Stephen Totilo

Kotaku, Editor-in-Chief

Apparent

Dishonesty

His comments on the response to Kotaku's article on Denis Dyack that he edited claimed that the article didn't accuse Dyack of embezzling money from publishers.

Modifier

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Date

2013 May 20

Filed

2015 Jul 05

Handwaved the Grayson sex scandal, claiming it wasn't an ethical issue because Grayson's article about Quinn was not a review and it was written on March 31, when they were just professional acquaintances.

Modifier

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Date

Not on file

Filed

2015 Mar 18

Claimed that harassment caused Brianna Wu to leave her home, despite her history of farfetched claims and the ambiguous circumstances of the doxing, and never updated the article despite the the very strong evidence that, apart from an already planned weekend at Comicon, she had never actually left her home, aside from the numerous outrageous claims and apparent false flags that mined Wu’s credibility afterwards.

Modifier

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Date

Not on file

Filed

2015 Apr 13

Amended

Sensationalism

About

Baited into an article with a joke press release. Has promptly admitted the mistake and updated the article.

Modifier

patched

Date

Not on file

Filed

2015 Mar 18

Not

Corruption

About

Initially handwaved the Doritosgate scandal as "not important" and "tired nonsense" — later retracting the statement after significant backlash, and producing perhaps the most exhaustive article on the subject, used as a source on DeepFreeze's own article as well.

Modifier

not

Date

Not on file

Filed

2015 Mar 18

Apparent

Trivia

About

Portrayed in the People of GamerGate series.

Modifier

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Date

Not on file

Filed

2015 May 04

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

Dishonesty and Sensationalism emblems may be based on subjective criteria.

Disclosure: Denis Dyack contributed to an unofficial DeepFreeze ad campaign, launched by fans of the site without our involvement. The money never went through DeepFreeze at any time.

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

Quick & dirty

Low-effort and sensationalist journalism causing embarrassing mistakes and life-ruining consequences

The stick and the Doritos

The constant struggle of games journalism against the influence of advertisers and game publishers

Unfair advantage

Some journalists give privileged access to the gaming industry based on friendship rather than on merits

The monster to silence

Media's dehumanizing portrayal of those calling them out for their corruption may be that corruption's most irrefutable proof