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JonCole

"Ethics and Journalistic Integrity"

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Well, the tiny crack through which the harassers squeezed their body, Tooms-like, was that initially she mentioned her friendship with ZQ in the first draft, but it was cut, and the Guardian's lawyers told her not to worry, and that for an opinion piece not focussed on ZQ that wasn't a material disclosure.

 

So, to be clear, the lawyers of one of the most respected newspapers in the world, which already has its own code of ethics, were considered not to be sufficiently expert on disclosure or journalistic ethics, and a woman was hounded out of writing

 

Genius.

 

Again and again, we see that "corruption" to these people is the simple act of having friends in the industry about which they write or even having friends among their colleagues. Maybe some of these people would concede, however grudgingly, that journalists are allowed to have some friends, just so long as they have no connection whatsoever to the video games industry, but somehow I doubt it. In their eyes, the only way to be impartial seems to be having no distracting personal connections whatsoever in one's life, which is patently absurd. It betrays the mentality of someone who has little to no experience with jobs or with friends.

 

I can't help but say again, what this is about is holding select women to an impossible standard in order for them to fail in terms that catch the eye of the mainstream. In practice, it's misogyny to its core. Women can't be trusted to be friends with men, they'll just seduce them. Women can't be trusted to be friends with women, they'll just collude against men. The only possible functions for women in a worldview that discounts their ability even to make friendships are seducer and betrayer. That's why these people want to "save" video games from such women by turning back the clock to a male-dominated industry. The longer their crusade goes on, the more obvious these motives are. Has there even been a single man who's been made a target by these people without first going on the record as sympathetic to women already under attack? How is that not the biggest red flag to everybody involved ever?

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I'm just...what in the actual fuck.  Crowdfunding a lawsuit about the feminist cabal that controls the games media?  Seriously, WTF?!  Is that even a thing you can use Indiegogo to do?  Shockingly, they decided it might be a bad idea and are taking the campaign down and rethinking their strategy.  I'm going to hope that it's less insane, but it's probably not.

 

Gameranx wrote a piece about how maybe it's a good idea to actually scrutinize the FYC, and reiterated some of points similar to that earlier Vice piece (which I do think is actually weak criticism and am surprised no one is asking other questions).  To which, the FYC called it a hit piece.  Remember how they promised that the peace treaty was their last statement about Quinn or any of this?  Yeah, that lasted almost a few days.  So they continue to maintain a presence in this mess. 

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Some days I really feel like curb stomping MRAs. :(

 

Some days feel like weeks.

That feeling is not likely to go away when you see all the "We're winning! WE'RE ACTUALLY WINNING!!!111" garbage happening right now...

 

Well, the tiny crack through which the harassers squeezed their body, Tooms-like, was that initially she mentioned her friendship with ZQ in the first draft, but it was cut, and the Guardian's lawyers told her not to worry, and that for an opinion piece not focussed on ZQ that wasn't a material disclosure.

 

So, to be clear, the lawyers of one of the most respected newspapers in the world, which already has its own code of ethics, were considered not to be sufficiently expert on disclosure or journalistic ethics, and a woman was hounded out of writing

 

Genius.

 

This is one of the best examples showing that this is, by and large, a campaign of hate being waged by children. Things like that is EXACTLY how a kid sees the world: black and white. Corrupt and pure. The notion that sports writers are friends with the coaches/players or that political journalists drink at the same bars as politicians do is LUDICROUS to them.

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Again and again, we see that "corruption" to these people is the simple act of having friends in the industry about which they write or even having friends among their colleagues. Maybe some of these people would concede, however grudgingly, that journalists are allowed to have some friends, just so long as they have no connection whatsoever to the video games industry, but somehow I doubt it. In their eyes, the only way to be impartial seems to be having no distracting personal connections whatsoever in one's life, which is patently absurd. It betrays the mentality of someone who has little to no experience with jobs or with friends.

 

Nothing about their stance makes sense. Period. Am I not supposed to trust a White House reporter because they're chummy with some White House staffers? Should I not trust a reporter who's embedded with a squadron in a war zone because they happen to have made some friends among the soldiers? Is a Wall Street reporter not reliable because they sometimes grab a few drinks with people who work in finance? Should a film critic's reviews be called into question because they network at Sundance? If a food critic goes to a private function catered by a chef with a successful restaurant, should I not trust their restaurant reviews anymore?

 

Women in the public eye are always subjected to undue criticism from both inside and outside where they work (see Jill Abramson being criticized because she was "bossy"), but I don't think I've ever seen anything of this magnitude, either in size or in vitriol.

