jason schreier

10

Jason Schreier

Kotaku, Editor

Previously: Wired

Twitter

Collusion

Possible

Collusion

About

Member of GameJournoPros. Proven to have been active in the list.

Modifier

possible

Date

Not on file

Filed

2015 Mar 17

Dishonesty

Apparent

Dishonesty

About

Following allegations of cronyism between Brandon Boyer and Stephen Thirion, he wrote an article minimizing the issues, calling them "misguided at best" and comparing them to a conspiracy theory, since the person used as a source to confirm these ties denied having discussed them when he asked. Hasn't updated the article or returned on the subject when more proof of Thirion and Boyer's relationship surfaced — not only confirming this relationship existed and showing that Thirion had received coverage from Boyer multiple times, but that Boyer was involved in at least five other conflicts of interest of comparable magnitude.

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Date

2015 Feb 05

Filed

2015 Sep 04

His followup article after the end of the trial for the false Brad Wardell accusations echoes the false narrative of Kotaku's original piece by Kate Cox and completely inverts the real timing of the lawsuits.

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Date

Not on file

Filed

2015 May 19

Released scandalmongering article about a drunk journalist hitting on a developer — but calls a colleague having an affair with a developer he favorably covered just a few days before not news worthy.

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Date

Not on file

Filed

2015 Mar 17

Managed to twist GamerGate catching the harasser Mateus Sousa into an article blaming GamerGate's "atmosphere" for Sousa's actions.

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Date

Not on file

Filed

2015 Mar 17

Lied about the results of a survey he held on Twitter — claiming "review scores" (which Kotaku doesn't use) were people's biggest issue with game journalism, when journalists relations (which Kotaku was having plenty of issues with at the time) had gotten over three times the votes.

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Date

Not on file

Filed

2015 Mar 17

Claimed he wasn't contacted for comment before the original GameJournoPros emails leak, when he actually was, and publicly.

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Date

Not on file

Filed

2015 Mar 17

Sensationalism

Apparent

Sensationalism

About

Wrote a heavily circulated article about Trendy Entertainment, and a couple of follow-ups. In these articles,his anonymous sources described lots of issues at the “Video game studio from hell”, laying all the blame on then-president Jeremy Stieglitz. Issues included unfair crunch hours, bad management decisions, and, worst of all, offering lower wages to women candidates for the same positions. In 2016, a throughly researched article showed most of Schreier’s claims were heavily questionable: several of his sources were working at a competitor of Trendy, the woman offered a lower wage was significantly less qualified, and Trendy’s mismanagement seemed to come from individuals other than Stieglitz. Stieglitz lost his position immediately after the article, while actually still working for Trendy and being forced to co-operate with the people who had defamed him. The article was also eventually brought as evidence when Insight (Trendy’s owner) sued Stieglitz and the more-successful company he had founded, forcing him to settle for 40 million dollars.

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Date

2013 Jun 07

Filed

2016 Sep 20

Initiated a moral panic surrounding the game Dragon’s Crown—first, on Kotaku, by comparing the art direction of the game’s artist and Vanillaware president George Kamitani to the work of a “14-year-old-boy”. After a response from Kamitani and some backlash, Schreier doubled down with a longer article—which included an apology for his tone—and, especially, with some infamous forum posts where he accused the game’s large-chested sorceress character of inciting pedophilia. His criticism generated much backlash, with his Editor-in-Chief eventually addressing it, stating Schreier had been misunderstood.

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Date

2013 Apr 24

Filed

2015 Mar 17

Wrote two articles about a specific scene in the 2013 Tomb Raider prequel, eventually taking his reporting into scandalmongering territory.

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Date

Not on file

Filed

2015 Jun 06

Trivia

Apparent

Trivia

About

Compared asking for better ethics in journalism to the Ebola virus.

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Date

Not on file

Filed

2015 Mar 17

Claims journalistic objectivity to be "a silly thing to strive for". Much later returned on the subject due to that claim's diffusion.

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Date

Not on file

Filed

2015 Mar 17

Portrayed in the People of GamerGate series.

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Date

Not on file

Filed

2015 Mar 17

GameJournoPros membership isn’t an impropriety by itself. Read why DeepFreeze finds it notable.

This journalist’s career means they might be subject to slight asymmetric scrutiny.

Dishonesty and Sensationalism emblems may be based on subjective criteria.

Readers are encouraged to take entries critically, and form their opinion independently.

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