9/18 Daily Dose

Hello, and welcome to the first ever #GamerGate Daily Dose! This is gonna be a nightly recap of all the big #GamerGate related events with some minor analysis. We're recording this on September 19th, 2014, under a beautiful pennsylvania night sky. I'm your host, Doc Dante, and we've got a hell of a show for you tonight, folks! Lotta stuff going down for me to talk about, ton of material for a first-ever recording.

Let's kick things off with Nero's latest hit, fresh off the presses. This article, up on Breitbart.com, this is a big one. Nero's got more juicy details, starting someone from WIRED suggesting a "feel-better" gift for Zoe Quinn. That's what we're dealing with, folks. Justified or not, this is a hugbox. When Eron came forward, this shows that rather than investigate his claims or consider them, the media immediately showered Zoe Quinn with sympathy and affection. This is everything we've been accusing them of and then some. This is a great piece, tons of evidence. This is stuff you can't dismiss, you gotta read it.

Oh, and back Eron? They make comments about him too. They call the guy a "psychopath" and get mad at Vice for not doing enough to crucify him. Un-fucking-believable. This guy comes forward and he says "My ex-girlfriend is a lying, manipulative abuser" and the first thing the media wants to do? Put his head on a fucking pike for DARING to make Zoe Quinn look bad. How is that fucking okay? The press is supposed to be a whistleblower's best friend, not his worst fucking enemy. The whole reason #GamerGate started, when Adam Baldwin shared IA's video, it was all about one question: "Why does Zoe Quinn seem untouchable?" with allegations that the games media was trying to protect her. And guess what, folks? We found it! These e-mails show that the games media will try their hardest to make Zoe Quinn untouchable no matter what.

First e-mail Nero lists is from Andrew Groen of WIRED magazine. Groen proposes the "feel-better" gift, mentioning in the past that GameJournoPros did one for Patrick Klepek of GiantBomb. There's no real elaboration on this, but what exactly was the gift and what were his hard circumstances? Was it his dad dying? Nolan North making him look like a jackass? The blowback from him getting all pissy over the Dead Island 2 bikini bust? I wanna get some more information on that.

Anyway, another interesting leak is Kyle Orland of Ars Technica suggesting a letter of support featuring several game developers. That Kyle's suggesting this, that's interesting on its own, and you're gonna see why later. But the fact is, the letter we saw circulating Kotaku was formulated by GameJournoPro.

Next major highlight is this little nugget from William O'Neal, EIC of techradar.com, who, IIRC, ran a piece that listed the hashtag #WriteAKotakuArticle as a form of harassment. He flat out says, "Who here HASN'T slept with a PR person or game developer?" Sure it might have been a joke, but seriously: we all know about how Kotaku shit the bed with Nathan Grayson and Patricia Hernandez not adding any disclosure to their pieces. Again, even IF O'Neal is joking, how many more people wrote pieces without disclosing their relationship? Suddenly we know why Grayson and Hernandez didn't do it: No one else was! This is a fucking cesspool of irresponsibility and poor behavior.

I'm also happy to see Mike Futter of Game Informer flat out say he wants nothing to do with this. Sure, Game Informer is basically a subsidiary of Gamestop, but they still operate on a much more professional level than fucking Kotaku or Polygon. So good on Game Informer for making the right choice.

Now, what was GONNA be our big story BEFORE Nero dropped his second pipe bomb: After days of silence and speculation, moot has finally broken his silence on #GamerGate threads being banned from 4chan. His post, a sticky on the top of /v/, confirms that yes, this was a decision by 4chan administration. He goes on to say that while he does believe in free anonymous speech, it has always been 4chan policy to discourage raiding, which he feels #GamerGate has become.

So what do we make of this? Well, as everyone's favorite angry manlet Devin Faraci has demonstrated, enemies of #GamerGate are gleefully trying to say that the movement is too vile for even 4chan. Meanwhile, prominent #GamerGate figureheads, including InternetAristocrat, have accused moot of selling us out. The truth? They're both wrong.

As it stands, moot clearly doesn't despise #GamerGate or consider it toxic. If he finds #GamerGate repulsive, he'd also have shut down /pol/ and banned anyone on /v/ who talks about SJWs. Of course, since he's not doing that, 4chan is gonna keep on being 4chan. More realistically, moot simply made the decision after consulting with his lawyers. After the fappening, 4chan was facing a lot of legal scrutiny. Now's simply a bad time for something as controversial and volitile as #GamerGate to be going on. While we're not a moral liability, we are a legal one for the time being. Again, there are alternatives. Use the twitter hashtag, or talk on 4chon or 8chan. And while I know moot is a big guy (for you) he still doesn't need tons of flak and hatred for his decision. He doesn't hate #GamerGate, he just can't afford to have it on his site.

Another side note? People have alleged that one of Zoe's big friends, Alex Lifschitz, is a 4chan mod. I can't find any evidence supporting this, so take it with a grain of salt. But still, keep an eye on the guy. In light of Nero's e-mail leaks, he's already trying to tell devs and journos to make everything private, lest more stuff come to like. Way to show us that you've got nothing to hide, buddy.

Oh, and the final note: right now /v/ is up in arms to a crazy degree. I've never seen anything like this, not even on /sp/. This is the internet equivilient of a fucking riot, folks. If I were moot, I'd be questioning my decision right now, hands tied or not.

