Can someone explain how this video has 4.1M Views but has 200 likes?????

October 1, 2021 11:52 AM

I really can’t think of a more perfect encapsulation of the last 10 stupid and wasteful years of bloated VC-funded digital media than a constantly-pivoting digital publisher launched by two Goldman Sachs employees abusing underpaid staffers, dangling useless stock options in front of them, and possibly committing fraud to help prop up a weird and wildly unpopular YouTube talk show hosted by the site’s founder. Internet guy Ryan Broderick dives into the rapidly disintegrating world of OZY Media, recently in the news for impersonating a Youtube executive at an investor meeting and lying about basic facts regarding their flagship "Carlos Watson Show."
posted by theodolite (62 comments total)

Imagine how bad your investment call must have gone for your potential investors (and former colleagues?) to walk away thinking "this was hilariously terrible, but it would be even more hilarious if we all looped in a reporter in the NYT on all the details."
posted by pwnguin at 11:56 AM on October 1, 2021 [8 favorites]

[my hardware firewall went apeshit when I tried to visit the first link, so, uh, YMMV folks?]
posted by aramaic at 12:03 PM on October 1, 2021 [1 favorite]

Wait. Didn’t BBC have a series called When Katy met Carlos with these characters?
posted by Rabarberofficer at 12:05 PM on October 1, 2021

There were red flags early on. In an interview, Mr. Bessey said that he had no contact with A&E executives during the making of the show. And when he asked Mr. Watson and Mr. Rao about it, they said that the executives wanted to talk only to them, he said. And when Mr. Bessey said he knew several A&E executives and would be happy to reach out to them, they told him not to, he said.

Jerry Lundegaard: "No, no. See - they, no, see, they only deal with me. Ya feel this, this nervousness on the phone there, they're very - these guys're dangerous."
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 12:06 PM on October 1, 2021 [10 favorites]

There were red flags early on.

Red Flags you say?
posted by lalochezia at 12:09 PM on October 1, 2021 [5 favorites]

This is not even important, but extremely funny:

"The marketing campaign for “The Carlos Watson Show” included billboards and posters in New York and Los Angeles. Those ads included splashy quotes with misleading attributions. One such quote, attributed to the Hollywood website Deadline, calls Mr. Watson “the best interviewer on TV.” That description did appear in a July 31, 2020, Deadline article, but was taken from a statement by Mr. Rao in praise of Mr. Watson. Another quote described Mr. Watson as “Anderson Cooper meets Oprah.” That line, attributed to The Los Angeles Times, was drawn from an advertising supplement that Ozy ran in that newspaper."

posted by BungaDunga at 12:17 PM on October 1, 2021 [16 favorites]

the rapidly disintegrating world of OZY Media

Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair!
Don't forget to subscribe, and smash that Like button
posted by Jon Mitchell at 12:28 PM on October 1, 2021 [59 favorites]

An endlessly entertaining company as long as you never watched any of their products. From their mission statement page:

And we built those convictions into our name, which comes from "Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe Shelley. The poem is commonly read as a warning against outsized egos and the impermanence of power. But we choose to read it differently. To us, it's a call to think big while remaining humble. Admittedly, ours is an unconventional interpretation — because that's who we are. In a world littered with conformity, we like to see things differently.

To which the only possible reply is:
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
posted by thatwhichfalls at 12:33 PM on October 1, 2021 [23 favorites]

I had never heard of Ozy until earlier this morning. It's great. Media critic Jay Rosen has been tweeting out related stories all day, it's in his wheelhouse and as he says there's a lot more appetite for stories about Ozy than by Ozy.

The best I read is this one from the Nieman Lab, which goes into a bit about the way both claims of journalistic insight and the numbers themselves are inflated:

But Ozy was using its own definition [of unique views], one that included anyone who might have seen one of its tweets or followed it on Facebook or, presumably, glanced at it once longingly across a grassy meadow. Using the standard definition, Ozy’s website was getting as little as 230,000 monthly uniques this summer, according to Comscore.

posted by mark k at 12:36 PM on October 1, 2021 [5 favorites]

Matt Levine dressed these guys down in his Bloomberg Money Stuff column here. Funny stuff, though you'll prolly need to find a non-paywalled link (I subscribe to his newsletter).

