Buzzfeed: Tony Robbins accused of sexual misconduct

[MJ DeMarco]

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/janebradley/tony-robbins-self-help-secrets

He made some comments awhile back that wasn't favorable to the "me too" movement and now this.

Not sure what I believe.

Tony has a blunt, "in your face" way about exposing our internal dogmas, perhaps it was acceptable 20 years ago but not in today's hypersensitive culture.

He recently said "victimhood is now rewarded" which is somewhat true.

The allegations are years old.

Not favorable to the allegations is how his lawyers are trying to squash the story and threaten anyone connected to it.

Here's Tony's response:

An Open Letter to BuzzFeed Editors and Board of Directors from Tony Robbins

What stands out — even in today’s sea of mis-representation and journalistic corner-cutting — is the 2014 report by the industry-standard, non-partisan, Pew Research Center which cites Buzzfeed as “the least trusted news source” of them all. So, it stands to reason that you are presently facing financial, organizational, and management troubles. BuzzFeed is unapologetically fueling the current cultural divide by targeting well-known individuals with false allegations to boost its readership and serve its shareholders.

Let me be clear, while my open-classroom therapeutic methods are not for everyone, and while I am on my best day still only an imperfect human being, I have never behaved in the reckless, irresponsible, or malicious manner intimated by false, unfounded, and incendiary allegations suggested by BuzzFeed story-tellers.

Several individuals have contacted us to let us know that you attempted to manipulate their testimony and, in some cases, even ignored their legal counsel when they pointed out inaccuracies and mischaracterizations of their client’s personal accounts at the hands of your reporters.

Why didn’t you listen to what these individuals had to say and instead choose to proceed with inverted truths as your central narrative?

Your organization cannot claim objectivity or journalistic integrity when your written ethics and standards policy claims that in “activism” issues “there are not two sides.” As we all know, in the context of a just democracy, there are always two sides.

A compelling argument, especially considering Buzzfeed typically isn't interested in truth, but in agenda and narrative. They even admit as such (in above quote). Seems like they disregarded some testimony and tried to move things in/out of context.

Again, in today's world where news organizations are purely partisan activists for certain agendas, I'm not sure what to believe anymore. But for now, I'll stick to the legal standard, innocent until proven guilty.

 

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[Kung Fu Steve]

(Sorry formatting on my phone is a little rough today!)

Here I come to save the daaaaaay~

Here's his response:
An Open Letter to BuzzFeed Editors and Board of Directors from Tony Robbins

Here's THE WOMAN THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT IN THE ARTICLE"

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJ3kWMBJE5Y&feature=youtu.be


Here's the HEAD OF SECURITY:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=2621681007860212

View: https://www.facebook.com/alonzo.cahoon.3/videos/2621681007860212/


Here's the Founder of our biggest supported charity (you know, the ones defending women and saving them?)

2. Tim Ballard (Founder of Operation Underground Railroad)

YouTube:

View: https://youtu.be/1Gzi71asKMI


3. Sean Callagy:

View: https://youtu.be/yNehWJEeJaU

If you feel like helping us with getting this ridiculous thing down, you can do so here:

4. Change.org Petition: Sign the Petition (#boycottbuzzfeed)

Lots of people sharing this all over. Lots of headline reading. The article itself is a joke.

 

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[lowtek]

This is revolting. I'm not a TR fan; I've never read any of his stuff. Never been to one of his events, and I probably never will.

But I can clearly see what is happening here: The script strikes back.

Don't try to seek out information to improve your life and break free from your corporate government overlords... stay asleep.

Don't try to achieve too much, unless it's in a video game.

You'll never be anything anyway, except a victim. And there is honor in victim hood. There is no honor in achievement and self improvement. Certainly no honor in amassing wealth take care of your family and descendants. That would be privilege. And there's nothing worse than privilege.

 

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[GPM]

The biggest take away for me is that Buzzfeed believes that it is a news organization. I thought it was just some celebrity gossip rag, do people actually think it is news?

If buzzfeed ever shows up on my phone newsfeed I just block it.

