Netflix fires executive who told alleged victim that the company didn't believe her Danny Masterson assault claims

Earlier this month, Netflix finally decided to listen to the multiple women who’ve accused actor Danny Masterson of rape over the years, writing him off its Western-themed sitcom The Ranch. The decision to remove Masterson from the show came shortly after a disastrous P.R. moment for the streaming company, when executive Andy Yeatman—Netflix’s director of global kids content—told one of Masterson’s alleged victims, to her face, that the company didn’t believe the allegations.

Now, Yeatman—who didn’t know he was talking to one of the women who have accused Masterson of assaulting them—has been fired; that’s per The Hollywood Reporter, which notes that Netflix issued a simple statement, reading, “Mr. Yeatman is no longer employed at Netflix,” to press outlets today.

The irony, of course, is that without Yeatman’s blunt assertions, it seems unlikely the company would ever have moved forward on its own; investigations into Masterson’s actions had allegedly “stalled” of late—with some people pointing to his connections to the Church Of Scientology as a major contributing factor. Yeatman’s public faux pas appears to have left Netflix with no choice in the matter, though; the company announced Masterson’s departure just a day or two after the Yeatman story broke.