I am far from a fan of TSL. In fact, some here would probably describe me as an anti-fan. I despise Dave Lease, his methods, his creation and perpetuation of a bully culture in skating, his fickle attitude towards the athletes, his need for constant approval from his seemingly equally callous fans, etc. In fact, I swore them off for good after their Starr Andrews commentary and stopped following their social media and realized I was not missing anything by no longer watching/listening to them. But I CANNOT condone any actions of anybody who used threats, intimidation, coercion, etc. to silence TSL for doing nothing but speaking about the issue. Whatever editorializing or gossip they are adding to the reporting of facts, the fact is that if what Jonathan Beyer is saying is true that people within the community have been sending him death threats in the hopes of shutting his channel down, it would have happened even if he all he did was share a screen shot of SafeSport's website and made comments supporting the investigation and taking a stance of being pro-athlete. This is beyond pale, and what is happening to TSL is NOT acceptable. This is insular community mob "violence" being committed for self-preservation and avenging one's own (even though the accusers are also their own). That said, given Jonathan and Dave's flair for the dramatic and history of painting themselves as victims despite their own bad acts of victimizing people, at first I was skeptical of him receiving "death threats" or the severity of the issue. I even rolled my eyes when I saw a tweet from Jonathan talking about "modeling critical thinking" as if that's what TSL was doing. However, I realized my anti-TSL bias was clouding my judgment and even one seriously-worded threat would be enough. Plus, the fact that he is taking everything down is a sign something is going on.
I also wonder if he may also be finding himself subject to a lawsuit and he's hoping to take things down to get rid of evidence that could be used against him.
