Netflix CEO An Insensitive B******

Blog Posts of the Week: Netflix CEO An Insensitive B******

Friday May 29, 2009

To see an example of insensitivity to the needs of deaf and hard of hearing people, look no further than the CEO of Netflix, Reed Hastings. As seen in blog posts from Matthew (a hearing? blogger), who reports on what happened when he asked Hastings about the lack of captions on Netflix's online video, and then the reaction from deaf blogger Jared, Hastings is an ignorant b******.

Bad Attitude Photo © Flickr user tabrandt

What did Hastings say that merits his being called an insensitive b******? According to Matthew: "Mr. Hastings said other sites didn't offer captions, and mentioned hulu.com as one of them." This is a grossly incorrect statement, as Matthew points out. Hulu.com DOES have some captioned video. But that's not all. Netflix's insensitive, ignorant CEO also said that when captioning technology was more widespread (i.e., improved) Netflix would "incorporate" it. Hello! The technology for online captioning has been available for years! And even that's not all. Hastings also had the nerve to exhibit a "let them eat cake" attitude, saying that deaf customers could get captioned DVDs in the mail! Finally, Hastings "agreed that adding captions wasn't an active agenda item," i.e., it was not important to Netflix.

What can the deaf and hard of hearing community do to change attitudes like Mr. Hastings' attitude? Captioning is not required on the Internet, so we have no choice but to fight! There is plenty we can do in this battle! We can launch a major negative publicity campaign to educate people, particularly people in the "hearing world" about this company's refusal to put captions on their online videos. We have many tools available to us.

What can you do in this "war" on Netflix? You can:

• Facebook! Post in your "what am I thinking about now" box, contact friends, set up Facebook groups devoted to getting Netflix to caption online video. Update: A Facebook group (over 400 as of June 2 and still growing) was set up: Netflix Watch-Instantly Needs Closed Captions! at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=72815765309.
• Update: We need mainstream media to become aware of this issue. If you know a technology/media technology or business reporter, columnist, or blogger through Facebook or another social networking site, tell them about how we want captions on Netflix and what Hastings said. If you are followed on Twitter by a technology/media technology or business reporter, columnist, or blogger send them a direct message about this.
• Set up a negative website that targets Netflix for their attitude. Maybe call it NetflixWontCaption.com.
• Blog. The more people who blog about this, the better. We need to strike while the iron's hot.
• Twitter! Twitter campaigns have been successful for other purposes.
• MySpace! Set up MySpace pages targeting Netflix.
• Email! If you are a Netflix customer, flood their email box with demands for captions online.
• If you belong to a deaf-related mailing list on for example Yahoo Groups, put the word out on your mailing list. Families with deaf and hard of hearing children especially need to be aware of this. It affects their child.
• Post a video on YouTube (there are deaf video sites, but YouTube will get the attention of hearing people).
• Old-fashioned letter writing. It can still have an impact.
• Other social networking sites - get the word out there.

If we have a big enough negative publicity campaign about Netflix's refusal to caption online, I can almost guarantee that the story will be picked up by mainstream media. Mainstream media has reported on things like successful Twitter campaigns. The Deaf and Hard of Hearing community CAN make Hastings wake up and realize how wrong his attitude is. All it takes is negative publicity - LOTS of it.

FROM: http://deafness.about.com