Cracked Sexual Harassment Controversy

Overview

Cracked Sexual Harassment Controversy refers to allegations made by former Cracked writer Talia Jane that she was sexually harassed by fellow employee John Cheese (a pseudonym) in 2014. Over a series of social media posts on Twitter and Medium, Jane states that she believed Cheese had done this to other women, and other Cracked writers reported their own experience with harassment and bullying at the website.

Background

On September 21st, 2018, former Cracked writer Talia Jane tweeted^[1] allegations against Cracked writer John Cheese that he sexually harassed her in 2014 (shown below).

Developments

Later that day, Cheese, now editor in chief at The Modern Rogue, posted an admission and apology on Medium.^[2] He stated he was reported for sending sexually explicit DMs and his column on Cracked was removed. The following day, Jane responded on Medium^[3] calling his apology "half-assed" and "damage control," and further voiced accusations against Cheese from other women, including:

Grooming and emotionally manipulating a teen
Preying on 18–19 year old “fans” for “at least a decade”
Being emotionally abusive to past partners
Toting his column/portfolio as proof of his professional dominance to young writers
Unprompted, sexually explicit, emotionally abusive messages to both random women as well as multiple women he worked with.

She also demanded that Cracked remove all of Cheese's content and Cheese resign his position from the Modern Rogue. Her piece was later updated to note that it appeared Cheese no longer had his job at Modern Rogue and that Cracked was in the process of scrubbing his pieces from the site.

The following day, other former Cracked writers chimed in with their thoughts on the situation. Adam Tod Brown tweeted that he had "lots of thoughts" on the situation that he would voice on his podcast (shown below, left). User @Jacopo_della_Q reported that working for Cracked was "the single most heartbreaking, toxic, and painful experience of my life as a writer" (shown below, right).

On September 24th, Jane summarized the entire situation in a lengthy Medium post which included screenshots of texts she'd received from other Cheese accusers.^[4]

Search Interest

External References