"Ethics and Journalistic Integrity"

[tegan]

The thing about Giant Bomb that kinda bothers me is that they really don't seem to have any desire to earnestly have an opinion on these matters as a publication. When Stephen Totilo writes an editorial about GG or sexism, it's obvious that he's speaking for Kotaku. Giant Bomb usually just lets Patrick cover it, making it seem like his SJW niche that doesn't necessarily represent the site. I like Patrick, but he doesn't speak for GB like Jeff does. Now, I get that GB is now part of a corporate monolith that is CBS, but they came up as a community-based site where the editors have very open and discussed opinions. I feel like they have a responsibility to have a stance as a site that is responsible, not ghettoize their progressive opinions to Patrick's morning webshow.

 

I agree completely. Jeff in particular has been very open about not being in support of Gamergate via twitter, but -as expected- once again dumped the responsibility to say something onto Patrick. It's just baffling in general that it took this long for GB to say anything about it. Alex sounded really fed up on Monday's Bombin' the AM.

 

It’s disgusting. It’s fucking disgusting. And I’m sick of it, I’m sick of watching it happen, and I’m sick of dancing around the notion that this is something that we can or can’t address. If we can’t just come out and say that this is a fucking horrible nightmare that doesn't deserve to continue to happen, that doesn't deserve to have to continue to be championed by anyone, I don’t even know what we’re doing anymore.

 

Too little, too late.

[namman siggins]

It's always been too little, too late; fucking always. 

I was listening to Isometric and Wu was talking about the rampant sexism, misogyny and harassment in gaming and that it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better and at the expense and body of many women. Is that what it will take for gaming leaders to say something? Because I feel that's where its heading and I'm not looking forward to that future.

[Dewar]

To be fair, Patrick is pretty much the only person doing non-review writting for the website, so he'd be the one I'd expect to write an article on it. I do wish they'd talk about it more on the Bombcast, instead of just Bombing in the AM.

[Bjorn]

The host of the show just said HateChan instead of 8chan.  Clearly not intentional, but still perfect.

 

I initially wrote it was Kain, but I was wrong.  It's whatever dude is hosting the HuffPo live segment.

[namman siggins]

To be fair, Patrick is pretty much the only person doing non-review writting for the website, so he'd be the one I'd expect to write an article on it. I do wish they'd talk about it more on the Bombcast, instead of just Bombing in the AM.

That means nothing. The others can write, turn words into meaning, do research, they're able-human beings like most people. Just because one writes non-reviews doesn't mean the others can't; it's not that hard. They keeping mostly silent because they're afraid to get doxxed or hacked or spammed or all three and that silence it hurting women. They're afraid to get out of their bubble and see and feel the pain women in the industry are currently feeling.

[JonCole]

Jeff could have just as easily put out a public jartime episode where he speaks his editorial into a webcam. So no, I don't think it's fair to say that Patrick is the only person on the site seemingly capable of producing editorial content.

[Bjorn]

The guy who runs 8chan (paraphrased, but close to exact quotes):

 

"You can't blame 8chan for what happens on 8chan anymore than you can blame Twitter for what happens on Twitter."

 

"If Ms. Wu was really so scared, she'd have been calling the police instead of Tweeting about it."

[Dewar]

Jeff could have just as easily put out a public jartime episode where he speaks his editorial into a webcam. So no, I don't think it's fair to say that Patrick is the only person on the site seemingly capable of producing editorial content.

 

I didn't say that he was the only person capable of editorial content, I just said he's the only one writting articles. Like I said, I wish they'd talk about it on the Bombcast, which gets a lot more traffic than a Jar Time would (since those are premium only.)

[JonCole]

I didn't say that he was the only person capable of editorial content, I just said he's the only one writting articles. Like I said, I wish they'd talk about it on the Bombcast, which gets a lot more traffic than a Jar Time would (since those are premium only.)

 

I said public jartime. I referenced it because its Jeff's soapbox of sorts, and it would have been a big gesture if he released one publicly where he talks about it directly to users. Talking about it on the Bombcast also would have been fine, sure, but I'm talking about something more straightforward. Honestly, if they talk about it on the Bombcast at this point I'll just be disappointed.

[Bjorn]

Brianna's last words (paraphrased), "We can't have a rational discussion about this until 8chan stops terrorizing women."

