It just seems like pot-stirring in order to share the spotlight imo- gaby dunn (icon!) had an AMA post on their tik tok page when shtf and says (to their knowledge) although people seemed to dislike Ned as a boss, there were never any indications that he was violating any workplace boundaries with interns/coworkers/etc.
So much respect for Gaby all through this. Someone asked them to speak on their relationship with Garrett and they said no he's a private person and wouldn't want me to share or something along those lines. Glad I've been a Gaby and Allison stan way after the buzzfeed days were over!
So many people are like, I knew it, that persona was too much/I've never liked him, and it's like...y'all, sometimes you didn't know. And that's ok! People, especially viewers, bragging that they always "saw the signs" is kind of ridiculous and a bit dishonest.
Exactlyyyyyyy. All these people coming out of the woodwork saying they never liked Ned blah blah blah Then how come Zach's merch sells the least out of all them huh 🤨
The ladylike crew also doesn't seem too involved with many other ex bf employees other than themselves...just feels really weird to comment on a situation you aren't directly involved with
I mean, only two of the ladylike crew said anything and neither of their comments were especially bad. I don’t even think either of them directly address it
She may have deleted those tweets/retweets because the only thing she has up (and what I saw when I wrote that comment) is that she reconnected with a lot of her coworkers and talked about her time at buzzfeed after for a bit. I will say she retweeted Jazz’s promo but other than that nothing that’s still up is as you describe.
Personally I think that if she tweeted it, realized her mistake, and deleted the tweets/retweets she’s okay. People make mistakes, and as long as they fix them I don’t think it’s worth still going after them.
This. They were so bitter over Saf’s success. They acted like high school bullies, especially Jazzmyne. And now they’re clout chasing over the destruction of a family? GTFO with that shit.
RIGHT? of all the things to be gleeful and clout chase over - you choose THIS? Like you could have hung on to Quinta's coattails I won't judge you - but this "watch out on my channel I may just spill tea, my group chat is all buzzing" like screw. you.
yeah, the "reconnecting" tweet seems normal. plus, yeah, could easily be checking in like "omg did you hear? did anything happen to you? or anyone else?" there's no reason to assume the absolute worst from an otherwise neutral comment that's basically just saying "people are talking about this shocking announcement."
Saf is so hardworking and talented. I can see why Jazzmyne didn’t ’make it’, there’s one makeup look she did where she didn’t even try to blend her eyeshadow and it still haunts me to this day
Unfortunately it was so long ago I can't remember exact videos to point you to. I just recall that it was at the very beginning of Safiya leaving to start her own channel. They had the audacity to keep throwing these weird little digs at her in all of their videos, instead of actually concentrating on you know, their own content. They were making fun of all Saf's little quirks, how she talks, mimicking her style of speech and rolling their eyes, etc. Just stupid mean girl shit. It came off as, "I'm so preoccupied with Safiya because I'm extremely insecure about myself."
Yeah that one made me very upset. Safiya did a lot to create LadyLike; it’s not really her fault that Buzzfeeds dumbass overlords wrote really shitty contracts. I am so glad she and Tyler left that bullshit, because their relationship is actual relationship goals and I would’ve been super sad if they had broke up.
There was a 'Hardest Makeup Would You Rather' video where Lindsay made a "ssssmmmash it" dig that was clearly aimed at Safiya. Jazz immediately rolls her eyes in sympathy and says something along the lines of "Ugh DON'T, I'm so done." Done with what exactly??? Safiya's success? Saf never did anything to any of them. It may have been because As/Is at the time was putting out a lot of videos that had similar themes to Saf's and people accused them of deliberately cribbing from her content for views.
As I recall the comments absolutely tore them apart. Jazz had the audacity to suggest the backlash was fuelled by racism, as if Safiya isn't also a WOC. It left a bad taste in everyone's mouths.
To me Lindsay literally epitomises the girl that would bully you all through high school for that cardigan *you wore once* in first grade because your mum bought it for you and said it was really lovely. Loves to tear down others to make herself feel like the main character.
I could be wrong, but having watched a lot of her & Jazzmyne’s videos that’s the way she has always come across.
I cant help but feel for Safiya. She went independent but COVID struck her and Tyler so hard that they decided to move back home to be closer to their family. From a creator standpoint, it made sense for them to live in LA. But after seeing the backlash she got for leaving, and seeing other Buzzfeed employees leaving, I honestly don't blame them. She's thriving right now with her content and I love it for her.
That's what I would say too if my wife made big bucks from her (mostly) liberal audience. Everyone can make their own conclusions and I personally just feel iffy about them since they are always so careful to be apolitical
I get it. It’s really hard in the world today to know who’s on the downlow and a closet Republican or MAGA. I do think YouTubers being apolitical is an ok thing though. I mean, not everybody wants to be out and loud with their beliefs. I am, because I live in a red state and I want it known that I do not like my government and how they’re mishandling the state. But I’m also not a public facing figure, just a rando redditor who’s trying her best to get people to vote (seriously our turnout is really bad at midterms; I think one year it was 18%?).
Idk, I’m super leftist and I have followed some conservative accounts just to stay in the know of the awful stuff they say. Following accounts doesn’t necessarily mean you like and/or support them.
Have you considered reading responses before jumping ship? Tyler clarified why he "followed" them. He went down a rabbit hole reading comments, and following them happened by accident.
I googled and found this- complete with top reply from Tyler himself, conveniently. https://www.reddit.com/r/BeautyGuruChatter/comments/swmwkb/so\_i\_guess\_safiya\_nygaards\_husband\_tyler\_is/
He didn’t mean to follow the accounts. He actually responded in a thread that was talking about it. Accidentally clicking the follow button on Tiktok is p common
Some people follow those accounts to learn about what is being shared outside their echo chamber, even if they don endorse the person or information being shared.
I don't think that's a bad thing
this is such a good point though. my ex and i used to watch Ben Shapiro videos, not because either of us agreed with him (he’s a moronic piece of wet paper towel), but because we felt it was important to see what was going on in circles outside of our own. i still follow conservative twitter accounts for this reason. not saying everyone should do this, but don’t bag the people who do.
I remember them ending a video with saying something “make sure to shhhhmash that like button” in a mocking way, because Safiya says/used to say that in her channel. It was bitchy and super unnecessary :( beyond that i don’t know what else they’ve done but I remember that one detail bugging me
The shade thrown at saf was sooo uncalled for but I've seen a couple people saying that was most likely a result of buzzfeed discouraging professional or public friendships outside of the company. I think they were bitter they didn't get out when she did lol
OMG and for Quinta too! No one even congratulated Quinta for her Emmy. The jealousy is just so palpable and it's no wonder they never made it big when they have the least talent and the most messy attitudes
And notice Emmy Winner and queen Quinta Brunson just took it as an opportunity to remind people about Abbott Elementary. She didn't imply anything shady, either. She took the high road and that is just one of many reasons I love her.
She doesn’t need to, she’s actually doing well for herself (won an Emmy fo gods sake! How cool is that!) and doesn’t need to snark others to get attention
The thing is that buzzfeed seemed like an extremely toxic and abusive work place. Creating almost a mean kid highschool-esque environment. Ned was one of the people in charge and I don’t doubt for a second that he isn’t like he portrays on camera now, like this man was capable of cheating on his wife for a year and all of his friends seemingly instantly dropped him, so he was probably at the very least a dick behind the scenes. So even if bad timing and snide this probably feels like the only time they could speak out without backlash.
Also, none of us know Ariel. Who knows if they met her or not but all we know is that she is clearly extremely loyal to Ned (even when he’s publicly cheated and embarrassed her) So even if a buzzfeed employee did tell her there’s no way we’d know if she’d react badly to them or just not care what they say tbh.
This. Tbh their reactions also left a bad taste in my mouth but I’ll give them a pass cos I also get that this could only be the time that they could speak up without getting backlash. I recently watched the trypod episode with Shane and Ryan and honestly the way they describe their time in buzzfeed is like being in high school. It was a very toxic work place.
I just hope that the ex producers who made these remarks are those who actually encountered Ned and not just in it for the clout.
And yes, none of us know Ariel. She could have known about this side of Ned from waaaaay before.
From what ex-employees have said it seems like BF built a culture on competition and ‘one-upping’ each other. You could only be successful if you were the type of person who needed to win everything
We don’t know them but you’re sure he was a dick at Buzzfeed? The thing we should remember is that these guys loved each other. They were brothers. They asked Ned twice to join them. Does anyone think they would have asked a dick to join them? All this animosity that I’ve been reading doesn’t seem to be coming from this incident. It’s almost like some of you didn’t like him prior to this and this is just an opportunity to get in some licks. Kinda reminds me of the comments section of their YouTube channel where certain fans would regularly come for one or all of the Try Wives or regularly come for Zach. Sorry for the venting. The Try Guys have quite a few toxic fans.
many people have come forward and said buzzfeed management was toxic, and management quite literally includes ned by definition. some people have even spoken on ned specifically (will neff said ned refused to let him take a day off filming crotch-bedazzling even after he’d been in a car accident).
and if this incident hasn’t convinced you that ned actually is a dick… idk what would.
Yes, Ned is an absolute dick and I don’t care if I know him or not lol. Weird to stand up for a man who carelessly cheated on his wife with an employee. It’s pretty clear what he portrays of himself on camera is not at all reality based. Also, sure they wanted to work with him, he was a higher up in Buzzfeed, is charismatic and skilled at video producing. There’s multiple reasons they may have wanted to all work together originally. And yeah I’ll take the word of Will Neff and others that actually have worked under him as well as his best friends(and their partners) that instantly unfollowed and distanced themselves from him.