Right, on to the next big story, which means going back to Breitbart. Last evening, Nero and Breitbart dropped a pipebomb by revealing the existence of GameJournoPros and their blatant collusion regarding the Zoe Quinn story. If you haven't read it, I highly advise you do that now, along with his sequel: It's a serious turning point that has the journos running scared.

First major, formal respose comes from Kyle Orland of Ars Technica, who claims to have founded the group. You all probably know Orland for his immediate tweet "I regret nothing." and how that was a pretty damning admission of guilt. Of course, his more formal piece is hardly a mea culpa, but rather an attempt to weasel out of responsibility.

He admits that the group was founded as a way for journalists to share information and tips. Of course, that in itself is fairly damning, given it's private nature. The google group is a private clubhouse where various chosen media outlets can collaborate to be ahead of the curve. I get that professionals want to help each other out, but why behind closed doors? Why the secrecy?

He admits he made a mistake with the Zoe Quinn thing, but he doesn't go far enough. First off, he takes Zoe's claims of harassment at face value, with no fact checking. The Escapist already apologized for that lapse in judgement, why can't Orland? Why is Zoe Quinn an infallible figure? It's the "listen and bo-lieve" nonsense in full effect, which is what #GamerGate is trying to fight. So yeah, if you wanna take Orland to task, that's a good starting point.

Second, did he READ Eron's post? It wasn't about the cheating. It was about Zoe being a liar, a manipulator, a gaslighter, an abuser. The point wasn't "Zoe Quinn slept with five guys" it was "Zoe Quinn is a manipulative, abusive sociopath". Why do none of the leaked e-mails even TRY to focus on the points Eron was making? Look folks, I'm not an MRA but the whole thing reeks of double standards. Eron came forward and said "Hey, Zoe Quinn abused me" and the media's first reaction was "How can we protect Zoe?" That's what they need to be taken up on too.

And of course, by the time I'm recording this, it'll have been 24 hours since the existence of the google group was leaked. During that 24 hour period, despite Nero claiming to have a full, 47 page transcript of the conversation about Zoe Quinn taking place on the group, the full logs nor subscriber list has been revealed. Why is this important? Well, when Zoe Quinn came forward with her leaks from the #BurgersAndFries IRC, the IRC admin promptly made an entire chatlog of the channel available within 24 hours. They came forward, showing that they had nothing to hide. Why can't the people behind GameJournoPros do the same? Orland is the founder, why can't he present the full information?

Actually, there's a great comment on the article from a user named "Black Frost" shared on Reddit's Kotaku In Action sub. Yeah, I know, I know, reddit is compromised, but still go and read it.

Also from Breitbart, we have Jeremy Wilson joining the fight, writing a piece on the SJW critics of #GamerGate, mostly focusing on the case against Leigh Alexander. Another fantastic piece, great summary of the kind of people #GamerGate is against. No new information, but a great summary of the SJWs and their figureheads.

Moving on, twitter user "Will of the Boss" most notable for being shadowbanned prior to asking Julian Assange about #GamerGate, ran quite the hitbox stream today. I didn't get the chance to hear the whole thing, but some of his guests included TFYC, Nero, Adam Baldwin, MundaneMatt, Daniel Vavra and Ninouh (the founder of #NotYourShield) If you want to catch the next stream, it's on hitbox.tv/kingofpol. If a recording comes out, feel free to send it to me and spread it around.

The Kotaku in Action crowd also did a livestream. I missed a lot of it, but it featured TotalBiscut, Devi Ever, MundaneMatt, and some prominent users of the subreddit. The chat was hosted by a guy called Hatman, you can find him on his

No new developments, but I caught a bit of TotalBiscut in his lovely accent talking about his experience with DMCAs and how they are essentially a weapon in all of this. I gotta say that #GamerGate has given me a lot more respect for TotalBiscut, especially with how he's taken responsibility for his own shortcomings in the past. On a side note, Woolie Madden from the Best Friends Zaibatsu will be on TB's co-optional podcast next tuesday at 3PM EST. Woolie and Team Best Friends have been staying silent on the whole thing for the most part, but I personally am hoping he'll give some comment in regards to #NotYourShield. Don't pressure him into it though, we don't need the "weaponizing minorities" thing to suddenly come true.

Prominent youtube personality Sargon of Akkad, meanwhile, hosted a live discussion and debate with Liana Kerzner, a polygon contributer and writer for  metaleater.com. I also haven't given it a listen, I know I know, I sound lazy, but I'm busy trying to gather all of this for you good people, but if a recording goes up, I'll share it.

Last update is a small one, but still important. Our good friends at Silverstring media have deleted their "team" page, taking down their roster. I'm not gonna say they're not under any pressure, because they obviously are facing a lot of scrutiny. They're being called out. That makes their response pretty telling, trying to cover their tracks. They're on the run. They're hiding. They're scared of us. They're scared that we're calling them out. That seems pretty goddamn suspect to me, right?

So there you have it folks, today's #GamerGate Daily Dose. I'll be trying my best to keep giving these to you daily. If your connection sucks and can't listen to audio, I'll put the script up on pastebin for you to read. If you have anything you want me to share, any news I missed, any stuff you want me to read, or you just want to say "thanks doc!" tweet me at @AlrightAnon, or shoot me an e-mail over at [email protected]. Now just a heads up, I'll be working out in Lancester County tomorrow so I might be missing a few stories tomorrow night. In the mean time keep on sending those e-mails, contacting those sponsors, and talking about #GamerGate. I've been Doc Dante, and you've just got your #GamerGate Daily Dose.