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  • I think it's unfortunate that Shelly Bond lost her job.  She seems to be well liked and respected.  I think she will land on her feet fairly quickly.

    I think Eddie Berganza is very fortunate to still be employed.  I don't think he's someone that you would want your wife, sister, mother, or any female friend or acquaintance to be alone in a room with, even though he apparently has not had any sexual harassment complaints against him in four years.

    I get that Bond being let go while Berganza stays offends some people's sense of fairness.  But the decision to fire Bond is unconnected to the decision to keep Berganza.  That's the way human resources departments work.  They can only respond to what the individual did or didn't do, and then follow the established guidelines for dealing with it.  In the Bleeding Cool article, the Warners HR Dept is described as having a reputation for their stringency.  Berganza was penalized and had to go through mandatory programmes - and it will always be on his file.  It seems Bond got the axe because Vertigo has been losing money for a while.  Different situations.

  • I think most people understand the situations are not connected in any conventional sense. It's more the outrage that Berganza gets to stay, while a very talented woman who (we have every reason to believe) has not harassed anyone gets let go instead of being used elsewhere in the company.

    And, leave us face it, DC/Warner's decisions and output in recent years have been contentious.

    John Dunbar (the mod of maple) said:

  • I absolutely agree with what you're saying, and I totally agree.

    The best I can figure is that this may be a very good thing for Shelly Bond. She is very well-respected, and I'm going to guess that she has been receiving offers ever since the news broke.

  • I definitely think Bond is likely already weighing a handful of very good options now that she's been let go by DC. I think anyone not in DC will think that the problems with Vertigo are more on an organizational level (and probably contract level with talent) than due to her editorial leadership.

    As for Berganza, while it's taken a long while for his harassment to get fully into the public eye (there had been rumors for years), it had already come to the attention of DC, and they didn't fire him then, so I doubt they'll do anything about it now.

  • John Dunbar (the mod of maple) said:

    I think it's unfortunate that Shelly Bond lost her job.  She seems to be well like and respected.  I think she will land on her feet fairly quickly.

    I think Eddie Berganza is very fortunate to still be employed.  I don't think he's someone that you would want your wife, sister, mother, or any female friend or acquaintance to be alone in a room with, even though he apparently has not had any sexual harassment complaints against him in four years.

    I get that Bond being let go while Berganza stays offends some people's sense of fairness.  But the decision to fire Bond is unconnected to the decision to keep Berganza.  That's the way human resources departments work.  They can only respond to what the individual did or didn't do, and then follow the established guidelines for dealing with it.  In the Bleeding Cool article, the Warners HR Dept is described as having a reputation for their stringency.  Berganza was penalized and had to go through mandatory programmes - and it will always be on his file.  It seems Bond got the axe because Vertigo has been losing money for a while.  Different situations.

    I don't have absolute faith in either the fairness nor the impartiality of human resources departments. HR is a tool of upper management, and can only be as good as upper management allows. A company that deals with allegations of sexual harrassment by effectively creating a woman-free zone isn't one that gets it. 

  • Update on the Eddie Berganza situation: BuzzFeed does a big takeout on it, here: "At DC Comics, An Editor Rose Through the Ranks Even After Being Ac...

    The New York Daily News puts Berganza on its cover as part of its "PERV NATION" package ("Wave of Charges Against Powerful Sickos Floods U.S."), although it swaps out Berganza's picture for George Takei in later editions. Also, the Daily News article on Berganza is pretty much just a rewrite of the BuzzFeed piece: "DC Comics Top Editor Got Promotion Even After Women Reported Sexua...

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  • I have a feeling that this is too much noise for DC to ignore.

  • What Rob said.
  • Rob Staeger Johnson is right. Within the hour, DC acted.

    From ComicBook.com:  "DC Comics Suspends Eddie Berganza After Sexual Assault Allegations"

    From iO9: "DC Comics Has Suspended Editor Eddie Berganza Amidst Allegations o... 

  • Slightly different but not unrelated: the WB has suspended Andrew Kreisberg over allegations of harassment.

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