Can We Still Trust The Gaming Press?

nerd-rage-comic-phantom-painedThe ongoing concern of gamers over whether they can trust the journalists who write news and reviews has been at a near boiling point for the last year or so. There was the battle between gamers and the press over Mass Effect 3′s ending. Journalists at the Games Media Awards were encouraged to tweet about Trion’s upcoming Defiance with a reward of a PS3 being available for one lucky winner. Then there are the regular accusations of good or bad reviews for certain games being bought by publishers.

What brought this issue to a head for me was the recent revelation in a GameTrailers interview that Hideki Kojima had run his marketing plan by Geoff Keighley some two years ago at Comic Con. While it’s okay to play along with Moby Dick Studios and The Phantom Pain, what Keighley did and what the rest of the press did is different. It’s one thing for outlets without inside information to connect the dots to give us the likely scoop. It’s another for Keighley to withhold information when he knew the real story of Moby Dick Studios and The Phantom Pain and hype a fake interview on his show that was just a marketing sham.

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Wednesday Link-Off: Out of the News

kim-cloutier-femilet13-01Well, I haven’t heard many good things about yesterday’s gaming column about how gamers rights are virtually non-existent. I’ve heard that I’m a bit of a whiner for thinking that gamers deserve to be treated like everyone else and trying to keep people from being hosed by terrible games. Like I said yesterday, that’s the sort of in-fighting that will hurt us all in the long-run.

Anyway, one thing I won’t get complaints about is featuring Kim Cloutier.

The legendary free weekly newspaper The Boston Phoenix is closing its doors. File this one under why we can’t have nice things. (Gawker)

It’s not just small local papers that might be on the way out. It seems as though local TV newscasts could soon follow in their print brethren’s footsteps. (New York Times)

The two Steubenville football players charged with rape were convicted. While most people weren’t exactly sympathetic to those guys, CNN treated them like victims. (BuzzFeed)

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Thursday Link-Off: Form an Opinion

anais-pouliot-eres13-02I did tell you on Sunday that we’d be a day late with this week’s set of mid-week links. I hope you enjoyed yesterday’s history of Mass Effect 3 post. That’s not the end of our Mass Effect coverage because we’ll have a review of the Citadel DLC next week. But for now, here’s Canadian model Anais Pouliot.

Have you ever wondered how you formed an opinion about an article or author? It may have to do with the contents of the comment section. (New York Times)

People think social media is a good proxy for public opinion but a comparison of public opinion and Twitter opinion shows Twitter generally skews more liberal. (Pew Research Centre)

Hugo Chavez died this week. If you want to know more about the former leader of Venezuela and his legacy, the Economist has you covered. (The Economist)

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Wednesday Link-Off: The Medium is the Message

cintia-dicker-si13-08I know updates have been a little random lately but I hope to have things back to normal by next week. Granted, sometimes I’m not sure what normal is around these parts but I’m sure we’ll all sort it out eventually. In the meantime, here’s my favourite SI Swimsuit model Cintia Dicker.

Just to prove that I’m very fair and balanced with my dissemination of political links, here’s a not at all right-leaning article about how the Obama White House is able to control the message out of 1600 Penn. (Politico)

You thought the possibility of Ashley Judd running for the Senate was all a big laugh didn’t you? Well, the GOP is taking it seriously. They’ve already created an attack ad against her. (New York Times)

A recent Gallup poll says that only 3.5% of Americans are gay. Could that number possibly be accurate? (The Atlantic Wire)

After the jump, the evil of Bleacher Report, trolling the Beliebers and Vanna White on The Price is Right. Continue reading

Wednesday Link-Off: Fight the Good Fight

lily-aldridge-victoriassecret13-05It’s Wednesday which means it’s time for links. It also means that we’re seven days from unveiling our SI Swimsuit Issue cover odds list. Maybe I should get started on that… Okay, while I do that, here are the links and here is the return of Lily Aldridge.

As he heads into his second four-year term as President of the United States, TNR interviews Barack Obama about his plans for the next four years. (New Republic)

In that TNR interview, the POTUS says that the Republicans won’t change their obstructionist ways until they are made to pay the price for being obstructionist. You know, he’s right. (Washington Post)

Now that he’s lost the fight against ObamaCare, Papa John wants to pretend that he never fought the fight against ObamaCare by getting any ObamaCare related comments he made scrubbed from the internet. (National Confidential)

After the jump, the history of Deadspin, a profile on one of BioWare’s exiled bosses and an epic trombone quartet. Continue reading

Wednesday Link-Off: Speak The Truth

alessandra-ambrosio-victoriassecret13-02This week has been an interesting week for news if you can get past all the news about Lance Armstrong. There are stories about America’s political right and some bizarre ones out of here in Canada. But before we get to that, here’s Alessandra Ambrosio. By the way, she had a kid last May. Not that you can tell.

