Jester David
Hero
You're misremembering.And if that was what had happened, we wouldn't be here. Specifically, when the community pointed out they were asshats before 5e was published, Mearls deliberately dismissed those community members as trolls just looking to "form a lynch mob".
The community only pointed out the asshats AFTER 5e was published. It was because of the credits that the community members contacted Mearls. It was noticed after the Basic Rules were published, but this was well after the PHB would have been sent to the printers.
Yes, Mearls *privately* dismissed those comments. That was a mistake. But we don't know what happened after. It was enough that they stopped working with Zak S. WotC didn't issue a statement, but it was an open secret they had cut ties.
But as a major company, WotC and it's staff couldn't issue a statement accusing a private individual in the industry of a crime without some pretty airtight and fantastic proof. Or they'd be vulnerable to a major libel lawsuit.
There's a reason the first statement after Mandy Morbid accused Zak of rape and abuse was so vague.
It wouldn't have made a difference.And when Mearls stood with Zak against those trying to shine a light on his harassment, he, personally, made it that much more difficult for those voices to taken seriously within the community at large, to the extent that Zak still remained a respected, if not controversial, member of the industry for at least another 4-5 years before a credible enough voice broke that dam.
People knew. And people believed. But the companies that worked with Zak would have kept working with him. There's no way they weren't contacted or told of the abuse. They didn't care and chose to keep employing him. A harsh written smackdown from Mike Mearls would have done NOTHING.
Heck, the publishers of Lamentations of the Flame Princess only reluctantly stopped working with him due to public pressure. The author of the Facebook post was much more saddened they couldn't work with Zak than sympathetic that someone was assaulted.
Those who knew still knew and were very vocal. It was enough for a walk out of the ENnies in 2015.
But that didn't stop Zak winning multiple ENnies in 2016 and again last year. (Awards he still has.)
So... he owes the community an apology?And Mearls has not taken responsibility nor has he apologized for these statements. This is why he needs to make a public mea culpa; because his actions harmed the community as a whole, and especially survivors of harassment and intimate partner violence within the community.
Because people who did not believe the victims, and would not have believed him anyway, continued to hire a serial abuser and troll?
That'd just be an empty gesture. Shallow virtue signalling.
It's easy to apologize to a faceless mob.
It's hard to sit down with someone you wronged, have a conversation with them, and apologize to their face. And he already did that.