September 6th, 2010

Maturity in the Blogging community0
JR posted in Uncategorized on January 11th, 2008

I don’t know why I didn’t comment on the Gizmodo prank at the Consumer Electronic Show.  It seemed like a cute irreverant bit if behavior by some young people.

However, from the broader Blogging community standpoint, it was a black eye.  John Biggs at Crunchgear has a much better response.  This wasn’t something to be proud of nor should we honor those who participated in the prank.  This may well have damaged the hard-won respect that other bloggers have spent so much effort establishing.

I don’t think that the damage is irreparable, but there will be consequences that we will see play out over the next year.

Gizmodo response to prank fallout0
JR posted in Uncategorized on January 14th, 2008

I thought that Gizmodo was going to keep quiet about their prank at the Consumer Electronic Show.  After all, what would they have to gain with any sort of apology.  At best, it would appear to be self-serving and insincere.  At worst, an apology would to be part of the prank itself and just another way of getting more attention for their web site.

I had thought that they were wise in keeping their mouths shut and letting the whole thing blow over.

But they couldn’t leave the matter alone.  Today Gizmodo responded and appeared to claim that they shouldn’t be ashamed of what they did.  They point to notable jokers in the tech industry like Apple founder Steve Wozniak.

But more amazing, they claim some moral high ground because they are not in a position of overly respecting the companies they cover.  They point out part of what they do is turning a skeptical eye on the claims of those same companies.  If they were to censor themselves because they were concerned about losing favor from a company, they would lose any respect and reliability as a news source.

They also use an ad hominen attack to blame those who have accepted gifts from companies (paid junkets to Japan by Nikon was their example) or who do advertising work for the companies they cover.  No doubt that those other journalists who have misbehaved should be
called on it, but this does not excuse the bad manners of the part of
Gizmodo’s reporter.

They then go on to point to their own excellent coverage when given an opportunity to interview Bill Gates at the show.  They felt that their interview was good journalism on a par with any other medium.  I do note, however, that they did not first hit Bill Gates with a pie and then expect him to sit down for their interview.

The prank was a rude thing to do and the CES management was fully in its rights to bar that reporter from future events.  Complaining “can’t you take a joke”, which is essentially what the article is claiming, is only an excuse for what is obvious misbehavior.  Though you can’t kowtow to the companies you cover, or engage in any form of thinly disguised payola, you do have to treat the subjects of your articles with respect.  This was clearly not done by the prankster.

The only way to respond to such juvenile behavior is with the traditional admonishment: “Just grow up and act like an adult.”

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