Journalism Integrity?

I am sure most of you guys who follow gaming news closely would be aware of the recent firing of Gamespot Editor in Chief Jeff Gerstmann, which was reported in many major gaming sites, such as PA, Shacknews and Kotaku etc. Apparently (though it still is considered a rumor, since none of the Gamespot staff nor Jeff stepped out to comment on the news, at least publicly) it was over the less than glamorous review he had wrote for the new game Kane & Lynch: Dead Men by Eidos, which has been fervently promoting the game with its conspicuous and all over the place advertisements through Gamespot. It was rumored Eidos was unhappy with the review, both written and video versions (the latter was removed from Gamespot strangely), and pressured Cnet, the parent company of Gamespot, to fire Jeff. Of course, Cnet has denied it, but still, it did not in any way alleviate the anger among the gamers, especially Gamespot members, who have since flooded the site's forum, expressing their unhappiness. Eidos' official forum was hit the worst, it was flooded with many outraged gamers registering and spamming the board with all sorts of vulgarities and obscene images, prompting the forum to go down hours after the attack. Back at the Gamespot's forums, countless threads regarding Jeff's dismissal were locked and the admins seemed to be under a gag order, with none making any replies or comments with regards to the incident.

Other than the firing of Jeff, the rest of the news are currently just rumor, with no confirmation publicly by any of the related personnel, but personally, I wouldn't be surprised if it indeed was the case.Looking at the excessive advertising of K&L at Gamespot, I would suppose the ad deal was very lucrative, and if Eidos had retracted the deal, Cnet would lose a lot of money. However, this at the expense of journalism integrity is a price too heavy, and I am sure Jeff knew it too, which is why he sticked to the mediocre rating for the game, which apparently cost him his job.

If everything about the incident were true, it would be very detrimental to Gamespot. Already, people are cancelling their subscription accounts, and more importantly, people would look at any reviews by Gamespot in a different light, especially ones which have their advertisement on the site. It's a lose-lose situation for Cnet/Gamespot now, because no matter what they do (rehiring Jeff, which I doubt they will, and even if they did, Jeff probably would not take up the offer; remain silent and just wait for everything to die down), they are going to be remembered for this unpleasant incident, and their credibility has taken a massive damage.



Gamespot video review of K&L by Jeff, which was removed from Gamespot.