Vice media apologizes after NYT investigation alleges rampant sexual misconduct

Vice co-founders Shane Smith, left, and Suroosh Alvi, attend the 20th Annual Webby Awards at Cipriani Wall Street on Monday, May 16, 2016, in New York. (Andy Kropa/Invision/AP)

Vice Media is apologizing after an investigation by The New York Times unveiled multiple accounts of alleged sexual misconduct, as well as four costly settlements, at the company. One of those settlements, the newspaper reported, involved the media company’s current president.

According to the Dec. 23 report, more than two dozen women claim to have experienced or witnessed sexual misconduct at the company, including groping and propositions for sex.

The report also details four court settlements over alleged instances of sexual harassment or defamation dating back to 2003 and totalling more than US$184,000. The largest of these settlements, The New York Times reported, involved current Vice Media president Andrew Creighton, who allegedly paid US$135,000 in 2016 to a former employee who was terminated after rejecting his unwanted sexual advances.

On Saturday, two of the company’s Canadian co-founders, Shane Smith and Suroosh Alvi, issued an apology, saying that “from the top down, we have failed as a company to create a safe and inclusive workplace where everyone, especially women, can feel respected and thrive.”

The company has said that it has recently taken steps to change its “boys club” culture, including forming a Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Board, hiring a new human resources head, terminating three employees for inappropriate behaviour and forbidding romantic relationships between Vice employees and their supervisors.

Originally founded as a Montreal-based fringe magazine in 1994, Vice has since ballooned into a multibillion dollar international media company headquartered in New York City.