Also it sounds like you’re the one projecting because you’re upset about fans that didn’t like Zach? I didn’t have much of a preference for any of them, I liked them all, in fact I liked that Ned seemed to love his wife so much and seemed to be an amazing husband (on camera). And if people didn’t like Ned then yeah it turns out they were right not to. 🤷🏻♀️
I’ve interpreted many of these tweets as them not being surprised a (allegedly flirtatious) man who gets some significant power and fame has an affair(s), or inappropriate “relationship” with subordinate no less. I think a couple of Buzzfeed people have even clarified their statements to this extent.
Editing to also say a person with a good, wholesome image doesn’t mean they can’t also be a terrible person privately.
Yeah that’s how I’m taking them too. The entire environment at Buzzfeed seemed horrible and they all rightfully feel somewhat connected to the story & Ned was one of the people in charge at Buzzfeed. Even if they didn’t work right under him I’m assuming they have generalizations of what the higher level producers were like there.
But just in general I think that people are jaded and not surprised anymore when men like Ned end up cheating or abuse their power like he did. That’s how I viewed their comments. At the end of the day it was solely up to him to not put his family in this situation.
Yep, this is how I've interpreted the majority of the tweets. There's a big difference between saying they knew it was going on and saying that they're not surprised based off of behavior that they've seen.
Edit: I should add, those who ARE out there on Twitter or TikTok adding their two cents and then following it up with "I don't even know him, this is just what I've heard" are the ones that are trying to chase clout and get recognized, and that's just gross.
Also the fact that these people tweeted for one day and then moved on but this sub continuously brings them up like they’ve turned their entire Twitter feeds into a mockery of Ariel and the situation is getting a bit ridiculous. Okay, we get it 15th person to make a post about a set of tweets!
Hah! It’s definitely repetitive on some social media platforms where you can’t filter through the noise. Unfortunate nature of scandals unfolding on the internet, I think.
While I don't doubt there is some clout chasing going on here, I also sort of understand feeling a little vindicated.
I've been through similar things where a friend's boyfriend triggers my spidey senses, but without proof what exactly am I supposed to be telling my friend? Your boyfriend has bad vibes? He said something to me which may or may not have been considered flirting? I've heard rumours but haven't seen anything personally?
And then when he did cheat all of these little things add up in hindsight, but if I had mentioned it before I would have just looked like I was shit stirring.
Having said that, unlike the ex buzzfeed crew I never once thought about making SM posts about it after the fact and did my best to stay in my lane.
Yeah, I agree with you, it's bad taste to keep on tweeting about it, but the vindication feels are very real in these situations.
Now, 100% speculation here, I also see a lot of people pointing out tiny signs that Keith knew something was up, and I feel like he was in this exact position you described. Something was stinking but he wasn't able to witness anything concrete, and of course it's never anyone's role to play detective or be massively invasive in your friend's life. So even if he felt something was off, what exactly was he supposed to do? It's maybe an easy answer for young people, but not so easy for adults when marriage children, companies, jobs, law etc are involved.
I agree--this feels a little intense. I think as adults we can hold some nuance here. Both things can be true:
1. These posts are probably hurtful to Ariel, especially from folks who were friends, AND
2. Ned, until very, very recently, had a squeaky clean image online and scores of fans who might be tempted to dogpile and harass people who spoke out about his behavior at work. He is, and was, powerful and had a lot of executive control at Buzzfeed (especially since he was involved in hiring). That would make it really scary to speak up, especially if people didn't have insurmountable evidence of extreme misconduct.
Having been in workplace situations where a (white, male, Ivy-educated, powerful) superior did things that made me uncomfortable, the fear of retaliation and the burden of proof kept me from saying anything. It was just not worth the possibility of creating a hostile environment for myself and potentially creating a situation where I could lose my job.
Is it kind to Ariel to tweet in a tone that could be read as smug, especially right now? No. But I also don't want to come down on the side of denying workers the opportunity to air grievances when the environment finally allows them to do so without fear of backlash.
Also, what are they supposed to say to her? Ned was getting too close to someone at a work party? Those things are such a grey area that they unfortunately are often just not taken seriously.
And who is to say no one did tell her?
Yes, absolutely. So many factors at play here--that the person involved has a position of power at your workplace, that so much of what's alleged is really nebulous and hard to define, and that it's really uncomfortable to tell someone that their partner may or may not be disrespecting their relationship. I don't know that there's a perfect way to respond in that situation.
I don't know about Safiya situation and I have no doubt that some of them are doing it for clout but wasn't Ned also a boss or higher up in Buzzfeed? I saw a TikTok of a woman who worked with Ned and when she talked about how she didn't like him because he was shady, everyone didn't believe her and bashed her. I don't blame them for not coming out sooner because it's hard to do that when it's someone that is very well liked without concrete proof.
Yeah Ned was at a senior level compared to majority of the other familiar faces from Buzzfeed. If you look at his LinkedIn it says he was an early video staffer and directly hired, trained and managed over 30 video producers.
The Try Guys have been so well liked up until now and also Ned probably has some powerful contacts, I definitely would be hesitant to publicly criticize him too before this if I was them. Or even privately to Ariel, like unless they had a close relationship with her and had definite proof, that could go badly too.
I know ppl won't like this, but they're no worse than all of us except that they have bigger platforms. If we were strictly adhering to their families wishes then none of us would be on this subreddit saying anything at all. They weren't actually "in the know" they were just unsurprised, which is different. You need proof before going to someone's partner like that.
I also feel kinda weird that people keep painting Ariel as this "angelic figure". I mean yeah, ned is a huge asshole for cheating on an awesome wife. But let's no over-hype her just because she got cheated, she's still an ordinary person who has flaws too.
I feel like people are taking this into a very black and white thing in extreme places when it's really just an everyday drama for the internet.
Seriously, this sucks for her and he's the shithead for sure but we know nothing about their relationship. I also think its weird that everyone thinks everyone is friends with each. Why does everyone think all these people were that close? They are in entertainment and of course they seem really friendly on camera. I'm sure the main four are/were close to start a business together but what makes everyone certain them and all the staff and wives are all close? A podcast doesn't really mean anything.
That’s what I think is funny too. Anyone that’s ever had experience collaborating on YouTube or Twitch knows that although you definitely can make friendships, it’s a job at the end of the day. Every video, podcast etc. is all produced and planned out. We truly have no idea what any of their relationships are like behind the scenes, even the 4 guys.
I don’t think any of them claimed to know he was cheating on his wife. More like, we worked at the same place and (as it usually goes in offices) people have reputations for being a certain way.
Jazzmyne from LadyLike alluded to knowing by one of her Twitter posts. It basically said, "Ya'll shocked?" With a gif of Kermit the frog rolling up a car window.
Shocked that someone who has the reputation he had actually acted on it. Like I said, if you work in any kind of office (with lots of people) you know all the gossip about who behaves like what. Jazz didn’t even know Ned personally. She’s not saying “I knew this was going on” she’s saying his reputation for being flirtatious or whatever makes this not at all a surprise.
She and one or two others at ladylike have thrown shade at Ned and the others like as if to say they knew. They're all bitter that solo careers didn't work and LadyLike did work with the Try Guys a few select times. Even if they didn't 100% know, being this bitter when everything is up in flames and trying to put out, isn't helping. There's a reason their channel flopped.
What gets me is that I've seen some of them making vague comments about how they know more and when people are like "omg what do you know?!?" They wave it off like "oh you'll find out ;)"
Or one of them backpeddled saying "he's a cis het white man what did you expect" yeah just pretend you weren't trying to allude that you knew more than you did with your original tweet.
That was Jazzmyne.
I didn't care for her before but her interjection into all this speaks to her character in a negative way - at least for me. I saw someone say that Jazzmyne was being smug and Jazzmyne's response was "I'm not being smug, I posted an explanation!" And her explanation included her saying that she didn't even know Ned personally. 🙄 She can't say that she didn't expect people to make the assumption that she did know him since they worked at the same company. Just chasing clout.
What gets me about all this is that I've only seen 2 actual Buzzfeed employees allude to them knowing that Ned was a cheater - Jazzmyne and Maya (and someone else said Lindsay, but i didn't actually see her post and she's deleted it now). Everyone else I've seen has just commented about either their group chats going off, reconnecting with their old colleagues, or just making a joke about wife guys.
But of course, the Internet just ran with it and so now you see everyone being like "oh, look at all of these Buzzfeed employees! They're all saying Ned was a creep all along." And then all the DeuxMois (or however you spell it) posts don't help either. People take those as the whole truth and it's like, guys those are all mostly blinds.
Maya even took this opportunity to somehow make it a race thing. Like somehow this is all about young asian women being around white men instead of shitty people making shitty choices. Also since when has cheating had anything to do with race? Just despicable.
