Netflix co-CEO: I ‘screwed up’ when defending Chappelle special

Netflix co-Chief Executive Ted Sarandos said in an interview on Tuesday that he “screwed up” in his defense of Dave Chappelle’s special, saying he needed more “humanity” in his response. 

Sarandos defended the Netflix special that drew fire from some who said Chappelle’s stand-up comedy routine was transphobic because he said “gender is a fact” and called himself a “TERF,” an acronym for “trans-exclusionary radical feminist.”

In his email to employees, he said the content would not cause real world harm and not everyone will agree with all the content put on the platform.

“To be clear, storytelling has an impact in the real world … sometimes quite negative,” Sarandos said, according to The Wall Street Journal.

“What I should have led with in those emails was humanity,” Sarandos said. “I should have recognized the fact that a group of our employees was really hurting.”

Despite his regret with how he handled the backlash, Sarandos doesn’t regret keeping the special up.

“We have articulated to our employees that there are going to be things you don’t like,” Sarandos said, according to the Journal. “There are going to be things that you might feel are harmful. But we are trying to entertain a world with varying tastes and varying sensibilities and various beliefs, and I think this special was consistent with that.”

Employees are planning a walkout for Wednesday in protest of the Chappelle special.