 

The owner of 8chan's final words, "Believe it or not Brianna, 8chan is not all about you." 

 

Host's final words (paraphrased), "That was really unnecessary and I hate to leave it there.  Brianna I'm sorry about that."

[thefncrow]

Deadspin, of all places, has a great article on GG: The Future of the Culture Wars is Here, and it's Gamergate. I'm on my phone so I'm not really going to expound much, but I really suggest reading it.

 

EDIT: Since I'm home now, let's include some choice exerpts.  Choosing these was actually difficult, because I could just about cut and paste the whole damn thing.

 

A more important resemblance to the Tea Party, though, is in the way in which it's focused the anger of people who realize the world is changing, and not necessarily to their benefit.

 

The default assumption of the gaming industry has always been that its customer is a young, straight, middle-class white man, and so games have always tended to cater to the perceived interests of this narrow demographic. Gamergate is right about this much: When developers make games targeting or even acknowledging other sorts of people, and when video game fans say they want more such games, this actually does represent an assault on the prerogatives of the young, middle-class white men who mean something very specific when they call themselves gamers. Gamergate offers a way for this group, accustomed to thinking of themselves as the fixed point around which the gaming-industrial complex revolves, to stage a sweeping counteroffensive in defense of their control over the medium. The particulars may be different, and the stakes may be infinitely lower, but the dynamic is an old one, the same one that gave rise to the Know Nothing Party and the anti-busing movement and the Moral Majority. And this is the key to understanding Gamergate: There actually is a real conflict here, something like the one perceived by the Tea Partier waving her placard about the socialist Muslim Kenyan usurper in the White House.

 

There is a reason why, in all the Gamergate rhetoric, you hear the echoes of every other social war staged in the last 30 years: overly opinionated in a way that is different from me, social-justice warriors, the media elite, gamers are not a monolith. There is also a reason why so much of the rhetoric amounts to a vigorous argument that Being a gamer doesn't mean you're sexist, racist, and stupid—a claim no one is making. Co-opting the language and posture of grievance is how members of a privileged class express their belief that the way they live shouldn't have to change, that their opponents are hypocrites and perhaps even the real oppressors. This is how you get St. Louisans sincerely explaining that Ferguson protestors are the real racists, and how you end up with an organized group of precisely the same video game enthusiasts to whom an entire industry is catering honestly believing that they're an oppressed minority. From this kind of ideological fortification, you can stage absolutely whatever campaigns you deem necessary.

 

 

To even take Gamergate's corruption critique seriously enough to point out how incoherent it is, though, is to give the movement too much credit. It's not about gaming, any more than the 9/11 truther movement is about getting Dick Cheney to confess Yes, by God, yes, we did it to get our hands on Afghanistan's oil. It's about identity.

 

One of the genuine ironies of the internet is that as it's grown unflinchingly, even militantly tolerant of race, orientation, taste, and fetish, tolerance has been fashioned into a weapon, to be used against itself. "God, who cares?" is a rote reaction among a certain sort of person when it's announced that the hero of a game is a woman or black, or when an athlete comes out as gay, or when some other milestone is achieved. The idea is that we're all so equal now that true intolerance begins with even noting that anyone is different from the norm, said norm of course being a young, straight, middle-class white guy. To get to this mindset requires a certain willful blindness to privilege and the ways it has embedded itself in the very structures of American life, which is how you wind up with people saying things like, "For some reason, some black people kind of hold onto the 'back in the day,' the slave thing, or they feel they're not being treated right." Cluelessness about institutional inequality isn't a crime, but it's a major contributing factor to the grand nerd myth of the internet as a perfect meritocracy in which everyone is equal and the worst crime is special pleading.

 

By those lights, a woman using her sexuality—her difference from the presumed default state of humanity—to gain an advantage, well, shit, that's violating rule No. 1. That people badly want this to have happened even though it didn't is crucial to understanding why Gamergate resonates the way it does—it seems to offer evidence not only that the social-justice warriors are hypocrites and frauds, but that the true defenders of equality turn out to be, well, young, middle-class white guys, and their allies. This is how people can hold the remarkably naive idea that a movement that began with some of its members harassing women with threats of violence, rape, death, and torture can expect to be taken seriously in good-faith discussions about ethics in journalism, or anything else: They see themselves as the ones holding true to the ideals in which their opponents only profess to believe.