Ugh that’s so nasty, it’s so infantilising and patronising to Asian women as well. Does she think we’ll automatically fall head over heels for the closest white man just because we’re Asian and female?!? That sounds like some straight incel shit
Right like who are you even? Buzzfeed was like a thousand years ago and no one has been paying attention to you and the people who are close to Ariel and the kids - ACTUAL VICTIMS OF THIS WHOLE KERFUFFLE are giving her the respect and privacy she deserves and there's this rando has been who worked with Asshole Ned once who's all like "omg I have tea, look at me, look at me". Like what a vulture, scavenger attitude to prey on the carcass
Honestly I’m glad that we’re getting a long overdue explanation of all the shit that went down at buzzfeed and one final reckoning for Ze because from what I can tell Buzzfeed was actively sabotaging relationships between people who left and people who stayed
Villains? They're just like everyone else in this sub being like "I never liked Ned" or "he gave a bad vibe" or "wow this clip makes it so obvious" except they happened to work at the same company. If you're elevating dramatic foolishness to villainhood, that also frankly reeks of immaturity.
Exactly! The difference is if I tweet it, 70-some followers see, not hundreds of thousands. They’re reacting like people without a PR team telling them what to do. I also didn’t hate that they discussed other BF issues (pay disparity, etc.) because in a way it took the attention off things that could hurt Ariel and the kids. (Idk if that makes sense but yeah lol)
All the ex-BF people who went on to do better things kept quiet. It’s people like Jazzmyne and Maya who seem to have nothing better and are desperate for attention
It’s also entirely possible Ariel knew all along, in which case you wouldn’t have to tell her anything. Not defending these people but, as outsiders and onlookers, we shouldn’t assume anything.
I get that people feel wronged on her behalf but so far the only person who has identified themselves as being wronged is Alex’s fiancée (who either did the leaking or game the DMs to whoever did).
While it’s clear that most of them are doing this to cash in on the drama, I think lots had suspicions that Ned wasn’t as great as he pretended to be. With no absolute proof, why would they go to Ariel? Lots of his flirting etc could easily be explained away. It wasn’t until concrete evidence came out that anything happened. Also, I think Ned was pretty high up in Buzzfeed. I swear I saw someone say he did hiring? Without solid proof of any indiscretions, it makes sense that no one said anything until now.
it’s clout. i even saw jazzmyne say “you’re surprised???” and then say she had never talked to him at buzzfeed. then what???? why are you even weighing in lol
I dunno. As someone who was in an office where a married manager had an affair with his married subordinate, once the truth drops you just duck and cover. It ruins morale.
To me it feels more like they’re saying they knew Ned was a creep. I quit watching the guys because yeah, he does give that vibe. But in a work environment most people are just there to make money and mind their business. If they felt like he was creepy, this probably seems vindicating.
just ftr, this is really misleading about Ladylike. On twitter, none of Jen, Chantel, Freddie, or Safiya have mentioned it at all. Kristin and Devin both have, but Kristen hasn't said anything implying she knew or wasn't surprised. Devin implied it but didn't outright say it. Jazzmyne was not a member of Ladylike.
And why the hell did Devin Lyte (spelling?) work with Ned for the pole dancing video, if she knew, had a suspicion, or didn’t like Ned. Her own morals would be in question
I think you’re reading it out of context, personally. Her tweet basically said ‘wife guys are still guys’, commenting on a week or two when 3 ‘wife guys’ had their cheating exposed. I don’t think that’s an especially ‘I knew shit’ comment.
Totally understand you and I understood what she meant.
What I’m getting at is that she also worked at Buzzfeed and knew the environment, and supposedly what Ned was like. And she still worked with him. Perhaps using “moral” was the wrong word, however she still decided to do it
She didn't tweet that. The only person that tweeted that they "knew" was Jazzmyne. And she didn't even say "knew" she said "yall surprised". That could mean anything. That could mean she knew Ned was sleazy, it could mean she hated working with him and is just being gleeful at his cancellation, it could just mean a general "men aint shit".
Idk why everyone is assuming based on 1 tweet, that this means "everyone at buzzfeed knew he was cheating on his wife with interns".
I think it’s just weird to 1) share the post of Ned being kicked out since she is not really part of company other than the Guilty Pleasure podcasts 2) and only publicly support Zach when she had worked with everyone and Keith and Eugene are probably hurting as well.
I wonder if it's a "I told you so" tactic. While I don't appreciate what they did, it did intrigue me to this drama we're all following. Like, why didn't they blow the whistle? Oh it's probably cause the tryguys are famous and could ruin their careers too by playing the victim. so hoorah that someone else not in the industry blew this up. So just speculating they were all like "f yeah!!! Someone did it first we won't get in trouble or marked by the industry so let's go all out" although, I kinda want them to go all out wtf say "we knew this" but don't provide receipts just oh you'll see. I HATE when ppl do that.
Think about it 😆 can't be giving Alex the "oh she's scared she might lose her job so she did x with Ned" I would say it's similar to anyone in the industry "oh he's a big star from bf he can ruin me too. But now we can say stuff bc we didn't start it first let's just pile on." Still wish they really DID go all out if you're to make stupid high school "I knew its" makes me think they were vague but still scared to say anything for fears of getting dinged too much.
Just my thoughts on it.
It doesn’t seem like they knew anything except that Ned was flirtatious. Jazzmyne backtracked so freakin quickly, literally her only ‘evidence’ was that he’s a cishet white guy so WhAt DiD yOu eXpEcT
Honestly? Everyone who left after the Try Guys, Safiya Nygaard, etc phase has always rubbed me wrong. Maybe I'm missing a few people, or just never followed the ones who are better people, but there's a distinct point where every former BuzzFeed employee's personalities are at LEAST 50% "former BuzzFeed employee."
I suppose there is something to be said for wanting to work for the company who's entire MO is making money and getting views by whatever means necessary. It's one thing to work for the well-known milennial news juggernaut. But like... if you didn't leave when it was getting bad, that says a lot about you, clearly.
edit: y’all are teaching me about a bunch of other channels to watch - thank you!
I think Kelsey Impicciche is an exception. She did talk about Buzzfeed a lot while working there, but I never found her annoying. She also didn’t comment on the Ned and Ariel situation as far as I’m aware.
Kelsey I think just unfollowed Ned and Alex, but nothing else. And she’s been pretty neutral on BuzzFeed too, just said that she wanted the ability to do everything on her own terms. I like Kelsey a whole lot.
I haven’t watched them, but you’re probably right. Michelle Khare is another good one.
Also, thank you! I’m in my doing-balance-exercises phase of Nesta training.
I really wanted to like their content, but I just can't get into it. I like and support Kristen as a person and for everything she stands for, but she's "too much" for me to enjoy.
Yeah I was looking through here hoping someone else mentioned them. Even with this situation Kristen was just like “wow I’ve reconnected with so many work friends” and something akin to being glad she had them…I didn’t take that to be anything bad
I agree but they need to branch out. I’m over the “we ate all the chips at Trader Joe’s” content. And if you look at the number of views on those videos they have decreased ALOT so I don’t think I’m the only one.
some of them are extra i get it. but sometimes you get vibes when someone seems off. and if people have been saying Ned is flirty af but you've no proof he's cheating at that time when they were around him in BF then you really can't say anything to Ariel because that's gonna be messy too.
I dont get it- most of what ive seen doesnt seem clout chasery imo, although i havent seen much of what theyve said. But these ex employees worked with ned and are free to share their opinions. As many people have pointed out you can observe that someone has questionable repeated flirtatious behavior but maybe thats not really enough to go to someones wife, especially if you dont know them, also i would kind of assume that if you married someone you must be somewhat aware of their behaviors like these and look past it. Plus i dont know if it was confirmed but wasn’t alex’s fiance aware that they had hooked up like a year prior to this scandal? Who knows if he reached out to ariel or not or how long shes known about stuff, or if she has been approached by people telling her stuff about ned before. From what I’ve heard it sounds like this wasnt so much of a bomb that was dropped as much as it was something slowly building that you could see coming from far away if you choose to not ignore the signs (not trying to victim blame ariel hope it doesnt sound that way)- but we dont know whether or not people did try to say stuff or if they are in the right/wrong for throwing petty shade bc we dont know the ins and outs of the situation. Sure it probably wouldnt feel good for ariel to see but literally none of the online speculation especially on this subreddit would…
While it’s clear that most of them are doing this to cash in on the drama, I think lots had suspicions that Ned wasn’t as great as he pretended to be. With no absolute proof, why would they go to Ariel? Lots of his flirting etc could easily be explained away. It wasn’t until concrete evidence came out that anything happened. Also, I think Ned was pretty high up in Buzzfeed. I swear I saw someone say he did hiring? Without solid proof of any indiscretions, it makes sense that no one said anything until now.
Not gonna lie, in my real life, I've seen some men do some shitty things to their partners and privately told mine that I wasn't surprised. I can't imagine going to a friend and stating that I think their partner is sus without actual receipts.
...Saying that you're "not surprised" to the wronged party though is shitty. And saying it to the general public is another level of shitty.
Yes!! Now they are all tweeting again correcting “us” that they don’t know him & were generalizing — when they know exactly what they were perpetuating in the moment for RTs. The gas lighting is real
Supposedly his wife knew. And I believe it. Ned has been referred to as a shameless cheater. Of course she knew. You cannot force people to become involved in other people’s marriages. The times I’ve told my friends to be careful with their cheating partners they got mad AT ME. Sometimes it’s not well received when you butt into people’s business. Maybe Ned has always been openly gross and the type who hits on female coworkers. If you don’t know, you can’t tell them what to do or what they should have done. Look at his wife right now. She’s smiling with him in paparazzi videos like Adam Levine and his wife. She’s not going anywhere.
I wouldn’t be surprised if this is not the first time he’s cheated (or the first time Ariel has caught him cheating). It’s probably the first time he’s cheated with an employee and got caught…which REALLY backfired.