 

[wade1mil]

Misconduct basically means unprofessional behavior. Basically, 99% of the human race is guilty of misconduct. Sarcasm? Misconduct. Joking? Misconduct. Using a non-politically correct word (even appropriately)? Misconduct. I had an HR person tell me that commenting on someone's sunburn can be offensive because it's "racist" since it has to do with skin tone. WTF?

We live in times where flirting is often times categorized as sexual harassment. That's absurd. People meet their boyfriend/girlfriend/husband/wife at work. If you're not allowed to say you like someone or tell someone they're attractive, it will be awful hard to meet people for the majority of the population. Bottom line, flirting should be completely acceptable. But if someone clearly states they're not interested, everything afterwards can be considered harassment.

False accusations should also carry equal punishment for the crime which the other person is being accused. If someone falsely claims someone raped them, they serve ten years in prison which the falsely-accused rapist would have served. False sexual misconduct means you lose your job, etc. Simply accusing someone can kill their career even if its false, and there needs to be protection against it.

So, I feel confident Tony is guilty of misconduct (as I am with nearly everyone in the world). Anything more than that is speculation. I also see where there is motivation for someone to falsely accuse him of something. But the fact it comes from Buzzfeed doesn't influence me in any way because they (along with basically every "news" organization) is just indoctrinating you with their twist so you think how they want you to think.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

A nice takedown of Buzzfeed from TR, what some people call a "news organization".

Who is watching the watchdogs?

The story BuzzFeed doesn’t want you to read

medium.com

Glad to hear he is suing them, hope he "Gawkers" them.

 

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[Process]

One could hope.



This was my initial gut reaction after hearing some "non-PC" comments he made some time ago. After crossing the PC victim mob and their Scripted ideology, this doesn't seem unexpected, almost predictable. Character assassination of anyone who doesn't fall in line with the prescribed media narrative is the new normal. Just ask Judge Kavanaugh, Alex Jones, Pewdiepie, James Woods ... I can go on and on...



I can't boycott a media outlet that I never used, and never will. Hence the title of this thread is tagged with "Buzzfeed:" -- they own this shit.

After reading about group psychology I understand them.

Their audience is the frustrated mass of people often called sidewalkers.

1. These people always are looking for a villain to blame.
2. They also will lick the boots of any dominant figures/forces that offer them salvation around the corner for no effort of course. (Think gurus on STEROIDS)


Some really eye opening books are:

• Psychology of the Masses - by Noah Halberg (Summary of the next three)
• Crystallizing Public Opinion - by Edward Bernays
• Public Opinion - by Walter Lippman
• The Crowd - by Gustav Le Bon
• Escaping Cultural Hypnosis - The Rogue Hypnotist (An overview on breaking free)

EDIT:

Events like these are the reason sometimes I fear success. @487 told that fame is overrated. Today with the "Me too" movement and everything that is going on is really easy to fall prey of bullshit media and fake news and lose everything. Even a booming company doing great. All that needs to happen is for the merchant processor to withdraw their service. Chances are the company goes bankrupt.

The more you know. The less you want to know.

The Art of War is getting one's enemy to mentally accept defeat. Why would you let people intimidate you from even trying to live your dreams and understand life's meaning?

It is how mega companies like Standard Oil got their opponents to roll over before they even did anything. The Script and rat race NEEDS you to believe you can't get off the rusty nail on your own.

 

[million$$$smile]

Sad.

We are so hypersensitive that it precludes even having a conversation with the opposite sex in a work environment without a witness for fear of something taken out of context.

I recently had to reorder construction work signs that you see along the highway (yep, the big rectangular orange ones) for one of the DOT districts in our state because the head of the dept. demanded 'Workers Ahead' rather than the common 'Men Working Ahead'

She said she had a female worker on the crew.....

 

[MJ DeMarco]

The biggest take away for me is that Buzzfeed believes that it is a news organization. I thought it was just some celebrity gossip rag, do people actually think it is news?

Unfortunately yes, many millenials in the USA think it speaks the gospel.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Edit: I hope he uses his money to go after them like Peter Thiel went after Gawker.

