Handling Channel/Video Controversy

[LJay]

So recently YouTube Prankster Jack Vale had a segment on his channel that involved an incident with Police in Huntington Beach. The video took place in a Restaurant where Jack's prank seemingly agitated one of the Officers to the point that Jack was being shoved, grabbed and cursed at by the belligerent Officer. Captain Russ Reinhart of the Huntington Beach PD was the one to break the story over Twitter that the segment was all staged. He confirmed with the Restaurant that the even that occurred was faked and the Policeman shown in the video were actors.

At the end of the video Jack goes on to antagonize the Officer a tiny bit. The video has been on National news and people are believing the Video is actually real. Jack has since taken down the video, blocking Users on Twitter and YouTube as well as deleting comments in his videos who mention the Paranoid prank being staged.

(I am unable to post any mirrors of the video as well as other resources and links -.-)

What I want to know is how should YouTubers handle negative attention like this? How would you do it? If you made a mistake such as this would you come out and say "I made a mistake, I'm sorry and it won't happen again"? In the case of Jack Vale would you go on to just remove the negative video and block and delete any mention of your bad publicity?

Isn't that apart of what being successful on YouTube is about? Having a clean Image and having no bad PR? I'm sure there are many of you on here who wouldn't resort to such tactics for some views but I'd still like to know how you may handle negative and national attention like this and what you think about having good PR and such.

 

[TheBatteryChicken]

I would post a naked picture of myself with the caption saying 'If you don't like me, you can suck my f*****g d**k'

 

[Michael]

Get VIP you have enough

 

[PartAndroid]

I would post a naked picture of myself with the caption saying 'If you don't like me, you can suck my f*****g d**k'

Everytime I'm drinking something, one of your comments pops up. I'm surprised my laptop is still working, the amount of liquids it's had spat on it...

Anyway! I'd probably just apologize... Unlike Chicken boy here... I don't have the body to be posting naked.

 

[Tae]

Some youtubers don't know how to do this. Ive seen it to the point where they have an actual hashtag trending about how bad they are (EX. #weareunequal) I personally would apologize with a video and/ or a letter and let it go and if people can't take a sincere apology then they shouldn't be watching my videos.

I also really try to not upload anything that might start a flame war so if i'm having a bad day (like I was a few days ago) I resist filming because I'll instantly start talking about what is wrong. (So therefore I have to redo the video I was going to upload yesterday) People just have to be smart.

 

[TheBatteryChicken]

Everytime I'm drinking something, one of your comments pops up. I'm surprised my laptop is still working, the amount of liquids it's had spat on it...

Anyway! I'd probably just apologize... Unlike Chicken boy here... I don't have the body to be posting naked.

Loool I don't have the body for it either xD but who gives a f**k, if people hate you already, it wont make any difference

 

[PartAndroid]

Loool I don't have the body for it either xD but who gives a f**k, if people hate you already, it wont make any difference

This is true... I may have to reconsider!

 

[chottom]

What I want to know is how should YouTubers handle negative attention like this?

Antagonizing police officer in general is considered to be a dangerous act. I think the rules of YouTube are quite clear about what to follow.

 

[markkaz]

Apparently, his biggest mistake was not getting actors/participants to sign non-disclosure agreements.

edit: the info now is that the citizens of that community recognized their city and contacted their police if that was really their police department. The police started investigating and found out that it was actors.

 

[derraleves]

Isn't that apart of what being successful on YouTube is about? Having a clean Image and having no bad PR?

Having a clean image on YouTube is important and something we should all strive for. In the case you sited he may not have thought his video was going to have such an impact. As YouTubers what we put out there is all people are going to know of us unless we end up meeting them in person. Which is why I choose to keep things a certain way on my channel. That being said we've got to remember that sometimes negative comments or people might happen and we've got to handle it the best way for our channel/image to keep it as clean as possible.