Ellen DeGeneres Opens Season 18 With Apology for Toxic Workplace Accusations, Says She Is ‘That Person You See on TV’

Ahh...damage control...

Seriously, though, this means very little. It's quite vague and it's exactly what you'd expect somebody to say if they were behaving badly. Unfortunately, it's what you'd say if you were legitimately just trying to run a great show and didn't know how people felt.

There are a plethora of problems here. We're in an "accusations = guilt" culture, or at least, partly in one. That said, there are a lot of accusations and where there's smoke, there is often fire. Frankly, I've heard rumours of Ellen being a bit nasty for years before these allegations. I assumed she wasn't as bubbly as she presents. Who would reasonably think she was that sunny all the time?

I don't think people should be brought down by gossip or accusations alone. It's also possible that a bunch of people felt dumped on and never said anything until it was to the media (I see this more and more: somebody thinks a person is "toxic" and assembles testimonials and hands it to authorities so the "toxic" person is punished - they never tell the person about their behaviour - it's a blindside).

At this point, until I hear something more concrete, I'm not making any judgements any which way.