One could hope.

But I can clearly see what is happening here: The script strikes back.

Don't try to seek out information to improve your life and break free from your corporate government overlords... stay asleep.

Don't try to achieve too much, unless it's in a video game.

You'll never be anything anyway, except a victim. And there is honor in victim hood. There is no honor in achievement and self improvement. Certainly no honor in amassing wealth take care of your family and descendants. That would be privilege. And there's nothing worse than privilege.

This was my initial gut reaction after hearing some "non-PC" comments he made some time ago. After crossing the PC victim mob and their Scripted ideology, this doesn't seem unexpected, almost predictable. Character assassination of anyone who doesn't fall in line with the prescribed media narrative is the new normal. Just ask Judge Kavanaugh, Alex Jones, Pewdiepie, James Woods ... I can go on and on...

(#boycottbuzzfeed)

I can't boycott a media outlet that I never used, and never will. Hence the title of this thread is tagged with "Buzzfeed:" -- they own this shit.

 

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[Johnny boy]

lol is sex illegal now or something?

 

[wade1mil]

The root of sexual harassment is the “unwelcome” part.

If Jesse flirts with Kelly without knowing it's "unwelcome" to Kelly, it is not harassment.

If you misjudge if it was unwelcome then that is on you.

If Jesse "misjudges" Kelly's interest and flirts with Kelly, it is not harassment and it is not "on" Jesse.

If you don’t know, you don’t know.

If Jesse flirts with Kelly when Jesse "doesn't know" if Kelly is interested, it is not harassment.

The alternative is for everyone to just STFU and do their jobs.

And stay single until they die and never procreate thus causing the human race to become extinct in 100 years all because a "movement" scared everyone into thinking they are a bad person and their life will be ruined for showing interest in a natural human desire of being sexual with another person.

Harassment would be doing these things after being informed by the other person that it's unwelcome. You just have to ignore the love stories like The Notebook which romanticize never giving up, and the stories of someone saying no to going on a date with another person a dozen times before falling in love and being married for 50 years.

 

[Kak]

A loud minority of women have become so militant in their accusations that cautiousness of men has unfortunately backfired on all women. More of us are going “Mike Pence.”

Is it my fault or theirs’ for wondering if a woman applicant will be a bigger troublemaker than a man? Unfortunately, the militant feminists have put that in my head. Good job “fighting the good fight.” Us employers are really responding well to all of the threats and marches.

Nokia, a company well known for makeing “great” business decisions, is now giving a pay raise to every woman that works there, for one reason, vaginas. If they think that is the ace in the hole they will be out of business in short order.

There is a literally an ETF called “SHE” and it invests in companies that are women heavy in leadership roles. Who decided that genitals are an investible criteria? That is like investing in companies with red logos. Anyway, “she” underperforms the general market every year. Go figure SPDR’s left wing pontification ETF doesn’t preform well...

 

[BellaPippin]

There's a simple solution to your "shared experience that happens to literally all women and girls" it's a called a burqa. They might have some on sale this Black Friday. Buy one and I guarantee you, no male will bother you with their slimy selves.

Ok I was gonna ignore this thread but that's just something very messed up to say and it triggered very intense emotions. I have to deal with 'unwanted" advances pretty often. I don't just mean the guy at the coffee shop who just tries to strike a conversation which I'm ok with. They usually give me their number and I take it politely and that's about it. Or the barista that says I have a nice smile. That's ok, makes me blush, feels nice. I'm also talking about the creep dude that sits next to me and starts masturbating in a bus, the creep that sits next to me on the train and keeps talking to me even though I tell him I don't want to talk, and because harrassment isn't enough for me to kick his a$$ and call it self-defense all I can do is get up and change cars, the construction crew that yells obnoxious, ridiculously sexual stuff from the other sidewalk on the third floor of their construction and everybody can hear about what they wanna do to my a$$, the guy that follows me a couple blocks and gets a thrill on the power play. I've been living that since I was a teenager. I'm supposed to got get me a burqa? Are you serious or you practice being insensitive as a sport?