The NRA wasn’t always the most feared lobby group on Capitol Hill. For a long time, they were happy to be solely about gun safety. In the 70s, that all changed. (Washington Post)

It’s not often that folks in the media admit that they are wrong but Buzz Bissinger admitted that he was wrong to defend Lance Armstrong from doping allegations. (The Daily Beast)

David Walsh was the first man to suggest that Lance Armstrong wasn’t on the up and up all the way back in 1999. How does he feel now that his suspicions have been vindicated? (Sunday Times)

After the jump, some news media fails, sticking up for BioWare and the dogs invading a soccer game video of the day. Continue reading

The Politics of Failure: Of Memes, Misinformation and Mudslinging

This year’s US Presidential election has seldom been about what has been best for America and its people. This election isn’t about whether President Barack Obama or challenger Mitt Romney’s vision for America will be better for the country going forward. It’s largely been a referendum on whether people like President Obama or if they want any alternative that is provided.

As a result, very little of this election has been about the issues. The majority of campaigning is about why the opposing candidate is worse for the Presidency and America. Discourse in this election has come to a virtual standstill as neither side attempts to engage the other over issues. It’s all parroting talking points and slinging mud at anyone who does not agree with you. Continue reading

Wednesday Link-Off: The Home Stretch

All three US Presidential debates are done and now we wait for people to vote. With any luck, they won’t all vote for tax cuts for the 1% and tax hikes for the middle class (i.e. voting Romney). Anyway, let’s kick off with Canadian actress Emily VanCamp.

The third Presidential election debate was on Monday. The pundits are in agreement that President Obama took home a solid win. (Daily Kos)

Now that the debates are behind us, what did we learn from them? (Washington Post)

Some reporters make their names during elections. Here’s a look at some of the young journalists who have come to prominence during this election cycle. (iPolitics)

After the jump, debate fact checking, Chevy Chase blows up again on the set of Community and the James Bond mega mix. Continue reading

The Newsroom: Sorkin’s Modern After School Special

Whenever I see a blogger or TV critic wax poetic about an older network comedy, they often bring up episodes that touched on more serious topics. These episodes that touched on controversial or social issues were called “After School Specials” after the ABC TV movie series of the same name.

After school specials (or “very special episodes” as they were occasionally called in network TV) have essentially disappeared from the network TV landscape. Sure, kids shows will touch on an important topic every now and then but when was the last time you saw something you would call an After School Special. One of the few shows on TV that does touch on important social issues is The Newsroom. Continue reading

Sunday Link-Off: The New Media Rises

You probably didn’t notice but I was on vacation last week. Thanks to Jackie for covering for me and doing last week’s Wednesday links. I’m back in action today with the Sunday links. We’ve got a big week of programming coming this week. All that’s missing is the podcast. I am hoping to live blog today’s Edmonton Indy over on @LowdownLive but no guarantees. But first, here’s Canadian model Kim Cloutier. If you look up Canadian models on the interweb, she seems to be the consensus favourite.

When I first heard about the theatre shooting in Aurora, Colorado, I didn’t see it first in a newspaper or on TV. Twitter was the first to the story. Here’s a look at how Twitter and the rest of the social media is reshaping the modern newsroom. (GigaOM)

Reader Sarah tipped this next article to us. A while back, we linked to an article about former CNBC, now ESPN sports business reporter Darren Rovell getting duped by a fake tip. It turns out that this sort of thing goes beyond one guy. In fact, there’s a website called HelpAReporterOut which is full of people doing the same thing. (Forbes)

You’d think that being a member of the press during a political campaign would be pretty easy. Everything a candidate or his team says would be on the record. Except that campaign press offices for the two US Presidential candidates get to approve the final wording of quotes under penalty of being cut off from the campaign. (New York Times)

After the jump, the lessons the 2012 US basketball team can learn from the Mighty Ducks, Rush Limbaugh and rational thought are two things that don’t go together and call me Obi. Continue reading