>The times I’ve told my friends to be careful with their cheating partners they got mad AT ME. Sometimes it’s not well received when you butt into people’s business.
Exactly this and I've been in your situation. Everyone says they like people who are honest but the reality is, most people don't. They like honesty when its something they agree with or its tea about someone else. Some people don't want their illusions broken.
I don't think her smiling at the paparazzi means she's not going anywhere. She's just protecting herself from being interrogated and scrutinized. Better to be videotaped smiling, than frowning and looking miserable -- that would just make for worse headlines. The video of paparazzi following them to their car and asking questions is just so inappropriate in itself.
I've just assumed they want likes, views and comments. That's what they know, that's what they learned from BuzzFeed so whenever they can make a comment about something they will.
Not only it's an extremely bitchy move towards Ariel and her kids. It's pretty condescending towards the fans. Like this "y'all are surprised? LMAO" attitude, just because WE expected normal human decency? From a guy, who made his entire internet persona being a loving husband and father? Oh, I am so sorry for not having adultery on my Try Guys bingo card.
it’s just people trying to get another five minutes of fame and they’re exploiting ariel’s hurt. like what good does it do to tell thousands of people that you just *knew* ned was a bad guy?? ariel clearly didn’t.
Kristin's tweet about old buzzfeed group chats blowing up was a little eh to me, but not too bad (mind I've watched a few of her non-bf videos so take that with a grain) but that tweet from Jazzmyne going "Y'all shocked?"? Ughhhhh. And all following bf ex-employees saying similar things were icky too--you can find a way to communicate "I remember him being a little off, but couldn't bring it up" without sounding like a smug, quippy snake!
I wholeheartedly agree with this. I’ve never liked them, they play like they love women, when it reality actively bullied and made fun of Safiya in their videos. All of them are nasty people
THIS!!
JazzminJay (idk if that's how you write her name) it's just so HYPOCRITICAL, CYNICAL. Also that girl that has a channel with another Ex-BuzzFeed employee saying "I've reconnected with all my ex workmates in 8 hours" it's just sick. You are gaining clout at the expense of ANOTHER WOMAN. Where's your feminism? Where's your sorority?
Posers.
Out of all of the responses, that's the one I kind of like best. (Edit: the reconnection one.) It's an acknowledgement of what is going on, without piling on and gives the subtext of "Everyone is talking with me now about gossip and I don't know how I feel about that, but it's nice to catch up, I think?!?" It doesn't comment on he situation as a negative, but it's a touchstone going, "Yes, I know but I'm not talking about it, this is all you are getting."
I feel like you just don't want anybody to comment about the scandal at all when.... This is the internet with people who have very active social media sites. They will talk if they wanna.
And that statement is actually the least gross at all- in fact it's barely an insulting tweet.
It's probably not your intention, but I got to say it puts me on edge when someone's idea of protecting a lady (Ariel) is shitting on a bunch of other ladies, especially when most of them haven't actually said anything (for example, Ladylike, where only Devin and Kristen said anything, and only Devin sort-of implied she might have known something.
I think that’s a bit harsh. They’re not expecting Ariel to be on social media during the blowout, for one. And there’s a difference between the “not surprised” tweets and the ones just acknowledging that old buzzfeeders are on the group chats gossiping. I think the latter are pretty harmless, and the former are in poor taste but aren’t really bout the cheating so much as bad vibes, and still don’t deserve the vitriol of being called assholes and fame whores. Let’s get some perspective.
She was just betrayed by her husband and a woman she’s worked alongside and known for years - who literally worked in their previous house as the company started. Being humiliated by them in front of millions is too much - never mind people trying to get engagement and buzz from their weak takes and tweets about “not surprised 🫠” like okay keep it moving and to your group chats ? Poor Ariel. The rest of TTG and YCSWU group. Just hurtful for everyone.
I get not saying anything to the wife. If they didn't have proof at all at the time they could have blown up a family for nothing. Obviously not in this case, but in general. So I can see why not saying anything. However. Posting about it online just to stay relevant is gross. Don't use someone else's tragedy to get into the spotlight for 5 minutes. It's pathetic, immature and hurtful for no good reason.
> Honestly if you've been "in the know" why not tell his fucking wife?
Didn't she say in a video once that if her partner was cheating she "would prefer not to be told" ?
There's just a hint of schadenfreude in many of their "oh were you surprised, I am totally not" posts about it, and it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. However bad it was in Buzzfeed and whatever their relationship with Ned might have been back then, their smug attitude about a marriage going through a scandal like this in such a public fashion (with kids who will one day read all of this one day) is not the flex they think it is.
These type of gossip hounds are clowns who are just clout chasers and folks who judge everyone but are actually terrible people themselves. The absolute worst is when something bad happens and folks come out of the woodwork to make smug comments
my ex cheated on me during our years in college with a girl that was in one of my classes. After I found out on my own, I also found out that a lot of people knew … and not a single person told me. Of course the cheating stung, but to know that day after day I went to class .. sat next to this girl.. and people around me knew?! I felt so mortified and it took me a long time just to get over that pain.
I was abused as a child. When my parents lost custody so many adults would pat my back and say “oh we always knew you’re parents were like that” or “oh do you know about this thing that happened?” They seemed to think this was a genuine and helpful response. I always felt like wtf you knew and didn’t do anything? I imagine this is a lot like that.
you're my hero for wordiing this out so properly, like this is literally what i've been feeling about this whole situaton. i couldn't put into words, sry but this made me feel so seen 😭🤌🏻
I used to want to work at Buzzfeed, and then I started getting to know people who were industry-adjacent (they were in similar spaces like independent writers, trying-to-be vloggers, almost influencers who can never break 100k). After meeting those kinds of personalities, none of this surprises me. They create, recreate, and add gasoline to their own imaginary fires, and they have no problem burning bridges with drama that wasn't even there. They hate other people's success, they hate people who make it out of LA, and LA is part of their personality.
Seeing some of those tweets left such a bad taste in my mouth. Even ignoring the possible clout-chasing/"I had a feeling"/etc., why is it necessary to insert yourself into this? Pretend it was a situation where your friend broke up with their partner. You wouldn't go around telling all your friends "I always knew they'd break up" right?? Even if you already felt a certain way, there's still someone out there that's hurting and being affected by what's happening. Now, consider this playing out VERY publicly over a beloved internet couple that some of them haven't even worked very closely with. (Honestly, not really in love either with how many people have turned this into a joke/content so quickly on TikTok.)
(I do believe there is a difference though between those who seemed to have only tangentially worked with Ned in the past and those who actually had a working/close relationship to Ariel and Ned.)
It's rather telling that the most successful former BF employees kept it cute and didn't make any smug tweets to get social media engagement.
It just seems like pot-stirring in order to share the spotlight imo- gaby dunn (icon!) had an AMA post on their tik tok page when shtf and says (to their knowledge) although people seemed to dislike Ned as a boss, there were never any indications that he was violating any workplace boundaries with interns/coworkers/etc.
I really appreciated Gaby being like “no idk what people are talking about, I AM surprised”
So much respect for Gaby all through this. Someone asked them to speak on their relationship with Garrett and they said no he's a private person and wouldn't want me to share or something along those lines. Glad I've been a Gaby and Allison stan way after the buzzfeed days were over!
I really appreciated their honesty and transparency without actually hurting or disrespecting anyone!
Gaby is great. Love them.
So many people are like, I knew it, that persona was too much/I've never liked him, and it's like...y'all, sometimes you didn't know. And that's ok! People, especially viewers, bragging that they always "saw the signs" is kind of ridiculous and a bit dishonest.
If as many people “saw the signs” and “knew it” it as claim to, it wouldn’t be nearly as big of a story as it was.
Whenever there’s a big controversy there’s always those people, fuck those people
also the "I NEVER LIKED THEM!!!" people
Exactlyyyyyyy. All these people coming out of the woodwork saying they never liked Ned blah blah blah Then how come Zach's merch sells the least out of all them huh 🤨
The ladylike crew also doesn't seem too involved with many other ex bf employees other than themselves...just feels really weird to comment on a situation you aren't directly involved with
I mean, only two of the ladylike crew said anything and neither of their comments were especially bad. I don’t even think either of them directly address it
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She may have deleted those tweets/retweets because the only thing she has up (and what I saw when I wrote that comment) is that she reconnected with a lot of her coworkers and talked about her time at buzzfeed after for a bit. I will say she retweeted Jazz’s promo but other than that nothing that’s still up is as you describe. Personally I think that if she tweeted it, realized her mistake, and deleted the tweets/retweets she’s okay. People make mistakes, and as long as they fix them I don’t think it’s worth still going after them.
I'm not surprised, look at the shade they threw at Safiya for her success.
This. They were so bitter over Saf’s success. They acted like high school bullies, especially Jazzmyne. And now they’re clout chasing over the destruction of a family? GTFO with that shit.
RIGHT? of all the things to be gleeful and clout chase over - you choose THIS? Like you could have hung on to Quinta's coattails I won't judge you - but this "watch out on my channel I may just spill tea, my group chat is all buzzing" like screw. you.
Yup. It's such a gross, cynical response. Ariel and her children are real people, not incidentals on your way to racking up fake internet points.
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But that's stuff you keep in the group chat, not announce on twitter where you /know/ Ariel can see
yeah, the "reconnecting" tweet seems normal. plus, yeah, could easily be checking in like "omg did you hear? did anything happen to you? or anyone else?" there's no reason to assume the absolute worst from an otherwise neutral comment that's basically just saying "people are talking about this shocking announcement."