[sclpls]

I was about to post the same link. We're getting some pretty thorough examinations of the gg movement this week.

 

Unfortunately, we're also getting garbage like this happening: http://www.standard.net/Police/2014/10/14/Utah-State-University-student-threatens-act-of-terror-if-feminist.html

[Henroid]

Brianna's last words (paraphrased), "We can't have a rational discussion about this until 8chan stops terrorizing women."

 

The owner of 8chan's final words, "Believe it or not Brianna, 8chan is not all about you." 

 

Host's final words (paraphrased), "That was really unnecessary and I hate to leave it there.  Brianna I'm sorry about that."

Well at least the host didn't have his head up his ass. But it seems the owner of 8chan is doing what he can to skirt responsibility. I dunno how long that's gonna last to be honest.

 

I do know some website / forum administrators that have had to deal with law enforcement before. It happens more frequently than you'd think.

[JonCole]

Welp, Wikileaks/Julian Assange sure are some classy fucks - 

 

 

I wonder if they have any idea how backing such an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory hitsquad undermines their message. I honestly believed in the general idea of Wikileaks, but fuck if this doesn't throw that into question.

[Twig]

I read that differently, like he's saying there are more important targets than video games (which, you know, true enough, but also not really relevant). I may be missing context.

 

I can't click the links, though, since you made it an image!!!!!

 

That aside, it sorta reeks of ignorance about what is actually happening, rather than actively embracing the misogynistic butts of gutengat.

 

THAT aside, I remember reading accusations of Julian Assange as a Bad Person - like he's blatantly and actively misogynistic himself? or some worse stuff, I honestly don't remember - but I don't know near enough to actually form an opinion.

[Gormongous]

I read that differently, like he's saying there are more important targets than video games (which, you know, true enough, but also not really relevant). I may be missing context.

 

Well, the tweet validates the fundamental belief of all #GamerGate people and then implies that that belief is connected to a global conspiracy that has made the evening news, all in an offhand attempt to co-opt their movement. It reads as half-baked pandering to me. I would love for someone to tell whoever runs the Wikileaks twitter that #GamerGate has no problems with huge corporations and that most of its targets are independent journalists criticizing mainstream practices. That would be a nice oopsie.

[thefncrow]

Welp, Wikileaks/Julian Assange sure are some classy fucks - 

 

 

I wonder if they have any idea how backing such an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory hitsquad undermines their message. I honestly believed in the general idea of Wikileaks, but fuck if this doesn't throw that into question.

 

Sadly, it's not surprising.  There was a very similar sentiment expressed in a reddit AMA with Assange around the time Goobergout bullshit started, where he sounded supportive but tried to get them onboard with Wikileaks.  You could write off the first as getting kinda ambushed during an AMA, though, where you absolutely can't with this.

[thefncrow]

Ugh.  Fuck this.  On that USU Anita Sarkeesian appearance:

 

Forced to cancel my talk at USU after receiving death threats because police wouldn't take steps to prevent concealed firearms at the event.

 

Requested pat downs or metal detectors after mass shooting threat but because of Utah's open carry laws police wouldn’t do firearm searches.

[Henroid]

In the wake of what's happened today, a hashtag is top trending on Twitter. #StopGamerGate2014

 

Among the tweets that have been coming up, this one just showed up in my feed and is fucking terrifying in what it reveals.

https://twitter.com/CranBoonitz/status/522217535497043968

 

#StopGamerGate2014 because this is something they are posting on 8chan right now:

[Twig]

Well, the tweet validates the fundamental belief of all #GamerGate people and then implies that that belief is connected to a global conspiracy that has made the evening news, all in an offhand attempt to co-opt their movement. It reads as half-baked pandering to me. I would love for someone to tell whoever runs the Wikileaks twitter that #GamerGate has no problems with huge corporations and that most of its targets are independent journalists criticizing mainstream practices. That would be a nice oopsie.

Yeah fair enough. I don't have an emotional or otherwise investment in previous post so whatever.

[BusbyBerkeley]

THAT aside, I remember reading accusations of Julian Assange as a Bad Person - like he's blatantly and actively misogynistic himself? or some worse stuff, I honestly don't remember - but I don't know near enough to actually form an opinion.

 

There were rape allegations made against him and he fled the country to not face trial.