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Man, I woke up to this, and I'm so angry.

 

I wonder if any of these people even know that the last time people talking about the Guardian and press ethics was when they had their office raided because they refused to disclose information about their source, Edward Snowden. If THEY say that no disclosure is needed, what else do you need?!

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Nothing about their stance makes sense. Period. Am I not supposed to trust a White House reporter because they're chummy with some White House staffers? Should I not trust a reporter who's embedded with a squadron in a war zone because they happen to have made some friends among the soldiers? Is a Wall Street reporter not reliable because they sometimes grab a few drinks with people who work in finance? Should a film critic's reviews be called into question because they network at Sundance? If a food critic goes to a private function catered by a chef with a successful restaurant, should I not trust their restaurant reviews anymore?

 

Women in the public eye are always subjected to undue criticism from both inside and outside where they work (see Jill Abramson being criticized because she was "bossy"), but I don't think I've ever seen anything of this magnitude, either in size or in vitriol.

 

And the sad thing is, if you point out to them that good journalism is built on reporters and critics being friends (or even just friendly) with the people about whom they write, they'll just claim that the entire edifice of journalism is corrupt and that they'll get to politics and finance once they're done purging the women from games. A campaign of hate waged by children, indeed.

 

There's one tweet at the end of the link Flynn posted that crows about "winning." What a bunch of idiots with no self-awareness of their own hypocrisy. He later calls Jenn Frank a "toxic element" and then claims that if she truly loved games, she wouldn't back down under any harassment, so best to get rid of her now. These are just children (or men with the minds of children) getting their first (or nth) taste of being a bully. Pointing out to a bully that they're forcing you to hit yourself doesn't stop them from asking you why you're hitting yourself.

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Looks like Mattie Bryce is done with games writing as well.   I don't blame her, Frank or anyone else for calling it quits and looking for other pastures.  Gotta take care of yourself.  It's still infuriating the reason they've doing this though. 

 

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I know a few women who are devs who initially supported the gamergate thing because they honestly don't like some of the ties between journalists and game devs or the hesitance of some critics(their words not mine) to talk about the mechanical issues behind some of the games which receive a lot of praise due to their subject matter/sympathy of story surrounding the game due to cloning(Gone Home, Vlambeer's games,etc) but immediately stopped supporting it because honest to god misogynists and those angry at gamergate were using what they were saying online out of context. Generally giving too much attention to them and inflating what they were saying.

 

I really like reading Jenn's work across the years since EGM, some of it wasn't for me but nothing ever will be entirely. I think it's fine to disagree but the outright attacks and the volume of it directed at so few people really sucks. As a kid my family were lower middle class so they didn't want to buy many video games growing up so I ended up reading gaming magazines more than playing games up until I was teenager. I'm really thankful I had someone like Jenn to contribute to that and it really pushed me in my current career path of programming, so yeah again, super thankful to her and others. I hope nothing I said offended anyone, and everyone has a better time tomorrow when some of the dust settles from all of these terrible things tonight.

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I started poking my head out of my game of Civ about 8 hours ago, and made the mistake of kicking the beehive on Twitter. It's been a frustrating 8 hours.

The thing that pisses me off about this--other than the obvious, general horribleness of harassment and driving off of talented voices in our community--is how many genuine (seeming) people were duped into supporting what has always been a sexist witch hunt from the start. Going back as far as when I first stood up for Zoe, I had a friend who was "just raising some ethics concerns" about Zoe Quinn, and I know he actually meant well. 

And even 8 hours ago, when I was looking on Twitter to figure out all this #GamerGate #notyourshield nonsense, there were rational-sounding, seemingly-human people were defending their genuine interest in journalistic ethics and intersectional definitions of gaming. And I agree, there are problems in games journalism, especially in how AAA plays most of the press. But there's plenty of hay to be made there, but somehow they're still just talking about a couple women (and guys they can try to use to shame the women).

And now that there's evidence of 4chan planning the #NotYourShield tag as a "Special Jamming Op", with bullet points like "Equality is our word against the SJWs we paint as extremists." It might as well have a headline reading "Breaking News: These Guys Really Are As Horrible As You Thought."

https://twitter.com/kunikos/status/507390649180508160

Anyway, the moral of my story is that I should have realized to just come to the Idle Thumbs forums for all my gaming news.
*advertising jingle*

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Disgusted and really bummed both Jenn Frank and Mattie Brice are out of games writing. Fuck everything about this.

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Well, it seems that these people's harrassment has worked, insofaras their intent seemed to be to drive the people they were harrassing away.

 

When gamers complain about being stereotyped as immature boy/man-children, I'll remember when they were harrassing people online.

