It was only a couple days ago, many of you might have missed it, when the USA Today broke a story involving Facebook hiring a PR firm to smear Google. Two individuals, Jim Goldman, a former tech reporter for CNBC and John Mercurio, a former political reporter working for Burson-Marsteller (one of the biggest, most well known PR agencies in the world); were caught trying to feed or even co-author stories to a writer that gets his work published in places like the Washington Post, Politico, and The Huffington Post.
The Whistleblower’s email exchange can be found here: http://pastebin.com/zaeTeJe...
After being confronted with evidence by the USA Today, Facebook admitted to their role; claiming they were only trying to bring attention to the issue, as did Burson-Marsteller. Burson-Marsteller is saying that they have reviewed ethics policy among employees working at the firm. Both companies get negative PR, but really other than that our Justice Department doesn’t care – nothing is being done to stop this besides the PR embarrassment it showcases, which usually goes away after a week or so of not talking about it.
Terence Fane-Saunders, who worked for Burson-Marsteller in the 1980s and now runs his own PR firm, Chelgate explains: "In this grubby little attempt to seed negative stories without disclosing their source, they were denying the media (and that means the public, and that means you and me) the opportunity to assess the value of those stories," Saunders said. "If you don't know the source, you can't judge motive." http://www.ibtimes.com/arti...
TheDailyBeast talked to several PR people from Silicon Valley that say this practice happens the time in the PR business, but it’s unusual that Burson-Marsteller was so clumsy about doing so.
So if PR smear “whisper” campaigns happen all the time in the PR world, just how far removed is the tech media removed from the videogames media? Is it possible this could be happening to the stories we read on N4G every day? I pose this question to N4G users because we are exactly the people that see a broad range of articles across the media – and might find suspicious work when compared to legitimate.
It was 2 days ago when, Joe Wilcox of Betanews broke a story entitled: Don’t believe the hype: PS3 users aren’t switching to Xbox 360. http://www.betanews.com/joe... Joe called half a dozen Gamestops in America to check up on Edge’s claim actually finding no evidence that people were trading in PS3s at an unusual rate.
Edge’s News story was circulated to most major sites (there’s too many to count) like CNET News http://news.cnet.com/8301-1... SlashGear; TG Daily; The Loop; Venture Beat; Kataku; CVG and ZDNet; most of the time only citing the 200% increase mentioned by two different anonymous sources by edge, and in every instance not mentioning the statistics were from Europe in the title. In order to make a stronger story out of it every website citing Edge was skipping over the other source that Edge mentioned in England that hadn’t noticed any change.
While it’s hard to tell if PR could have been at work – the sketchy part is that only one of Edge’s cited sources would go on record. Also two of the sources cited a 200% figure – why use percentages unless you’re trying to hide the real figures? For all we know a ‘200% increase’ could be from 0 to 2. It also seems exactly like something one of the major Console manufacturers would do in a Press Release on sales figures to fit to their liking. The biggest strike against Edge’s article was the fact that another person actually investigating the claim was finding nothing of the sort, in fact, disproving Edge’s claim to some degree. Could Edge have been fed an article from an un-sourced email, like the facebook-google incident? It’s hard to say, but we really need to open our eyes on this sort of thing. Smear campaigns may be real and sadly, it seems they actually go unpunished when they’re uncovered.
Sony has refreshed the Holiday Sale, as new titles are added and a lot have been removed.
Here is a look at the exhibit from the early access preview.
Speed Factor throws players straight into a neon-lit highway of nostalgia, where punk rock riffs and pixel-perfect visuals collide in a furious symphony of speed. Inspired by the golden age of 80s and 90s arcade racers, this game invites you to tear through 50 diverse tracks across five vibrant locations, each brimming with retro flair. From customising traction assists to upgrading classic rides, Speed Factor is more than a race; it’s an adrenaline-fueled journey through the heart of arcade rebellion, demanding both skill and swagger from every driver who dares to take the wheel.
I am more inclined to believe it is a matter of posting sensationalist headlines rather than a smear campaign funded by anyone.
As you said, the 200% increase doesn't show any real figures. Edge isn't technically reporting any false information, just cleverly worded news that most average readers will accept on the surface. Most of these internet sources, such as CVG, aren't really professional, but they've somehow managed to become pretty popular. So I am not surprised to see them circulating that news without perhaps fact checking. Of course, since it comes from Edge, they post the news under the assumption that the source is reliable. Most of these websites repost news just to stay relevant and keep their audiences.
Interesting blog though, but I remain highly skeptical about any conspiracy theories. Once those start to seed, they spread too much like wildfire and I cannot stand that. It's of course possible, but the evidence I do not think is likely to confirm with any real certainty that there is a smear campaign.
I know where you are going with this but N4G is in a way lower type of structute. Fanboyism will make a hate article in some dubious website and, with some luck, it wont be reported and will be front page material with 700º. At least those guys (probably) made some money out of it! :)
N4G is a good example of flamebait articles. This fuels the website´s community. I actually like it here. Its my main source for gaming news. It up to me to open the articles. For every 3 flamebait articles there is a 1 good gaming related article and those are the ones that keep me coming here. Sure, I do engage some articles more than others. Especially the Anon "fighting for my rights" type. The comment section is perhaps the most entertaining part of N4G.
NOTE: Talking about flamebait articles, I dont mean no disrespect for the guy but HipHopGamer is just a brown stain here. I mean, he is the true form of flamebait titles and headlines that fuel this website. Still, people flock there and there it goes to 1000º. However, some guy with a Youtube show that provides reliable sources to its claims never gets approved. Just a thought.
Nice blog, I made the same connection myself when I read the news, which isn't a coincidence as I always try to relate anything to video games, being obsessed with my hobby and all :)
While I'd say most of the offending articles posted on N4G are merely sensationalist for the attention, it would be naive to assume that these big corporations and their PR departments have zero influence in the media.
As for the quality of articles approved on N4G, you can't expect a handful of mods to be constantly aware of everything thats posted 24/7. I've seen for myself the hand picked submissions of certain fanboys getting approved by 10 of their friends 2 seconds after the article hits 40 degrees but we must take some of the responsibility ourselves. The mods do the best they can and even if it appears slow, biased or misdirected at times, they are there working away in the background to give us a better experience, believe me ^_^
If you believe Edge, you deserve to be mislead.