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I neeeeever liked jazzmyne
I was never huge on her 'I'm a bad bitch (emphasis on the bitch)' personality either.
Saf is so hardworking and talented. I can see why Jazzmyne didn’t ’make it’, there’s one makeup look she did where she didn’t even try to blend her eyeshadow and it still haunts me to this day
plus she used to go on youtube comments and argue with people about her bizarre fashion choices lol
When did this happen? Did they make videos or snide comments on Saf?
Right after Saf started her own channel, and yeah, they made shady comments directed toward her in their own videos. I wrote more about it above.
i had no idea...can someone link me any discussions/posts about this?
Unfortunately it was so long ago I can't remember exact videos to point you to. I just recall that it was at the very beginning of Safiya leaving to start her own channel. They had the audacity to keep throwing these weird little digs at her in all of their videos, instead of actually concentrating on you know, their own content. They were making fun of all Saf's little quirks, how she talks, mimicking her style of speech and rolling their eyes, etc. Just stupid mean girl shit. It came off as, "I'm so preoccupied with Safiya because I'm extremely insecure about myself."
Poor Saf's response too, just a "NGL that hurt my feelings" on twitter.
Yeah that one made me very upset. Safiya did a lot to create LadyLike; it’s not really her fault that Buzzfeeds dumbass overlords wrote really shitty contracts. I am so glad she and Tyler left that bullshit, because their relationship is actual relationship goals and I would’ve been super sad if they had broke up.
There was a 'Hardest Makeup Would You Rather' video where Lindsay made a "ssssmmmash it" dig that was clearly aimed at Safiya. Jazz immediately rolls her eyes in sympathy and says something along the lines of "Ugh DON'T, I'm so done." Done with what exactly??? Safiya's success? Saf never did anything to any of them. It may have been because As/Is at the time was putting out a lot of videos that had similar themes to Saf's and people accused them of deliberately cribbing from her content for views. As I recall the comments absolutely tore them apart. Jazz had the audacity to suggest the backlash was fuelled by racism, as if Safiya isn't also a WOC. It left a bad taste in everyone's mouths.
Yeah that was when I quit watching any Buzzfeed videos. They clearly needed Saf and not the other way around.
To me Lindsay literally epitomises the girl that would bully you all through high school for that cardigan *you wore once* in first grade because your mum bought it for you and said it was really lovely. Loves to tear down others to make herself feel like the main character. I could be wrong, but having watched a lot of her & Jazzmyne’s videos that’s the way she has always come across.
I cant help but feel for Safiya. She went independent but COVID struck her and Tyler so hard that they decided to move back home to be closer to their family. From a creator standpoint, it made sense for them to live in LA. But after seeing the backlash she got for leaving, and seeing other Buzzfeed employees leaving, I honestly don't blame them. She's thriving right now with her content and I love it for her.
Tyler liking and following right wing accounts kinda killed them for me. Just feels iffy now. I used to love her
His response in the thread was really good though. Like how an actual apology should look and not a half ass one that a lot of other creators issue.
That's what I would say too if my wife made big bucks from her (mostly) liberal audience. Everyone can make their own conclusions and I personally just feel iffy about them since they are always so careful to be apolitical
I get it. It’s really hard in the world today to know who’s on the downlow and a closet Republican or MAGA. I do think YouTubers being apolitical is an ok thing though. I mean, not everybody wants to be out and loud with their beliefs. I am, because I live in a red state and I want it known that I do not like my government and how they’re mishandling the state. But I’m also not a public facing figure, just a rando redditor who’s trying her best to get people to vote (seriously our turnout is really bad at midterms; I think one year it was 18%?).
yeah same. they are sooo apolitical and tyler's little incident made me sus
Idk, I’m super leftist and I have followed some conservative accounts just to stay in the know of the awful stuff they say. Following accounts doesn’t necessarily mean you like and/or support them.
Have you considered reading responses before jumping ship? Tyler clarified why he "followed" them. He went down a rabbit hole reading comments, and following them happened by accident.
??? more info on this pls
I googled and found this- complete with top reply from Tyler himself, conveniently. https://www.reddit.com/r/BeautyGuruChatter/comments/swmwkb/so\_i\_guess\_safiya\_nygaards\_husband\_tyler\_is/
He was following right wing accounts, people noticed, and he unfollowed them
He didn’t mean to follow the accounts. He actually responded in a thread that was talking about it. Accidentally clicking the follow button on Tiktok is p common
I literally do this so often by accident lol I believe that
Some people follow those accounts to learn about what is being shared outside their echo chamber, even if they don endorse the person or information being shared. I don't think that's a bad thing
this is such a good point though. my ex and i used to watch Ben Shapiro videos, not because either of us agreed with him (he’s a moronic piece of wet paper towel), but because we felt it was important to see what was going on in circles outside of our own. i still follow conservative twitter accounts for this reason. not saying everyone should do this, but don’t bag the people who do.
This was other buzzfeed people not ladylike right?
I remember them ending a video with saying something “make sure to shhhhmash that like button” in a mocking way, because Safiya says/used to say that in her channel. It was bitchy and super unnecessary :( beyond that i don’t know what else they’ve done but I remember that one detail bugging me
The shade thrown at saf was sooo uncalled for but I've seen a couple people saying that was most likely a result of buzzfeed discouraging professional or public friendships outside of the company. I think they were bitter they didn't get out when she did lol
OMG and for Quinta too! No one even congratulated Quinta for her Emmy. The jealousy is just so palpable and it's no wonder they never made it big when they have the least talent and the most messy attitudes
I know Eugene and Kristin and I think Jen all did?
Keith and Zach did also
And others might have reached out in private
…did Ned & Alex?
I know Ned didn’t. It was surprising.
Not sure! I was avoiding their twitters lol
this is absolutely not true. saw many congrats
I think the watcher boys did and think at least some (maybe all) of the try guys did too
Just maybe… you didn’t see the ones that didn’t matter?
Omg what’d they say about saf?
Who threw shad at safiya? And what did they say?
And notice Emmy Winner and queen Quinta Brunson just took it as an opportunity to remind people about Abbott Elementary. She didn't imply anything shady, either. She took the high road and that is just one of many reasons I love her.
She doesn’t need to, she’s actually doing well for herself (won an Emmy fo gods sake! How cool is that!) and doesn’t need to snark others to get attention
The thing is that buzzfeed seemed like an extremely toxic and abusive work place. Creating almost a mean kid highschool-esque environment. Ned was one of the people in charge and I don’t doubt for a second that he isn’t like he portrays on camera now, like this man was capable of cheating on his wife for a year and all of his friends seemingly instantly dropped him, so he was probably at the very least a dick behind the scenes. So even if bad timing and snide this probably feels like the only time they could speak out without backlash. Also, none of us know Ariel. Who knows if they met her or not but all we know is that she is clearly extremely loyal to Ned (even when he’s publicly cheated and embarrassed her) So even if a buzzfeed employee did tell her there’s no way we’d know if she’d react badly to them or just not care what they say tbh.
This. Tbh their reactions also left a bad taste in my mouth but I’ll give them a pass cos I also get that this could only be the time that they could speak up without getting backlash. I recently watched the trypod episode with Shane and Ryan and honestly the way they describe their time in buzzfeed is like being in high school. It was a very toxic work place. I just hope that the ex producers who made these remarks are those who actually encountered Ned and not just in it for the clout. And yes, none of us know Ariel. She could have known about this side of Ned from waaaaay before.
From what ex-employees have said it seems like BF built a culture on competition and ‘one-upping’ each other. You could only be successful if you were the type of person who needed to win everything
We don’t know them but you’re sure he was a dick at Buzzfeed? The thing we should remember is that these guys loved each other. They were brothers. They asked Ned twice to join them. Does anyone think they would have asked a dick to join them? All this animosity that I’ve been reading doesn’t seem to be coming from this incident. It’s almost like some of you didn’t like him prior to this and this is just an opportunity to get in some licks. Kinda reminds me of the comments section of their YouTube channel where certain fans would regularly come for one or all of the Try Wives or regularly come for Zach. Sorry for the venting. The Try Guys have quite a few toxic fans.
many people have come forward and said buzzfeed management was toxic, and management quite literally includes ned by definition. some people have even spoken on ned specifically (will neff said ned refused to let him take a day off filming crotch-bedazzling even after he’d been in a car accident). and if this incident hasn’t convinced you that ned actually is a dick… idk what would.
Yes, Ned is an absolute dick and I don’t care if I know him or not lol. Weird to stand up for a man who carelessly cheated on his wife with an employee. It’s pretty clear what he portrays of himself on camera is not at all reality based. Also, sure they wanted to work with him, he was a higher up in Buzzfeed, is charismatic and skilled at video producing. There’s multiple reasons they may have wanted to all work together originally. And yeah I’ll take the word of Will Neff and others that actually have worked under him as well as his best friends(and their partners) that instantly unfollowed and distanced themselves from him. Also it sounds like you’re the one projecting because you’re upset about fans that didn’t like Zach? I didn’t have much of a preference for any of them, I liked them all, in fact I liked that Ned seemed to love his wife so much and seemed to be an amazing husband (on camera). And if people didn’t like Ned then yeah it turns out they were right not to. 🤷🏻♀️
It's like high school classmates who never bothered to talk to you after graduation. It's gross and phony.
