Game Journalist May Have Been Fired Over Negative Review

It started as a rumour post on Kotaku and a Penny Arcade comic strip: reviewer Jeff Gerstmann was fired from the gaming news site Gamespot for giving the co-op action title Kane and Lynch a low score, and snarking on the game in the review. The catch? The firing was dictated by games publisher Eidos, who didn't appreciate the veteran reviewer's tone in the piece. Their ad campaign (spread across the entirety of the Gamespot site) may have been used as a bargaining tool of some kind. Joystiq has a lengthy, detailed summary of this event and its implications, which is no longer technically a rumour. Gerstmann confirmed to the blog that he has been let go from the C|Net-affiliated site, but as of right now can't talk about the details. "The ramifications of the story, if true, are huge. Readers should fairly expect there to be an inviolable firewall between advertising and editorial in journalism, and game journalism (yes, that includes "just reviews") is no different. While our industry has had its fair share of accusations of impropriety, nothing so far has been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt. Giving a publisher the power to fire a senior editor is a line no outlet should be willing to cross." Update: 11/30 17:40 GMT by Z : The Joystiq story continues to be updated, and Tycho has put up what the PA guys heard about the tale in text. Joystiq also has an additional post about the story, with a brief (noncommittal) response from Gamespot.

Comments

Re:Corporate Censorship

[ShieldW0lf]

Why does everyone have to have a "Pro" in their name?

Why can't anyone say "I'm anti-abortion, because for thousands of generations the existence of the human race has relied on population created by women who didn't feel ready, and we're not going extinct just so you can spend another decade in childhood."

Breeding ought to be a prerequisite to voting. No person without material social ties to the future of the civilization ought to be put in a position of power over it.

To put it another way, all those rich lawyers and doctors and executives who don't have kids ought to be cast down from their authority to the very lowest class of our society. Their kids aren't going to play with my kids, or help keep my lights on, or wipe my ass for me when I'm too old to reach it. Let them die scrambling for an existence on the edge of civilization.