I really did not want to write about Gizmodogate again. But instead of letting it die, today Gizmodo found it important to defend themselves as saviors of journalistic independence:
Our prank pays homage to the notion of independence and independent reporting. And no matter how much access the companies give us, we won’t ever stop being irreverent. That’s what this prank was about and what the press should understand.
How heroic! And hypocritical, as I pointed out before. After all, it was Mighty Hero Gizmodo themselves who not only trashed the TV-B-Gone 3 years ago:
Mitch Altman is an asshole. And not just any asshole, but one of those snotty holier-than-thou types who has nothing better to do with the money he made as a founder of 3ware than to develop a device with the sole purpose of imposing his viewpoint on others…
…Essentially a universal remote that cycles through every possible code, the TV-B-Gone has a single purpose: to power off televisions whenever the user feels like being a dick.
(Emphasis mine). So who is the dick now?
Related posts: Scobleizer, mathewingram.com/work, kottke.org, IP Telephony, VoIP, Broadband, Venture Chronicles and The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs, Webware.com
Zoli, the core issue here is that this stunt was perpetrated by a couple of the Gizmodo kiddies who had been given, not “blogger” credentials, but actual press passes to CES. They were there as “accredited journalists”, and broke the most basic rule of journalism: the reporter is not supposed to be the story.
Now, Brian wants to portray this as some sort of evidence of their “integrity”, when it’s simply evidence of their complete lack of anything remotely resembling professionalism.
Watching Gizmodo over the past week, I’ve noticed a distinct lack of ads from anyone other than Gawker Media on the site. Taking a look at Alexa, I see a precipitous drop in readership over the past week. Coincidence…?