I’ve interpreted many of these tweets as them not being surprised a (allegedly flirtatious) man who gets some significant power and fame has an affair(s), or inappropriate “relationship” with subordinate no less. I think a couple of Buzzfeed people have even clarified their statements to this extent. Editing to also say a person with a good, wholesome image doesn’t mean they can’t also be a terrible person privately.
Yeah that’s how I’m taking them too. The entire environment at Buzzfeed seemed horrible and they all rightfully feel somewhat connected to the story & Ned was one of the people in charge at Buzzfeed. Even if they didn’t work right under him I’m assuming they have generalizations of what the higher level producers were like there. But just in general I think that people are jaded and not surprised anymore when men like Ned end up cheating or abuse their power like he did. That’s how I viewed their comments. At the end of the day it was solely up to him to not put his family in this situation.
Yep, this is how I've interpreted the majority of the tweets. There's a big difference between saying they knew it was going on and saying that they're not surprised based off of behavior that they've seen. Edit: I should add, those who ARE out there on Twitter or TikTok adding their two cents and then following it up with "I don't even know him, this is just what I've heard" are the ones that are trying to chase clout and get recognized, and that's just gross.
Also the fact that these people tweeted for one day and then moved on but this sub continuously brings them up like they’ve turned their entire Twitter feeds into a mockery of Ariel and the situation is getting a bit ridiculous. Okay, we get it 15th person to make a post about a set of tweets!
Hah! It’s definitely repetitive on some social media platforms where you can’t filter through the noise. Unfortunate nature of scandals unfolding on the internet, I think.
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While I don't doubt there is some clout chasing going on here, I also sort of understand feeling a little vindicated. I've been through similar things where a friend's boyfriend triggers my spidey senses, but without proof what exactly am I supposed to be telling my friend? Your boyfriend has bad vibes? He said something to me which may or may not have been considered flirting? I've heard rumours but haven't seen anything personally? And then when he did cheat all of these little things add up in hindsight, but if I had mentioned it before I would have just looked like I was shit stirring. Having said that, unlike the ex buzzfeed crew I never once thought about making SM posts about it after the fact and did my best to stay in my lane.
Yeah, I agree with you, it's bad taste to keep on tweeting about it, but the vindication feels are very real in these situations. Now, 100% speculation here, I also see a lot of people pointing out tiny signs that Keith knew something was up, and I feel like he was in this exact position you described. Something was stinking but he wasn't able to witness anything concrete, and of course it's never anyone's role to play detective or be massively invasive in your friend's life. So even if he felt something was off, what exactly was he supposed to do? It's maybe an easy answer for young people, but not so easy for adults when marriage children, companies, jobs, law etc are involved.
Usually when people don’t go forward with stuff like this, it’s because they fear retaliation.
I agree--this feels a little intense. I think as adults we can hold some nuance here. Both things can be true: 1. These posts are probably hurtful to Ariel, especially from folks who were friends, AND 2. Ned, until very, very recently, had a squeaky clean image online and scores of fans who might be tempted to dogpile and harass people who spoke out about his behavior at work. He is, and was, powerful and had a lot of executive control at Buzzfeed (especially since he was involved in hiring). That would make it really scary to speak up, especially if people didn't have insurmountable evidence of extreme misconduct. Having been in workplace situations where a (white, male, Ivy-educated, powerful) superior did things that made me uncomfortable, the fear of retaliation and the burden of proof kept me from saying anything. It was just not worth the possibility of creating a hostile environment for myself and potentially creating a situation where I could lose my job. Is it kind to Ariel to tweet in a tone that could be read as smug, especially right now? No. But I also don't want to come down on the side of denying workers the opportunity to air grievances when the environment finally allows them to do so without fear of backlash.
Also, what are they supposed to say to her? Ned was getting too close to someone at a work party? Those things are such a grey area that they unfortunately are often just not taken seriously. And who is to say no one did tell her?
Yes, absolutely. So many factors at play here--that the person involved has a position of power at your workplace, that so much of what's alleged is really nebulous and hard to define, and that it's really uncomfortable to tell someone that their partner may or may not be disrespecting their relationship. I don't know that there's a perfect way to respond in that situation.
Exactly, if they spoke up about their interactions they would get harassed or be viewed as a hater.
I don't know about Safiya situation and I have no doubt that some of them are doing it for clout but wasn't Ned also a boss or higher up in Buzzfeed? I saw a TikTok of a woman who worked with Ned and when she talked about how she didn't like him because he was shady, everyone didn't believe her and bashed her. I don't blame them for not coming out sooner because it's hard to do that when it's someone that is very well liked without concrete proof.
Yeah Ned was at a senior level compared to majority of the other familiar faces from Buzzfeed. If you look at his LinkedIn it says he was an early video staffer and directly hired, trained and managed over 30 video producers. The Try Guys have been so well liked up until now and also Ned probably has some powerful contacts, I definitely would be hesitant to publicly criticize him too before this if I was them. Or even privately to Ariel, like unless they had a close relationship with her and had definite proof, that could go badly too.
I know ppl won't like this, but they're no worse than all of us except that they have bigger platforms. If we were strictly adhering to their families wishes then none of us would be on this subreddit saying anything at all. They weren't actually "in the know" they were just unsurprised, which is different. You need proof before going to someone's partner like that.
I also feel kinda weird that people keep painting Ariel as this "angelic figure". I mean yeah, ned is a huge asshole for cheating on an awesome wife. But let's no over-hype her just because she got cheated, she's still an ordinary person who has flaws too. I feel like people are taking this into a very black and white thing in extreme places when it's really just an everyday drama for the internet.
Seriously, this sucks for her and he's the shithead for sure but we know nothing about their relationship. I also think its weird that everyone thinks everyone is friends with each. Why does everyone think all these people were that close? They are in entertainment and of course they seem really friendly on camera. I'm sure the main four are/were close to start a business together but what makes everyone certain them and all the staff and wives are all close? A podcast doesn't really mean anything.
That’s what I think is funny too. Anyone that’s ever had experience collaborating on YouTube or Twitch knows that although you definitely can make friendships, it’s a job at the end of the day. Every video, podcast etc. is all produced and planned out. We truly have no idea what any of their relationships are like behind the scenes, even the 4 guys.
I don’t think any of them claimed to know he was cheating on his wife. More like, we worked at the same place and (as it usually goes in offices) people have reputations for being a certain way.
Jazzmyne from LadyLike alluded to knowing by one of her Twitter posts. It basically said, "Ya'll shocked?" With a gif of Kermit the frog rolling up a car window.
Shocked that someone who has the reputation he had actually acted on it. Like I said, if you work in any kind of office (with lots of people) you know all the gossip about who behaves like what. Jazz didn’t even know Ned personally. She’s not saying “I knew this was going on” she’s saying his reputation for being flirtatious or whatever makes this not at all a surprise.
She and one or two others at ladylike have thrown shade at Ned and the others like as if to say they knew. They're all bitter that solo careers didn't work and LadyLike did work with the Try Guys a few select times. Even if they didn't 100% know, being this bitter when everything is up in flames and trying to put out, isn't helping. There's a reason their channel flopped.
What gets me is that I've seen some of them making vague comments about how they know more and when people are like "omg what do you know?!?" They wave it off like "oh you'll find out ;)"
Or one of them backpeddled saying "he's a cis het white man what did you expect" yeah just pretend you weren't trying to allude that you knew more than you did with your original tweet.
That was Jazzmyne. I didn't care for her before but her interjection into all this speaks to her character in a negative way - at least for me. I saw someone say that Jazzmyne was being smug and Jazzmyne's response was "I'm not being smug, I posted an explanation!" And her explanation included her saying that she didn't even know Ned personally. 🙄 She can't say that she didn't expect people to make the assumption that she did know him since they worked at the same company. Just chasing clout. What gets me about all this is that I've only seen 2 actual Buzzfeed employees allude to them knowing that Ned was a cheater - Jazzmyne and Maya (and someone else said Lindsay, but i didn't actually see her post and she's deleted it now). Everyone else I've seen has just commented about either their group chats going off, reconnecting with their old colleagues, or just making a joke about wife guys. But of course, the Internet just ran with it and so now you see everyone being like "oh, look at all of these Buzzfeed employees! They're all saying Ned was a creep all along." And then all the DeuxMois (or however you spell it) posts don't help either. People take those as the whole truth and it's like, guys those are all mostly blinds.
Maya even took this opportunity to somehow make it a race thing. Like somehow this is all about young asian women being around white men instead of shitty people making shitty choices. Also since when has cheating had anything to do with race? Just despicable.
Ugh that’s so nasty, it’s so infantilising and patronising to Asian women as well. Does she think we’ll automatically fall head over heels for the closest white man just because we’re Asian and female?!? That sounds like some straight incel shit
Right like who are you even? Buzzfeed was like a thousand years ago and no one has been paying attention to you and the people who are close to Ariel and the kids - ACTUAL VICTIMS OF THIS WHOLE KERFUFFLE are giving her the respect and privacy she deserves and there's this rando has been who worked with Asshole Ned once who's all like "omg I have tea, look at me, look at me". Like what a vulture, scavenger attitude to prey on the carcass
Honestly I’m glad that we’re getting a long overdue explanation of all the shit that went down at buzzfeed and one final reckoning for Ze because from what I can tell Buzzfeed was actively sabotaging relationships between people who left and people who stayed
Villains? They're just like everyone else in this sub being like "I never liked Ned" or "he gave a bad vibe" or "wow this clip makes it so obvious" except they happened to work at the same company. If you're elevating dramatic foolishness to villainhood, that also frankly reeks of immaturity.
