If you’ve been on the internet a of late, you are likely aware of the fact that Jeff Gertsman has been fired (although possibly quit) from his post as reviewer at the C|NET Networks-owned Gamespot.com. After reading a ton of forum posts, news articles, and posts from others, I thought that I would combine what I know of the incident for the simplification of this issue to my readers.
First, a bit of background about Mr. Gertsmann, in an extremely brief form. In short, he was one of the first video game reviews at the founding of Gamespot. He has worked at the company for over 10 years, reviewing games, attending special gaming events, and hosting online weekly shows about various gaming topics. He has a large fan base on Gamespot, and is one of the sites most popular reviewers.
As per the Gamespot forums, he arrived at his office on November 28th to find all of his personal items in a box, and his door locked against him.
Forums are raging, and most all speculation is that he was fired due to a review that he did on the game Kane & Lynch, by Eidos. After all of the hype and the advertising of the game on old and new media, the developers were understandably angry when they way the 6/10 rating that Gertsmann had given it. More seriously, possibly, was that Eidos said that they were upset not because of the score, but because of the “tone” of the review. Unfortunately, much of that advertisement took place on Gamespot, and other C|NET owned networks. As many quickly inferred, C|NET was possibly pressured into firing him by Eidos.
The forum post on Gamespot, at 724 pages as I am writing this (741 as I’m editing), has been screaming bloody murder at Gamespot, and their leader, a man by the name of Logan. I saw hundreds of people pledging to cancel subscriptions, to spam the Director of Games, and generally hurl walls of hate, pain, and suffering at the people who dared shake the lives of the Gamespot community. This is the hottest thread that I have seen on a forum in a long, long time, and I can see it continuing at this fevered, ranting pace for a long time yet.
What does this mean for Gamespot? Other than the standard “Our reviews follow our strict code of journalism integrity” cut-and-paste lines, there have been no official statements. As the announcement has reached mainstream media on a Friday, it is possible that we may be waiting until Monday before we hear any word on the subject. Suspiciously, they have removed the unfavorable video review, and edited the written review as well of the game in question. Until more information becomes available, the general consensus is that Gamespot is selling out to its advertisers.
While it is certainly common for advertisers to put pressure on gaming reviewers, it is a terrible misdeed to fire a reviewer over their unbiased review, and then direct people to their code of unbiased journalism that forbids exactly that. Possibly, if the company feels that he didn’t do his job properly – that he didn’t play the game enough or let some personal grudge taint his objectivity – this is conceivable. Otherwise, it’s a horrifying example of financially motivated censorship.
As I stated before, this is all rumor at the moment, and should be treated as such until we hear official confirmation as to the motives from CNET, Gamespot, or from Mr. Gertsmann himself.
I certainly hope that Gamespot can give a reasonable explanation for this, or if they really have sold out, that they can make amends. From what I have read and written on the flaming forum thread, it seems the only way they would be able to do that would be to publically apologize to the Gamespot users, re-hire, or at least offer to re-hire Mr. Gertsmann, and maybe even reprimand this shady Josh Logan character who is apparently responsible for this.
I, personally, am a fan, of Gamespot, and C|NET in general, and I hope that I’ll be able to keep the trust in them that they ave gained over the past several years.
UPDATE: December 4
Well, now that the story has been in the wild of a bit longer, I have heard a bit more about the story from some Journalists inside CNET.
From what I’ve heard form these people, who are, of course, employees of the company, this event may be being blown out of proportion by the blogosphere. As with any major publication, their are two divisions: the Advertising people, and the Editors. Of course, say these journalists, advertisers always raise all hell against companies who give them negative reviews. However, it seems as though the journalists themselves never hear this scorn. Never, in their 7 years at CNET, have they ever been told to tone down a harsh review, or told that they had to tilt a review one way or another based on anything that an advertiser had told them.
They also said, however, that CNET.com, where they work, is very much a separate entity to Gamespot.com, although they are both under the title of C|NET Networks. So, while the CNET.com reviews maintain their journalistic integrity, we still are somewhat in doubt as to what pits of depravity Gamespot brass may operate at.