Tl;dr: It's pure fraud, but no one on the money side seems to care.
posted by kjs3 at 12:39 PM on October 1, 2021 [3 favorites]

More from that page:

We've heard from political leaders like Secretary Hillary Clinton and President George W. Bush, authors Roxane Gay, Salman Rushdie and Malcolm Gladwell, actors Gwyneth Paltrow and Issa Rae, entrepreneurs Mark Cuban and Bill Gates, and global cultural icons like Eddie Huang, Jameela Jamil, Tan France and RuPaul.

Literally every one of those people can be rented by the hour if you have the money.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 12:42 PM on October 1, 2021 [8 favorites]

The marketing campaign for “The Carlos Watson Show” included billboards and posters in New York and Los Angeles. Those ads included splashy quotes with misleading attributions.

These were illegally wheatpasted all over some parts of DC for a bit, too.
posted by ryanshepard at 12:51 PM on October 1, 2021 [1 favorite]

The poem is commonly read as a warning against outsized egos and the impermanence of power. But we choose to read it differently. To us, it's a call to think big while remaining humble.

I hope they do My Last Duchess next
posted by miles per flower at 12:58 PM on October 1, 2021 [11 favorites]

I do wonder how much of this house of cards suddenly exploding is due to the fact that every metro area in the US was blanketed with Carlos Watson Show posters in the last couple of months and every single media journalism person simultaneously thought "uh who is this guy"
posted by theodolite at 1:00 PM on October 1, 2021 [2 favorites]

One of the reasons I find this story so wildly entertaining is that unlike other tech scandals like Theranos, creating mediocre clickbait isn’t going to kill anyone. It’s simply an entertaining catalogue of WTF.
posted by betweenthebars at 1:00 PM on October 1, 2021 [16 favorites]

I hope they do My Last Duchess next

"For us, this is a story about workplace retention and recruitment policies. We know this is an unconventional reading, but that's who we are."
posted by mark k at 1:05 PM on October 1, 2021 [11 favorites]

At one point the Vox site had links to Ozy on it. I remember repeatedly visiting the Ozy site trying to figure out how it was connected to Vox and why I should hate it, especially a bizarre column they had called the Presidential Daily Brief. (This was during 45's tenure.) I never quite puzzled it out and at some point Vox dropped the link.

I found spending time on the Ozy Media site was like slow driving past a multi-car pileup. You know you shouldn't stare to see if there are bloody bodies strewn about but you can't help yourself. Then, after a few icky moments, you snap out of it.
posted by fuse theorem at 1:17 PM on October 1, 2021 [1 favorite]

OzyFest got some amusing Chapo coverage a few years back

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/a-neoliberal-nightmare-at-ozy-fest-2018-702600/
posted by anazgnos at 1:22 PM on October 1, 2021 [7 favorites]

I do wonder how much of this house of cards suddenly exploding is due to the fact that every metro area in the US was blanketed with Carlos Watson Show posters in the last couple of months and every single media journalism person simultaneously thought "uh who is this guy"

I don't know if I feel good or bad that my fair city didn't qualify for their advertising barrage.
posted by octothorpe at 1:29 PM on October 1, 2021 [2 favorites]

Axios is still cool though, right?
posted by Keith Talent at 1:42 PM on October 1, 2021 [1 favorite]

And we built those convictions into our name, which comes from "Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe Shelley. The poem is commonly read as a warning against outsized egos and the impermanence of power. But we choose to read it differently. To us, it's a call to think big while remaining humble. Admittedly, ours is an unconventional interpretation — because that's who we are. In a world littered with conformity, we like to see things differently.

You know, there's no such thing as a single definitive "right" interpretation of a work of literature. The joy of literary engagement and criticism is the act of creation between the reader and the text, and many different readings are all equally valid from various points of view.