 

 

There's FINALLY a ton of people tweeting in unison against gupplegorpe tonight, including lots of people in the games industry under the hashtag #stopgamergate2014

It seems like it's reaching a fever pitch after the shooting threat against Anita. Fuck. It's so distressing and exhausting and if I wasn't able to come in here and vent to you all about it i doubt I'd be able to follow it as much as I have been. Ugh. I can't imagine how shitty the people targeted by these people must feel. My heart goes out to them.

[Gormongous]

There's FINALLY a ton of people tweeting in unison against gupplegorpe tonight, including lots of people in the games industry under the hashtag #stopgamergate2014

It seems like it's reaching a fever pitch after the shooting threat against Anita. Fuck. It's so distressing and exhausting and if I wasn't able to come in here and vent to you all about it i doubt I'd be able to follow it as much as I have been. Ugh. I can't imagine how shitty the people targeted by these people must feel. My heart goes out to them.

 

Yeah... When these things happened before I had this forum, it was really easy to let Facebook and the comments sections of various articles be my way to take the temperature. If I had to do that for #GamerGate, I would probably be despairing right now. But I have you guys to center me and I'm confident that we're all together fighting the same fight here against hatred, cruelty, and misogyny.

 

Regarding the shooting threat and the 8chan post Henroid linked, I'm really shocked at the conviction of these people that violence just has to be the way to win this culture war. They'll keep sending graphic death threats to women and whoever supports them, even though those very threats are the most common means by which the movement is discredited. It makes me wonder if that early Cracked article, which made a point of ridiculing #GamerGate for using Dark Souls to explain its determination, is right that video games are not only the pretext for this movement but also the reference for its tactics. Some quests can be completed through dialogue, but not many, and killing people is always the most efficient way to progress through the main plot and stop the ancient evil. I wouldn't normally subscribe to such a simplistic model of behavior, but nevertheless I'm beginning to think that the typical adolescent male tendency towards violence, reinforced by the tropes of the video games they play, is taking a conspicuously prominent role in #GamerGate's "problem-solving" efforts.

[namman siggins]

I've been following this on Tweeter these last few hours and I'm exhausted.

While posting #stopgamergate and RT as much I can and now reading 8chan is ordering weird food to where Quinn lives... Fuck

I just hope this doesn't have a horrible ending.

[Smart Jason]

I've been turning this over in my head a lot for the past several days and I've actually noticed a lot of people seemingly flirting with the same idea, and it's one that I find rather discouraging. More and more I think the very medium of games' predisposition to violence and the fact that they get into the hands of people at such a young age (this was something that, despite his enfeebled rhetoric and lack of familiarity with the subject, I never disagreed with Jack Thompson, et al about) - as well as the more subtle message of individual exceptionalism, solitude, and the eventual conquering of every obstacle through some manner of action verb - instills in this entire community a truly toxic sense of righteousness, privilege, and antipathy that we've always attempted to mollycoddle because it's never before been so prominent.

 

And it's deflating because I feel like this is an unsolvable issue with games themselves, that they'll always be a domain of violent and aggressive thought, an even attempting to whitewash them of their sexist attitudes and diversify their casts and creators will only be putting a Band-Aid on the problem. This community may always have this seething tendency toward violence because the art form itself celebrates violence as the sole means of interaction and progress within the world (a world designed exclusively for you). For years that's simply been creatively exhausting, now I wonder if it's not genuinely, unconscionably sinister.

 

(I might write into the podcast for the first time about this.)

[Gormongous]

(I might write into the podcast for the first time about this.)

 

I would really like if you did, though I wouldn't blame them for not wanting to get back into it a third (or fourth?) week running. You're especially right to bring in the idea that gaming has made empowerment synonymous with violence. I don't know how much further it goes, more just because I worry.

 

Also, the sheer panic of #GamerGate surrounding #StopGamerGate2014 is a little heartwarming to me, but only because I'm sick undo death. I read a fairly long Reddit thread desperately trying to figure out which troll/hacktivist collective is responsible for it, with several "firsthand sources" naming groups like GNAA only for their members to show up and disavow knowledge. The inability of so many people on Twitter, 8chan, and Reddit to understand that this is not some kind of raid but a direct consequence of #GamerGate's preference for terror tactics over winning hearts and minds is nothing less than stunning to me.