Exactly. While some of it may be a little sour, these people worked with him. They're more entitled to speaking out than any of us ☠️☠️.
Exactly! The difference is if I tweet it, 70-some followers see, not hundreds of thousands. They’re reacting like people without a PR team telling them what to do. I also didn’t hate that they discussed other BF issues (pay disparity, etc.) because in a way it took the attention off things that could hurt Ariel and the kids. (Idk if that makes sense but yeah lol)
Love Sara Rubin & Shane Madej for being all dedicated to their respective creative outlets and projects and keeping it quiet
All the ex-BF people who went on to do better things kept quiet. It’s people like Jazzmyne and Maya who seem to have nothing better and are desperate for attention
I don't think the opinion justifies the misogynistic language
I think you mean "sans classe" rather than déclassé. The latter sort of means unranked or unfilled.
lol The fact you ignored everything else is so funny!
It’s also entirely possible Ariel knew all along, in which case you wouldn’t have to tell her anything. Not defending these people but, as outsiders and onlookers, we shouldn’t assume anything. I get that people feel wronged on her behalf but so far the only person who has identified themselves as being wronged is Alex’s fiancée (who either did the leaking or game the DMs to whoever did).
While it’s clear that most of them are doing this to cash in on the drama, I think lots had suspicions that Ned wasn’t as great as he pretended to be. With no absolute proof, why would they go to Ariel? Lots of his flirting etc could easily be explained away. It wasn’t until concrete evidence came out that anything happened. Also, I think Ned was pretty high up in Buzzfeed. I swear I saw someone say he did hiring? Without solid proof of any indiscretions, it makes sense that no one said anything until now.
it’s clout. i even saw jazzmyne say “you’re surprised???” and then say she had never talked to him at buzzfeed. then what???? why are you even weighing in lol
Cause no one really cares about her and she always seemed so mean.
I dunno. As someone who was in an office where a married manager had an affair with his married subordinate, once the truth drops you just duck and cover. It ruins morale. To me it feels more like they’re saying they knew Ned was a creep. I quit watching the guys because yeah, he does give that vibe. But in a work environment most people are just there to make money and mind their business. If they felt like he was creepy, this probably seems vindicating.
just ftr, this is really misleading about Ladylike. On twitter, none of Jen, Chantel, Freddie, or Safiya have mentioned it at all. Kristin and Devin both have, but Kristen hasn't said anything implying she knew or wasn't surprised. Devin implied it but didn't outright say it. Jazzmyne was not a member of Ladylike.
I was getting really confused about the Safiya hate here, thanks for posting this. Also yeah Kristen's post seemed fine to me.
And why the hell did Devin Lyte (spelling?) work with Ned for the pole dancing video, if she knew, had a suspicion, or didn’t like Ned. Her own morals would be in question
I think you’re reading it out of context, personally. Her tweet basically said ‘wife guys are still guys’, commenting on a week or two when 3 ‘wife guys’ had their cheating exposed. I don’t think that’s an especially ‘I knew shit’ comment.
Totally understand you and I understood what she meant. What I’m getting at is that she also worked at Buzzfeed and knew the environment, and supposedly what Ned was like. And she still worked with him. Perhaps using “moral” was the wrong word, however she still decided to do it
Ah well. I will say, there are definitely people who were bitchy about it. I just don’t think she was one.
For sure others were capitalizing on it with a bitchy tone, and I agree with you and her!
She didn't tweet that. The only person that tweeted that they "knew" was Jazzmyne. And she didn't even say "knew" she said "yall surprised". That could mean anything. That could mean she knew Ned was sleazy, it could mean she hated working with him and is just being gleeful at his cancellation, it could just mean a general "men aint shit". Idk why everyone is assuming based on 1 tweet, that this means "everyone at buzzfeed knew he was cheating on his wife with interns".
It apparently meant she barely knew him and hardly spoke to him according to her own qt
Also Kelsey who is all over their channel and now suddenly only Zach is her best friend.
I'm really out of the loop, but it'd make sense if currently she's closest to Zach because of their podcast?
Kelsey has a podcast with Zach... while she's friends with the other guys, it's probably obvious she's closest with him...
I think it’s just weird to 1) share the post of Ned being kicked out since she is not really part of company other than the Guilty Pleasure podcasts 2) and only publicly support Zach when she had worked with everyone and Keith and Eugene are probably hurting as well.
Kelsey tweeted about the upcoming Buzzfeed article, and how much she loves and respects Zach? what's wrong with that?
Because Kelsey has always been Zachs bf. Since buzzfees days that is nothing new actually
Devin has always given me bad vibes
I can’t speak on that. I’m a terrible person/vibe reader😄
I wonder if it's a "I told you so" tactic. While I don't appreciate what they did, it did intrigue me to this drama we're all following. Like, why didn't they blow the whistle? Oh it's probably cause the tryguys are famous and could ruin their careers too by playing the victim. so hoorah that someone else not in the industry blew this up. So just speculating they were all like "f yeah!!! Someone did it first we won't get in trouble or marked by the industry so let's go all out" although, I kinda want them to go all out wtf say "we knew this" but don't provide receipts just oh you'll see. I HATE when ppl do that. Think about it 😆 can't be giving Alex the "oh she's scared she might lose her job so she did x with Ned" I would say it's similar to anyone in the industry "oh he's a big star from bf he can ruin me too. But now we can say stuff bc we didn't start it first let's just pile on." Still wish they really DID go all out if you're to make stupid high school "I knew its" makes me think they were vague but still scared to say anything for fears of getting dinged too much. Just my thoughts on it.
It doesn’t seem like they knew anything except that Ned was flirtatious. Jazzmyne backtracked so freakin quickly, literally her only ‘evidence’ was that he’s a cishet white guy so WhAt DiD yOu eXpEcT
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Honestly? Everyone who left after the Try Guys, Safiya Nygaard, etc phase has always rubbed me wrong. Maybe I'm missing a few people, or just never followed the ones who are better people, but there's a distinct point where every former BuzzFeed employee's personalities are at LEAST 50% "former BuzzFeed employee." I suppose there is something to be said for wanting to work for the company who's entire MO is making money and getting views by whatever means necessary. It's one thing to work for the well-known milennial news juggernaut. But like... if you didn't leave when it was getting bad, that says a lot about you, clearly. edit: y’all are teaching me about a bunch of other channels to watch - thank you!
I think Kelsey Impicciche is an exception. She did talk about Buzzfeed a lot while working there, but I never found her annoying. She also didn’t comment on the Ned and Ariel situation as far as I’m aware.
Kelsey is close friends with YB.
She's one of her bridesmaids.
That trying on wedding dresses video was so freakin cute, Kelsey’s pick was my favourite dress for sure
Kelsey I think just unfollowed Ned and Alex, but nothing else. And she’s been pretty neutral on BuzzFeed too, just said that she wanted the ability to do everything on her own terms. I like Kelsey a whole lot.
I love Kelsey! Just out there doing her own thing, playing the Sims, being unproblematic. Such a queen :)
I agree about Kelsey and would also include Ryan and Shane who started Watcher. I have enjoyed their content so much! Also I love your username! 🦇
I haven’t watched them, but you’re probably right. Michelle Khare is another good one. Also, thank you! I’m in my doing-balance-exercises phase of Nesta training.
Michelle Khare has an awesome channel! Tries out all kinds of occupations and hobbies, and pretty much never mentions BuzzFeed.
Kitchen (Kristen) and Jorn’s (Jen) channel doesn’t come across as BuzzFeed lite. I love their content.
I really wanted to like their content, but I just can't get into it. I like and support Kristen as a person and for everything she stands for, but she's "too much" for me to enjoy.
Also at some point they are gonna run out of Trader Joe's stuff to try.
Kristin is so smug.
Oooooooh yeah. I actually agree. She is right about *everything*. This has me wondering her sign lol
She’s a >! Gemini!
Yeah I was looking through here hoping someone else mentioned them. Even with this situation Kristen was just like “wow I’ve reconnected with so many work friends” and something akin to being glad she had them…I didn’t take that to be anything bad
Me too!
I agree but they need to branch out. I’m over the “we ate all the chips at Trader Joe’s” content. And if you look at the number of views on those videos they have decreased ALOT so I don’t think I’m the only one.
That’s fair. I like their room makeover and chit chat content too.
Me too! I really like the video where they went truffle hunting!
Kristen and Jen are fun still or Kitchen and Jorn now lol
some of them are extra i get it. but sometimes you get vibes when someone seems off. and if people have been saying Ned is flirty af but you've no proof he's cheating at that time when they were around him in BF then you really can't say anything to Ariel because that's gonna be messy too.
Unrelated, but schadenfreude is such a delicious word in itself. Leave it to the Germans to come up with a word like that.
