a good thing is wholly accidental. This case a is classic demonstration how our Liberal Order makes us all better by restraining our worst instincts.
Andy made some terrible mistakes but he did not deserve the treatment he received for crimes he did not commit.
What a sad, sad story.
I didn’t say it in my previous comment but thank you for this post. I was dimly aware of this story when it happened but I had no idea there could be a follow up. What an amazing video the guy made. I hope this post flies to the main page and is widely read. Thank you Knotwise for posting it.
Same here. I have a love/hate opinion of the Screen Junkies crew. I love them when they’re going full nerd, or when they get serious about film and display their love of the art. They are my people. But I can’t stand when they go full-on SJW, and they’re completely sold out to the liberal left; it is the soup in which they stew.
Andy was always a counterbalance to that. Movie Fights was equally better and worse when he hosted it, but I appreciated how Andy would often scream,”No politics.” when guests would start to rant. He wanted to keep the shows fun, and focused on the movies. His replacements, as well as their counterparts at Collider tend to focus on the social impact of the movie of the day.
HISHE and Honest Trailers are still dope though.
Thanks for the update. I watch Movie Fights all the time.