 

When gamers complain that the genre isn't taken seriously as an artistic medium, I'll remember when they drove away the genre's most talented critics.

 

When gamers complain that there aren't any good sites/gaming publications, I'll remember how they treated the journalists they had.

 

When gamers complain about the stangnant state of mainstream games, I'll remember that they hated calls for diversity.

Fucks games.  Fuck gamers.  Is there any reason I shouldn't just give up on all this bullshit and hate gamers like everyone else?

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I dunno. I keep asking myself that question when I go to work in AAA after all the studio layoffs. I just stick with it and try to improve things, but that's because games are a vocation for me. But maybe that'd be different if I had any marketable skill outside of narrative design.

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Things are about to get GRIFTY!

 

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/lawyers-against-gaming-corruption

 

and it's sister future publication!

 

http://www.goodgamers.us/

 

It strikes me that none of these crowd funding attempts seem to go anywhere? the Patreon from those two guys still hasn't hit their first goal, and while this one has just started, I doubt it will catch on fire. It's almost as if a lot of these people are all empty talk and no action.

 

 

Also, they chose IndieGoGo as the platform, presumably because unlike Kickstarter, they keep the money even if they don't hit the goal. What happens if they don't get enough money for legal action?

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Gutted to see that from Jenn this morning, I didn't realise Mattie was out too :(

 

Edit: That indiegogo already closed or is in the process of it, because the lawyer is married to the guy running it and they didn't disclose. They got their asses handed to them in an AMA. What's mind boggling is that they plan to relaunch, with the same people and just "more transparency". Nobody in the etherpad went "Hold on…" at the fact a guy is canvassing them for money to hire his own wife.

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Gutted to see that from Jenn this morning, I didn't realise Mattie was out too :(

 

Edit: That indiegogo already closed or is in the process of it, because the lawyer is married to the guy running it and they didn't disclose. They got their asses handed to them in an AMA. What's mind boggling is that they plan to relaunch, with the same people and just "more transparency". Nobody in the etherpad went "Hold on…" at the fact a guy is canvassing them for money to hire his own wife.

 

Oh my god that is just too precious. Now who's shouting about conflict of interest, transparency and "backdoor dealings"?

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I'm just...what in the actual fuck.  Crowdfunding a lawsuit about the feminist cabal that controls the games media?  Seriously, WTF?!  Is that even a thing you can use Indiegogo to do?  Shockingly, they decided it might be a bad idea and are taking the campaign down and rethinking their strategy.  I'm going to hope that it's less insane, but it's probably not.

They took it down? Damnit! I was honestly hoping it would reach its goal (though not expecting it to) because a) it would amuse me and B) literally nothing would come of it and c) then these conspiracy theorists would have suffered a "scam" at their own hands. Mostly just a) though

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Well, it seems that these people's harrassment has worked, insofaras their intent seemed to be to drive the people they were harrassing away.

 

When gamers complain about being stereotyped as immature boy/man-children, I'll remember when they were harrassing people online.

 

When gamers complain that the genre isn't taken seriously as an artistic medium, I'll remember when they drove away the genre's most talented critics.

 

When gamers complain that there aren't any good sites/gaming publications, I'll remember how they treated the journalists they had.

 

When gamers complain about the stangnant state of mainstream games, I'll remember that they hated calls for diversity.

Fucks games.  Fuck gamers.  Is there any reason I shouldn't just give up on all this bullshit and hate gamers like everyone else?

 

I still can't understand how some have been able to justify this dissonance.  Ostensibly the same people who have been calling for more in depth critique are now getting what they want, and it turns out it isn't what they want to hear so they are throwing a fit.  I wouldn't give up though.  It is unfortunate that some have, and hopefully they'll make their way back.  These guys are just now finally learning how to share their toys.  I think in the long run we'll look back and see this whole SNAFU for the tantrum it is.

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Nothing about their stance makes sense. Period. Am I not supposed to trust a White House reporter because they're chummy with some White House staffers? Should I not trust a reporter who's embedded with a squadron in a war zone because they happen to have made some friends among the soldiers? 

 

The insane thing here is there is actually reason to be skeptical in those instances. It's pretty well documented that both parties use access to executive branch to leverage the kind of stories they want, and reporters who don't play ball get locked out. Not that that would preclude good investigative work, but there is an obvious profit motive, and ease of the other way.

 

I don't doubt this happens in games as well, but the thing people don't seem to connect is that it is about who has money and power. I guarantee that access and "exclusive first looks" is leveraged by bigger publishers. But strangely enough, this rage is targeted at women. 

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