The media company founded by former aides to President Barack Obama and funded in part by George Soros, which produces the influential podcast “Pod Save America,” is reportedly plagued by internal conflict between its progressive staff and its moderate bosses.
Tensions at Los Angeles-based Crooked Media have been fuelled by disagreements among staff over the Gaza war, anger over a co-founder dating a promoted employee, gruelling 12-hour workdays and resentment over pay disparities and celebrity status among hosts. According to a Bloomberg News report.
More than a dozen current and former employees at the company told the outlet that there was a divide between progressive staffers who view things to the left of mainstream Democrats and the company’s more centrist co-founders and podcast hosts.
Crooked Media has received tens of millions of dollars from Democratic donors, including charities founded and chaired by George Soros.
The group was founded in 2017 by three former Obama staffers, speechwriters Jon Lovett and Jon Favreau, and communications director Tommy Vieter, who are joined by another former Obama aide, Dan Pfeiffer, as co-host of the “Pod Save America” podcast.
The podcast gained a large audience of Democratic supporters during Trump’s presidency and allowed the company to expand into book publishing, live events and merchandising.
But one recent skirmish between staff and management involved the reluctance of the “Pod Save America” host to criticize Israel’s military operation following the Oct. 7 Hamas-led terror attacks.
According to Bloomberg News, a faction of workers called on the company to take a stronger pro-Palestinian stance, including publicly discussing the death toll in Gaza and supporting pro-Palestinian demonstrations on university campuses.
Bloomberg News reported that staffers tried to get management to change their position on the Israel-Gaza war by posting links to news articles about the conflict on an internal Slack channel so that executives could see them.
Some Crooked staffers had watermelon emojis next to their names on Slack to symbolize support for the Palestinians, while others wore kefirs, a traditional Palestinian headscarf.
Management resisted pressure from employees to hold a company-wide discussion on the issue, instead telling employees to meet privately with their superiors, Bloomberg News reported.
The Post has reached out to Crooked Media for comment.
Another boiling point reportedly stems from Favreau’s newfound celebrity status and fame, with him regularly being photographed mingling with celebrities such as Chrissy Teigen and John Legend.
Favreau also reportedly recently purchased a $10 million home in the Los Angeles area, infuriating staff who believed it went against their progressive ideals, according to Bloomberg News.
Lovett was known to be dating an employee who had been promoted at least three times in the past two years, and the rapid advancement reportedly left other employees resentful because it was difficult to advance within the company.
The company is producing 14 podcasts on a regular basis, half of which are hosted by one of the four stars of Pod Save America. With a big cash infusion and a solid audience, the company seemed on track.
But that began to change in late 2022 when declining advertising dollars forced Crooked Media to drop one of its podcasts, “Hot Take,” a climate-themed show hosted by Mary Anaïs Hegler and climate reporter Amy Westervelt.
Hegler said she and Westervelt noticed “a lot of red flags” when negotiating a contract with Crooked Media.
In a blog post published last March, she cited “very clear ideological differences with the network’s leadership.”
“Let’s just say that Amy and I were far more left-leaning than any show on Crooked I’ve ever heard.”
