Gamespot, advertising-supported media, and the rage of the internet
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In case you haven’t heard, the word on the street is that Jeff Gerstmann, long time reviewer and current editorial director for Gamespot, has been fired for giving Kane and Lynch a mediocre, though very negatively worded, score. According to the rumor mill, Eidos got pissed and threatened to withdraw the huge amount of advertising they were doing with Gamespot.
According to a statement from CNET, the only official statement I’ve been able to find, “GameSpot takes its editorial integrity extremely seriously. For over a decade, Gamespot and the many members of its editorial team have produced thousands of unbiased reviews that have been a valuable resource for the gaming community. At CNET Networks, we stand behind the editorial content that our teams produce on a daily basis.”
“It is CNET Networks’ policy not to comment on the status of its employees, current of former,” the statement said.
I can’t bring myself to really believe Gamespot would do something this stupid until it has been confirmed by someone, but if it’s true, this makes me at once very angry, very sad and very afraid. Very afraid for my future in business, very sad that it’s still the bottom line that media companies care about and very angry at what would be an unjust firing.
Gerstmann certainly would not be the first journalist fired for not appeasing the advertisers, and he definitely won’t be the last. This past May, Harry McCracken, editor in chief of PC World, quit for a few days over the chief executive’s refusal to publish an article, “10 Things We Hate About Apple.” McCracken didn’t come back until the article was posted on the magazine’s website. Pulitzer Prize winning automotive writer for the Los Angeles Times Dan Neil provoked the ire of GM, who removed their advertising from the newspaper. At a smaller publication this could have gotten Neil fired.
This kind of back and forth between an outlet’s integrity and keeping advertisers has been a part of the journalistic world since the very first advertisement in media. The scariest part is the subtle effect this could have if it’s true. While the temporary outrage (and you can be sure, the anger will fade) will make journalists even more independent-minded, the long term effect could be a reluctance on the part of journalists to put the truth out there, whether because they fear for their jobs if the advertisers threaten to pull their ads or not getting published because the editors don’t want to risk it. The fall out of this firing could be chilling, if the rumors are true.
Of course, whether it’s true or not doesn’t matter on the internet. What matters is the perception of the internet at large, and their perception is clearly that this firing was in response to the Kane and Lynch review. The most noticeable effect of this rage is the Kane and Lynch user reviews at Gamespot, which has become about 70 percent 1-out-of-10s. The reviews no longer argue the merits of the game but declare Gamespot is no longer credible.
“Hell hath no fury like gamers scorned,” said one user.
“Down with CNET,” another user, who signed his review with Anonymous, said (I’ll spare you the all caps). “The game that ruined Gamespot.”
It’s ironic, but the person who will benefit most from this is Gerstmann. With one review he has become a hero of the internet, and the positive PR any website or magazine that snaps him up gets will be huge, not to mention his quality as a long-time video game journalist. On the internet, positive feelings tend to not be as strong as rage on the internet, but I have no doubt the effects will be well worth it.
The ultimate loser here is going to be Gamespot. Regardless of whether they actually fired him for the review or not, the damage to their reputation has been done, and every review on the site must now come into question. A huge site like Gamespot can take the hit to their userbase, but if they don’t act soon to mitigate the damage, either by taking Gerstmann back (if he will go at all), refusing to take advertising from Eidos or, with Gerstmann’s consent, saying exactly why he was fired, it may indeed be the game that ruined Gamespot.
UPDATE: Saw this over on Valleywag via Kotaku:
When companies make games as downright contemptible as Kane and Lynch, they deserve to be called on it. I guess you’ll have to go to Onion or a smaller site for objective reviews now, because everyone at GS now thinks that if they give a low score to a high-profile game, they’ll be shitcanned. Everyone’s fucking scared and we’re all hoping to get Josh Larson removed from his position because no one trusts him anymore.
Still anonymous source, but still…
Tags: advertising, CNET, editor, fired, gamespot, journalism, Kane and Lynch