And all the people that are affected to stand their ground and not lower their heads.

Yea that's what people try to do, BOTH WAYS. I had to suck it up and let it go because I knew there was no way to prove all the things my ex did to me in court. You are scared to approach women? Try having to install a CCTV in your house to prove your husband is commiting marital rape. Too bad he didn't beat me up enough to show, I just got PTSD, BUMMER!

When a lot of things happen you don't have a camera ready, damnit. Both men and women suffer because there's sick people out there and you can't just show what they did.

IDGAF about buzzfeed or TR. Yes I'm against false accusations and everyone should be presumed innocent. But your comment just sucks in every context.

 

[LaraJF]

Sad.

orange ones) for one of the DOT districts in our state because the head of the dept. demanded 'Workers Ahead' rather than the common 'Men Working Ahead'

My daughter went to NAU for 2 years where an English teacher gave a guy an F on a paper for using the phrase "mankind." She said he should be more inclusive...and use "humanity."

You can't make this stuff up.

 

[Kung Fu Steve]

It is like Kung Fu Steve above quickly browsing Buzzfeed for shitty articles and then bashing my post about them having good news stories. If he actually took his time and checked it out, he would find that they do.

1. We Saw Nuns Kill Children: The Ghosts of St. Joseph’s Catholic Orphanage
2. Trump Moscow: The Definitive Story Of How Trump’s Team Worked The Russian Deal During The Campaign
3. She Thought She Was In Bed With Her Boyfriend, Until She Saw His Face
4. An 18-Year-Old Said She Was Raped While In Police Custody. The Officers Say She Consented.
5. Growth At Any Cost: Top Facebook Executive Defended Data Collection In 2016 Memo — And Warned That Facebook Could Get People Killed
6. Nobody Believed Neil deGrasse Tyson's First Accuser. Now There Are Three More.
7. The Money Trail: A Series Of Suspicious Money Transfers Followed The Trump Tower Meeting
8. Does This Recording Say "Yanny" Or "Laurel"????
9. Beto O’Rourke Could Be The Democrat Texas Has Been Waiting For
10. Alt-Right Troll To Father Killer: The Unraveling Of Lane Davis

Do I really need to copy and paste this whole list?

THIS is breaking news stories?

My man, we are on two VERY different wave lengths.

 

[BellaPippin]

I'm glad you said it, because I don't think these words are nearly as powerful coming from a man.

I've been sat next to the guy on the crowded NYC subway who whips out his dick and starts masturbating.

As a man, I've turned it into a funny party story (one that people request I tell over and over again). I can't even imagine how I would have felt if I were a woman; I haven't even tried until now. I admit, it was scary for me because this guy clearly had nothing to lose and was off his rocker.

As a woman, it would have been terrifying.

Every woman I've hired or worked with has had stories of a boss or superior being incredibly inappropriate.

One woman was flat out told she wouldn't get a raise because she was sleeping with the boss, which never happened. The boss was just telling people that. She wound up going to HR and providing written proof of this, and they gave her 6 months pay just to keep her quiet. Sounds great for her, right?

Well, that's until you realize this guy got a relatively cheap pass to figure out what doesn't work, and has an opportunity to figure out how to abuse another woman.

On the flip side, we're entering a state where any woman can claim abuse even if it's unfounded. Several years ago in my first job out of college, one of my female friends in the office had a crush on me, but I wasn't interested. When I told her I'd rather be friends, she told HR that I was making unwanted sexual advances at her, and they threatened to fire me even though they knew it was baseless.

Whenever something like this comes up, I really try to use my head and not make judgement on either party unless there's overwhelming evidence (cough cough, R. Kelly)

I don't have any answers here, aside from that I try to follow the Golden Rule and treat everyone with respect.

It's a minefield out there, ya'll.

Thanks man. For the record I also hate that people take advantage of these things. It delegitimizes the claims of people who actually have something to deal with and it's just plain.... such a low, disgusting thing to do. I'm sorry you came across one of those people. Also there's cray girls out there being raised just as shallow as some men thanks to all the trash out there thinking it's ok to treat guys like garbage. Or that when they take a chance to try to approach you the best way to turn them down is to humiliate them. That enrages me just as much. We humans can be gold or trash, gender is irrelevant.