So it's kind of impressive they managed to find a wrong interpretation.
posted by biogeo at 1:53 PM on October 1, 2021 [55 favorites]

Aaaaand they’re shutting down. (NYT link)
posted by skycrashesdown at 2:22 PM on October 1, 2021 [4 favorites]

Life comes at you fast.
posted by schmod at 2:24 PM on October 1, 2021 [2 favorites]

They paid for a whole advertising supplement magazine in the Sunday NYT a few weeks back and it was so weird I couldn’t bring myself to throw it directly in the recycling like I usually do with supplements. It’s still sitting in our stack of papers. Anybody want a collector’s item?
posted by fedward at 2:36 PM on October 1, 2021 [4 favorites]

That escalated crumbled quickly
posted by gwint at 2:45 PM on October 1, 2021 [4 favorites]

You know, there's no such thing as a single definitive "right" interpretation of a work of literature. The joy of literary engagement and criticism is the act of creation between the reader and the text, and many different readings are all equally valid from various points of view.

So it's kind of impressive they managed to find a wrong interpretation.

Macbeth is commonly read as a warning against the lust for power and the moral corruption of violent acts. But we choose to read it differently. To us, it's a call to find innovative ways of succession planning and supporting your spouse's career development path. In a world littered with conformity, we like to see things differently.
posted by fortitude25 at 2:52 PM on October 1, 2021 [64 favorites]

Lord of the Flies is commonly read as an allegory for the fragility of civilization and the savage nature that lurks in the hearts of all people. But we choose to read it differently. To us, it's a call for wilderness survival training and the importance of durable corrective lenses. In a world littered with conformity, we like to see things differently.
posted by biogeo at 3:04 PM on October 1, 2021 [58 favorites]

MetaFilter: A call for wilderness survival training and the importance of durable corrective lenses.
posted by PhineasGage at 3:11 PM on October 1, 2021 [19 favorites]

Catch-22 is commonly read as an existential cry of despair of those trapped by the moral contradictions of modern civilization. But we choose to read it differently. To us, it's a call to find what your heart desires when people around you say "no". In a world littered with conformity, we like to see things differently.
posted by ardgedee at 3:17 PM on October 1, 2021 [27 favorites]

Finnegan's Wake is commonly read as ... uh... uh... hmm...
posted by Saxon Kane at 3:30 PM on October 1, 2021 [37 favorites]

Kakfa's Metamorphosis is commonly read as an allegory of isolation, and the impossibility of connection between minds, the frailty and absurdity of the human condition. We choose to read it differently - to us it is one man's brave leap into a glorious world of radiation-hardened scuttling! In a world littered with conformity, we choose to take that litter into our giant, oozing mandibles, and chew mightily with chitinous abandon.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 3:44 PM on October 1, 2021 [40 favorites]

Welp. Ben Smith did it.
posted by Going To Maine at 3:45 PM on October 1, 2021

What is Ozy? Who is Carlos Watson ? I feel like I’m Very Online most of the time …
posted by freecellwizard at 4:01 PM on October 1, 2021 [6 favorites]

> freecellwizard: "I feel like I’m Very Online most of the time"

I saw on Twitter some person (possibly a media reporter?) saying that their colleagues fell into two camps: 1) "what the heck is Ozy?", and 2) "I've been waiting on Ozy's scam to be blown up for years".
posted by mhum at 4:34 PM on October 1, 2021 [5 favorites]

I’m pretty sure Ozy wasn’t ever a Very Online thing. Really, their problem seems to have been that they weren’t online enough.
posted by Going To Maine at 4:48 PM on October 1, 2021 [3 favorites]

Oh wait, I found the tweet. It's this one from Juila Carrie Wong, who reports on tech & media for Guardian US:

one thing that I love about the ozy thing is that media people have either never heard of it before this week or have been quietly filing away evidence of its apparently obvious fraud for years and there is no middle ground

She follows up the tweet with two screenshots of messages sent to her, one which reads "I'm sorry but literally what the fuck is Ozy media", the other reads "I've been hate tracking him for a while".
posted by mhum at 5:08 PM on October 1, 2021 [12 favorites]

I love you nerds, please keep 'em coming.
posted by biogeo at 5:30 PM on October 1, 2021 [1 favorite]

What is Ozy? Who is Carlos Watson ? I feel like I’m Very Online most of the time …

Don't worry, we're only a year or two away until the tell-all documentary debuts on one of the streaming services.
posted by Apocryphon at 5:34 PM on October 1, 2021 [3 favorites]

My real concern is all the stories that got neglected this week while the NY Times, NPR, and CNN were all obsessively talking about the downfall of a company that never really existed or mattered in the first place. NPR, in particular, had Carlos Watson on its board because I guess he was once a reputable NPR reporter or something, and so they apparently have felt obligated to cover this non-story in exhaustive detail to prove how not biased they are in favor of this non-company and its non-celebrity host of a non-talk show.

