Netflix’s Ted Sarandos Admits “I Screwed Up Internal Communication” Amid Dave Chappelle Controversy, Says “Storytelling Has Impact On Real World” - Deadline

But the celebration was subdued in the streamer’s upper echelons as the company is still reeling from the internal — and external — backlash against transphobic statements in Dave Chappelle’s latest Netflix special The Closer.

While Chappelle had included anti-trans jokes in his act before, including in the 2019 Netflix special Stick and Stones, The Closer, which was delivered to the streamer a week before its release, struck a chord.

The situation was exacerbated by two internal emails by Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos — sent out on the same day and leaked days apart — in which he defended Chappelle and argued that content like The Closer does not “directly translate to real-world harm.”.

DEADLINE: What do you make of the way the reaction to Dave Chappelle’s special was handled by Netflix and by you.

DEADLINE: What about the decision to address the issue in internal emails and the statement in the second one that content does not translate to real-world harm.

And the big blanket statement should’ve been, of course storytelling has an impact on the real world — sometimes positive and sometimes negative.