I love every word you said.

I'm torn because on the one hand MeToo is taken to disgusting extremes. Ruining someone's exemplary life because of something they may have done 40 years ago leads to no place good. Not for the individual, not for society.

On the other, our treatment of women is often abhorrent as Bella relates above. Not all men, not even most men, but some men do this, and it needs to be punished.

MeToo is like a prescription drug. Its pretty powerful, but comes with some dangerous side effects. Like powerful drugs in medicine, it should be used only where necessary. When its no longer necessary, we need to switch to something more appropriate.

We as a society aren't good at judging when we've gone too far, and we're also not good at backing off when its the time to do so. Perhaps people like Tony Robbins can help wean us off of MeToo and get us moving in a more productive direction.

Thanks Jon.

The media (Buzzfeed included) is soooo inflamatory. It's never been easier to just strike a match and light someone on fire without evidence. The helplessness goes both ways, whether if they are innocent or if you are telling the truth, more often than not you can't prove it anyway. It's hard at least for me to judge and say "this person came out 10 years later because now they are emotionally ready to say something" or assume well, the interview money and the media attention is also nice, isn't it?! How do you know??? You can't. It's literally someone's word against the other person's. Maybe it's a bit of both.

Sometimes I tell myself my ex is living his life all fine and dandy, and that he could abuse someone else. That I should have said something or what if I actually pressed charges now? But I don't have proof. At least nothing that would be solid in a court room. All I can do is support people and raise some awareness. I could go on a revenge crusade but I rather move on, I don't wanna see his face again. And I'm cautious of what I say because I don't want to be associated with the men haters. Good men get hurt too by all this circus. Heck good men get abused too. I hate it’s a war of the sexes, people are so blind on both sides. As usual a lot of good people end up in the same bag as the loud dumb ones.

Point was...The media skews the perception of everything towards the wrong way, because that is what sells. We know that. For bad or for good if we "have to be careful" I think at least that encourages thinking before acting/talking...even if sometimes we end up overthinking some things. Hopefully with time we can balance it out and not be so sensitive either. Most of the conversations I've been in, however, people are chill and don't need an algorithm to know what to say and aren't oversensitive either. The only time I see this drama is media.

It is more important than ever to use our critical thinking and advocating for common sense and fairness at the level we each can, however futile it may seem, instead of being men vs women it should be us vs toxic people.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

This is what happens when something get politicized that shouldn't be politicized.

Reputations are stained (or ruined) for political capital and alleged victims aren't believed.

No one wins.

Thank your media and the politicians who abet them.

 

[Kung Fu Steve]

But here's the very issue:

everyone is reading the headline and saying that he's being accused of sexual abuse -- and he's not!

It just blows my mind how "buzzfeed" turns into "media" and "I didn't like how he talked to this woman" turns into "abusing people" and "he gave me a hug" turns into "sexual abuse" ... it's just F*cking insane.

I know the guy. Extremely well. This is not Bill Cosby here...

 

[Roli]

A nice takedown of Buzzfeed from TR, what some people call a "news organization".

Who is watching the watchdogs?

The story BuzzFeed doesn’t want you to read

medium.com

Glad to hear he is suing them, hope he "Gawkers" them.

Buzzfeed is a news outlet, like McDonald's is a restaurant.

 

[Sanj Modha]

I've followed this story closely.

TR's team have reached out to the editors of BuzzFeed because there's some factual inaccuracies in their version of events (this can be easily proved by his team such as dates/times/locations etc).

Tony himself was willing to be interviewed on video by BuzzFeed but they refused. Make of that what you will.

 

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[StrikingViper69]

That can't be real journalism, they didn't include random tweets of people agreeing with them.

</sarcasm>

I hope TR goes to town on them with his legal team.

 

[socaldude]

It's sad that in this day and age you can't believe anything you read or hear in the mainstream media. It's sad that you always have to be in a skeptical and untrustworthy mindset.