Meanwhile, we desperately need to get the infrastructure and voting rights bills through Congress and to prevent the overthrow of democracy.
posted by hydropsyche at 5:39 PM on October 1, 2021 [8 favorites]

Ozy is like one story in the NYT’s media column. It’s hardly taking up all the oxygen, I think.
posted by Going To Maine at 5:46 PM on October 1, 2021 [7 favorites]

(Scrolling the NYT home page right now, it’s a bunch of Congress stuff, a bunch of COVID stuff, a story about Ozy, and then a bunch of other assorted headlines.)
posted by Going To Maine at 5:48 PM on October 1, 2021

The reporters covering Ozy are probably not on the Capitol Hill beat anyway.
posted by Apocryphon at 5:55 PM on October 1, 2021 [6 favorites]

metafilter: the news for a globally minded, discerning and diverse group that they named the Change Generation
posted by wibari at 6:51 PM on October 1, 2021 [3 favorites]

1984 is commonly read as a warning cry about the dangers of totalitarianism and and propaganda. But we choose to read it differently. To us, it's a testament to the power of the bullet journal. In a world littered with conformity, we like to see things differently.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 6:59 PM on October 1, 2021 [19 favorites]

*dies giggling*

How are you all so clever on a Friday evening, you should not be allowed.
posted by MiraK at 7:12 PM on October 1, 2021 [5 favorites]

The Diary of Anne Frank is often seen as the heartbreaking story of a young woman coming of age under the shadow of an evil that would destroy her for no reason at all.
We prefer to interpret it as an example of how extreme social constraints can inspire content creators to produce more content with greater engagement from demographics our metrics show to have money.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 8:41 PM on October 1, 2021 [30 favorites]

The poem is commonly read as a warning against outsized egos and the impermanence of power. But we choose to read it differently.

Adrian Veidt could have written that.
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:12 PM on October 1, 2021 [9 favorites]

I think the most surprising thing about this story is that the New York Times actually managed to do journalism instead of wishy-washy both-sides coverage
posted by Merus at 1:19 AM on October 2, 2021 [3 favorites]

Ozy was one of those things I kept seeing out on the periphery during my travels online but never knew anything about. I was quite surprised to read that they were a "news" purveyor. I was less surprised to discover they really weren't.

Also, does anyone else find the concept of Buzzfeed doing investigative journalism a little jarring?
posted by tommasz at 5:03 AM on October 2, 2021 [1 favorite]

Not really, no.
posted by eponym at 5:20 AM on October 2, 2021 [2 favorites]

I keep expecting this sort of transparent scam to open people's eyes to the tremendous lie that the distribution of money in America is remotely meritocratic. OZY only had money to keep on pushing such social-media blitzes because venture capitalists kept giving it to them. Likewise Theranos, whose scam is so transparent that every day of their trial brings new revelations of how far their self-representation to investors was from easily observable reality. Likewise Uber, who despite at least having a real product have burned huge sums of money and have no remotely viable path to ever get any of it back. The controllers of extraordinary wealth in America keep falling for this sort of confidence trick. They're not that smart, and most importantly, they're not rich because they're smart. They're rich because they're rich, with all the vacuity of meaning that tautology entails.
posted by jackbishop at 5:24 AM on October 2, 2021 [17 favorites]

Don't worry, we're only a year or two away until the tell-all documentary debuts on one of the streaming services.

I'd put money on a high-budget, multi-part true crime podcast delivered in the patented "we want to be like Criminal" style.
posted by ryanshepard at 5:32 AM on October 2, 2021 [1 favorite]

They're not that smart, and most importantly, they're not rich because they're smart.