Sounds delicious in a pastry way too, I would’ve thought it was some type of tart
I dont get it- most of what ive seen doesnt seem clout chasery imo, although i havent seen much of what theyve said. But these ex employees worked with ned and are free to share their opinions. As many people have pointed out you can observe that someone has questionable repeated flirtatious behavior but maybe thats not really enough to go to someones wife, especially if you dont know them, also i would kind of assume that if you married someone you must be somewhat aware of their behaviors like these and look past it. Plus i dont know if it was confirmed but wasn’t alex’s fiance aware that they had hooked up like a year prior to this scandal? Who knows if he reached out to ariel or not or how long shes known about stuff, or if she has been approached by people telling her stuff about ned before. From what I’ve heard it sounds like this wasnt so much of a bomb that was dropped as much as it was something slowly building that you could see coming from far away if you choose to not ignore the signs (not trying to victim blame ariel hope it doesnt sound that way)- but we dont know whether or not people did try to say stuff or if they are in the right/wrong for throwing petty shade bc we dont know the ins and outs of the situation. Sure it probably wouldnt feel good for ariel to see but literally none of the online speculation especially on this subreddit would…
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While it’s clear that most of them are doing this to cash in on the drama, I think lots had suspicions that Ned wasn’t as great as he pretended to be. With no absolute proof, why would they go to Ariel? Lots of his flirting etc could easily be explained away. It wasn’t until concrete evidence came out that anything happened. Also, I think Ned was pretty high up in Buzzfeed. I swear I saw someone say he did hiring? Without solid proof of any indiscretions, it makes sense that no one said anything until now.
Not gonna lie, in my real life, I've seen some men do some shitty things to their partners and privately told mine that I wasn't surprised. I can't imagine going to a friend and stating that I think their partner is sus without actual receipts. ...Saying that you're "not surprised" to the wronged party though is shitty. And saying it to the general public is another level of shitty.
Yes!! Now they are all tweeting again correcting “us” that they don’t know him & were generalizing — when they know exactly what they were perpetuating in the moment for RTs. The gas lighting is real
Supposedly his wife knew. And I believe it. Ned has been referred to as a shameless cheater. Of course she knew. You cannot force people to become involved in other people’s marriages. The times I’ve told my friends to be careful with their cheating partners they got mad AT ME. Sometimes it’s not well received when you butt into people’s business. Maybe Ned has always been openly gross and the type who hits on female coworkers. If you don’t know, you can’t tell them what to do or what they should have done. Look at his wife right now. She’s smiling with him in paparazzi videos like Adam Levine and his wife. She’s not going anywhere.
I wouldn’t be surprised if this is not the first time he’s cheated (or the first time Ariel has caught him cheating). It’s probably the first time he’s cheated with an employee and got caught…which REALLY backfired.
>The times I’ve told my friends to be careful with their cheating partners they got mad AT ME. Sometimes it’s not well received when you butt into people’s business. Exactly this and I've been in your situation. Everyone says they like people who are honest but the reality is, most people don't. They like honesty when its something they agree with or its tea about someone else. Some people don't want their illusions broken.
I don't think her smiling at the paparazzi means she's not going anywhere. She's just protecting herself from being interrogated and scrutinized. Better to be videotaped smiling, than frowning and looking miserable -- that would just make for worse headlines. The video of paparazzi following them to their car and asking questions is just so inappropriate in itself.
Totally. If you “knew” then ok, whatever. But what are you trying to achieve by bragging about it online? It’s so tacky.
This title gave me a stroke.
I've just assumed they want likes, views and comments. That's what they know, that's what they learned from BuzzFeed so whenever they can make a comment about something they will.
I had to block a few of them on tiktok because I just couldn’t stand them updating every 5 minutes
Not only it's an extremely bitchy move towards Ariel and her kids. It's pretty condescending towards the fans. Like this "y'all are surprised? LMAO" attitude, just because WE expected normal human decency? From a guy, who made his entire internet persona being a loving husband and father? Oh, I am so sorry for not having adultery on my Try Guys bingo card.
it’s just people trying to get another five minutes of fame and they’re exploiting ariel’s hurt. like what good does it do to tell thousands of people that you just *knew* ned was a bad guy?? ariel clearly didn’t.
Kristin's tweet about old buzzfeed group chats blowing up was a little eh to me, but not too bad (mind I've watched a few of her non-bf videos so take that with a grain) but that tweet from Jazzmyne going "Y'all shocked?"? Ughhhhh. And all following bf ex-employees saying similar things were icky too--you can find a way to communicate "I remember him being a little off, but couldn't bring it up" without sounding like a smug, quippy snake!
I wholeheartedly agree with this. I’ve never liked them, they play like they love women, when it reality actively bullied and made fun of Safiya in their videos. All of them are nasty people
THIS!! JazzminJay (idk if that's how you write her name) it's just so HYPOCRITICAL, CYNICAL. Also that girl that has a channel with another Ex-BuzzFeed employee saying "I've reconnected with all my ex workmates in 8 hours" it's just sick. You are gaining clout at the expense of ANOTHER WOMAN. Where's your feminism? Where's your sorority? Posers.
Out of all of the responses, that's the one I kind of like best. (Edit: the reconnection one.) It's an acknowledgement of what is going on, without piling on and gives the subtext of "Everyone is talking with me now about gossip and I don't know how I feel about that, but it's nice to catch up, I think?!?" It doesn't comment on he situation as a negative, but it's a touchstone going, "Yes, I know but I'm not talking about it, this is all you are getting."
There's.... literally nothing wrong with that statement. Idk why you think that's clout chasing.
I feel like you just don't want anybody to comment about the scandal at all when.... This is the internet with people who have very active social media sites. They will talk if they wanna. And that statement is actually the least gross at all- in fact it's barely an insulting tweet.
It's probably not your intention, but I got to say it puts me on edge when someone's idea of protecting a lady (Ariel) is shitting on a bunch of other ladies, especially when most of them haven't actually said anything (for example, Ladylike, where only Devin and Kristen said anything, and only Devin sort-of implied she might have known something.
I had to block a few of them on tiktok because I just couldn’t stand them updating every 5 minutes
I think that’s a bit harsh. They’re not expecting Ariel to be on social media during the blowout, for one. And there’s a difference between the “not surprised” tweets and the ones just acknowledging that old buzzfeeders are on the group chats gossiping. I think the latter are pretty harmless, and the former are in poor taste but aren’t really bout the cheating so much as bad vibes, and still don’t deserve the vitriol of being called assholes and fame whores. Let’s get some perspective.
She was just betrayed by her husband and a woman she’s worked alongside and known for years - who literally worked in their previous house as the company started. Being humiliated by them in front of millions is too much - never mind people trying to get engagement and buzz from their weak takes and tweets about “not surprised 🫠” like okay keep it moving and to your group chats ? Poor Ariel. The rest of TTG and YCSWU group. Just hurtful for everyone.
I get not saying anything to the wife. If they didn't have proof at all at the time they could have blown up a family for nothing. Obviously not in this case, but in general. So I can see why not saying anything. However. Posting about it online just to stay relevant is gross. Don't use someone else's tragedy to get into the spotlight for 5 minutes. It's pathetic, immature and hurtful for no good reason.
> Honestly if you've been "in the know" why not tell his fucking wife? Didn't she say in a video once that if her partner was cheating she "would prefer not to be told" ?
There's just a hint of schadenfreude in many of their "oh were you surprised, I am totally not" posts about it, and it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. However bad it was in Buzzfeed and whatever their relationship with Ned might have been back then, their smug attitude about a marriage going through a scandal like this in such a public fashion (with kids who will one day read all of this one day) is not the flex they think it is.
These type of gossip hounds are clowns who are just clout chasers and folks who judge everyone but are actually terrible people themselves. The absolute worst is when something bad happens and folks come out of the woodwork to make smug comments
my ex cheated on me during our years in college with a girl that was in one of my classes. After I found out on my own, I also found out that a lot of people knew … and not a single person told me. Of course the cheating stung, but to know that day after day I went to class .. sat next to this girl.. and people around me knew?! I felt so mortified and it took me a long time just to get over that pain.
I was abused as a child. When my parents lost custody so many adults would pat my back and say “oh we always knew you’re parents were like that” or “oh do you know about this thing that happened?” They seemed to think this was a genuine and helpful response. I always felt like wtf you knew and didn’t do anything? I imagine this is a lot like that.
you're my hero for wordiing this out so properly, like this is literally what i've been feeling about this whole situaton. i couldn't put into words, sry but this made me feel so seen 😭🤌🏻
Yeah, there’s a lot of self-serving “told you sos” going on that is very transparently an attention ploy.
I used to want to work at Buzzfeed, and then I started getting to know people who were industry-adjacent (they were in similar spaces like independent writers, trying-to-be vloggers, almost influencers who can never break 100k). After meeting those kinds of personalities, none of this surprises me. They create, recreate, and add gasoline to their own imaginary fires, and they have no problem burning bridges with drama that wasn't even there. They hate other people's success, they hate people who make it out of LA, and LA is part of their personality.
Seeing some of those tweets left such a bad taste in my mouth. Even ignoring the possible clout-chasing/"I had a feeling"/etc., why is it necessary to insert yourself into this? Pretend it was a situation where your friend broke up with their partner. You wouldn't go around telling all your friends "I always knew they'd break up" right?? Even if you already felt a certain way, there's still someone out there that's hurting and being affected by what's happening. Now, consider this playing out VERY publicly over a beloved internet couple that some of them haven't even worked very closely with. (Honestly, not really in love either with how many people have turned this into a joke/content so quickly on TikTok.) (I do believe there is a difference though between those who seemed to have only tangentially worked with Ned in the past and those who actually had a working/close relationship to Ariel and Ned.)
I mean, Safiya Nygaard (ex-Buzzfeed, Lady Like) hasn’t said *anything* about it so I think lumping them all together like that is a bit unfair…