Don't agree or like someone? Accuse them of being racist or of sexual assault.

I find it hard to side with a news media company that rejects to see certain evidence or testimony.

I read Tony's open letter and it reads like it was co-authored by an attorney.

 

[Kung Fu Steve]

Despite much of the shitty content they put out, their news arm is actually pretty good at times and excellent at others. In fact, they have done some damn good journalistic work in the past and broken stories. They have some of the best written journalistic pieces of the last 10 years in my opinion. My point is, they are more than just gossip and lists. They have a journalistic arm that at times, can be excellent.

Oh yeah beautiful journalistic pieces... "let's call Tony a racist... right in between the quiz that will tell me the name of my next lover and a recipe for the frozen raspberry mango surprise"

Can't wait for their next breaking news article.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

$38B Planning Firm Cuts Tony Robbins Position

Creative Planning cuts ties with the self-help guru, who is currently facing reported accusations of sexual misconduct.

www.marketwatch.com

When did "guilty unless proven innocent"? become the new legal standard?

 

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[Jon L]

Ok I was gonna ignore this thread but that's just something very messed up to say and it triggered very intense emotions. I have to deal with 'unwanted" advances pretty often. I don't just mean the guy at the coffee shop who just tries to strike a conversation which I'm ok with. They usually give me their number and I take it politely and that's about it. Or the barista that says I have a nice smile. That's ok, makes me blush, feels nice. I'm also talking about the creep dude that sits next to me and starts masturbating in a bus, the creep that sits next to me on the train and keeps talking to me even though I tell him I don't want to talk, and because harrassment isn't enough for me to kick his a$$ and call it self-defense all I can do is get up and change cars, the construction crew that yells obnoxious, ridiculously sexual stuff from the other sidewalk on the third floor of their construction and everybody can hear about what they wanna do to my a$$, the guy that follows me a couple blocks and gets a thrill on the power play. I've been living that since I was a teenager. I'm supposed to got get me a burqa? Are you serious or you practice being insensitive as a sport?



Yea that's what people try to do, BOTH WAYS. I had to suck it up and let it go because I knew there was no way to prove all the things my ex did to me in court. You are scared to approach women? Try having to install a CCTV in your house to prove your husband is commiting marital rape. Too bad he didn't beat me up enough to show, I just got PTSD, BUMMER!

When a lot of things happen you don't have a camera ready, damnit. Both men and women suffer because there's sick people out there and you can't just show what they did.

IDGAF about buzzfeed or TR. Yes I'm against false accusations and everyone should be presumed innocent. But your comment just sucks in every context.

I love every word you said.

I'm torn because on the one hand MeToo is taken to disgusting extremes. Ruining someone's exemplary life because of something they may have done 40 years ago leads to no place good. Not for the individual, not for society.

On the other, our treatment of women is often abhorrent as Bella relates above. Not all men, not even most men, but some men do this, and it needs to be punished.

MeToo is like a prescription drug. Its pretty powerful, but comes with some dangerous side effects. Like powerful drugs in medicine, it should be used only where necessary. When its no longer necessary, we need to switch to something more appropriate.

We as a society aren't good at judging when we've gone too far, and we're also not good at backing off when its the time to do so. Perhaps people like Tony Robbins can help wean us off of MeToo and get us moving in a more productive direction.

 

[Zcott]

BuzzFeed is internet cancer.

It's racist, sexist, steals content, and serves no purpose. It just generally needs to be stopped.

 

[The Abundant Man]

I wonder when this guy will get #metoo'd

 

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[Fox]

Nice. About time someone with the pockets to fight back stood their ground.

Interesting to see how this plays out.

 

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[G-Man]

and then it furthers the victim angle while not considering that normal men who wouldn't sexually harass female colleagues might just, yah know, choose to protect themselves by shunning those with two x chromosomes?

My wife actually brought that up the other day. Her take: "If you include women you get accused of sexual harassment. If you go full Mike Pence and don't include women for your own protection, you're a misogynist. It's actually impressive there isn't more sexism than there is."

 

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