Well, sure, but at the same time once you're rich enough investing a, comparative pittance of your wealth, a few million, into a venture, that if taken up by the mass public, becomes worth billions can be a path to even more grotesque wealth. Facebook is the ideal here, where even with massive known and demonstrated harm people won't abandon it because it might be less convenient for them to go without.

The power of neo-liberal capitalism is that all it takes is one asshole with an idea that gets picked up by enough of the public, and since there is no government oversight until there is a known problem, it'll already be too late to kill it as "the people have spoken" with their interest/money/time, so then it's just a question of how to best bleed them dry for refusing to quit the product while dealing with the congressional sideshows if it gets messy sometimes on the way.
posted by gusottertrout at 5:34 AM on October 2, 2021 [5 favorites]

The Little Prince is often read as an enchanting, timeless fable of a young prince who has journeyed from his tiny asteroid in space - a tale about the vanity of man and a beautiful lesson about the beauty of life and relationships, so precious and fragile at the same time. But we choose to read it differently. To us it’s a valiant call from the Baobab trees to squeeze every last cent’s worth of mineral value of all rocks, on this planet and on others, irrespective of the environmental or social cost. In a world littered with conformity and delicious lithium deposits, we like to see things differently.
posted by lalochezia at 6:29 AM on October 2, 2021 [12 favorites]

The Lorax is often read as a tale of consumerism and its environmental impact. But we choose to read it differently. To us, it's a rags to riches story.
posted by Toddles at 8:02 AM on October 2, 2021 [7 favorites]

The Little Prince is often read as a a cautionary tale of elephant-eating snakes being mistaken for hats. But we choose to read it differently. To us, it's a call to maximize elephant usage. Admittedly, ours is an unconventional interpretation — but, then, we are snakes. In a world littered with elephants, we like to see things differently (mostly as hats).
posted by GenjiandProust at 8:35 AM on October 2, 2021 [7 favorites]

Moby Dick is commonly read as a warning against our implacable and arrogant obsession with mastering both ourselves and Nature, just as our own internal natures harbor dark reflections of the uncontrollable powers of the outside world. But we choose to read it differently. To us, it's a call to always be on your grind and keep getting that whale oil -- no matter what. Admittedly, ours is an unconventional interpretation — because that's who we are. In a world littered with conformity, we like to see things differently.
posted by cubeb at 9:03 AM on October 2, 2021 [12 favorites]

Wilfred Owen's Dulce et decorum est is commonly read as a warning against the cruelty and hypocrisy of patriotism, a juxtaposition of the all-consuming horror of war against the glittering, jingoistic prevarications that draw us into war. But we choose to read it differently. To us, it's a compelling account of the raw power of mustard gas and its unparalleled utility against large groups of enemy combatants. Admittedly, ours is an unconventional interpretation — because that's who we are. In a world littered with conformity, we like to see things differently.
posted by cubeb at 9:19 AM on October 2, 2021 [11 favorites]

Great Expectations is commonly read as a bildungsroman set against the backdrop of the class system of Victorian London. But we choose to read it differently. To us, it's all about monetizing your side hustle, staying on that grind, and living that #piplife every day. Admittedly, ours is an unconventional interpretation — because that's who we are. In a world littered with conformity, we like to see things differently.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 4:05 PM on October 2, 2021 [11 favorites]

Ben Smith is doing more Ben Smithing at the New York Times: “What They Saw in Ozy”

The story behind the story is about the elite investors who plowed millions into a media dream without much due diligence, persuaded by the charm of Ozy’s head, Carlos Watson.

posted by Going To Maine at 9:10 PM on October 3, 2021

"But, but, but: This morning Watson went on a TV tour to announce a change of heart, and that OZY will remain open."
posted by dnash at 7:42 AM on October 4, 2021

Eugene S. Robinson wrote in his Substack about his grotesque experience working for OZY: “OZY Rules: The House Negro Gets It in the End” A bit fragmentary (though I think Ben Smith’s articles can be too), but the charges are incredible.
posted by Going To Maine at 10:24 PM on October 4, 2021 [4 favorites]