Juuken and Darkpower owe Kotaku and N4G apology
Yesterday Darkpower via gamegazette posted an article attacking Kotaku's credibility because of something juuken had told him. For those not up to speed you can find it here.
In short, the article accused Kotaku of lying and plagiarism. This is not something that can be ignored. It was a serious targeted attack on Kotaku. One that questioned not just Kotaku but of the writer Mike Fahey.
Darkpower's story managed to reach 510° before the mods took the story down.
The story has been taken down, so what's the problem?
Simple. It's not fair to Kotaku or N4G readers unless you know why the story is gone and why an apology is in order?
Don't worry this won't take long.
Kotaku after being contacted by Sony posted this on the 27-3-09. Darkpower after communicating with juuken. Came to the conclusion that this post by smarthouse, was the original source. Posted two days later on the 29-3-09. Even though smarthouse is an Australian site the time difference still exceeds that of 24 hours.
It's hard to believe that after all that effort that neither Darkpower nor juuken saw this.
This alone, makes it clear Kotaku was the original source. There is however, something even more interesting.
In the original Kotaku article they reported that Sony was to make an announcement on Tuesday the 31st of March.
"We're leaning towards a price cut, but we've got a sneaking suspicion that it's the Playstation 2 dropping to $99, and not a cut for the Playstation 3"
As you can see they speculated the announcement was about price. That of the PS3 or PS2, they did not know.
Smarthouse on the other hand made it clear in their article, the announcement was about the Playstation 3.
"Sony Computer Entertainment is set to make a global announcement this week regarding the PS3 which has witnessed three months of declining sales with Tuesday, March 31 which is Wednesday in Australia set to be the big day"
I gave Darkpower the benefit of the doubt, I read his story, I read the comments; but he was wrong! as was juuken!
Darkpower, juuken are you man and women enough to admit you were wrong and to apologize to Kotaku and N4G?
For the conclusion Kotaku has posted Sony's big announcement.
But looking through the list of articles on the offending site, it seems like they're more into opinion pieces than reporting.
on this one. besides, it's not like kotaku are saints either.
you all still think juuken is a chick?
GamingGazette is nothing but a bullhorn for Darkpowers BS. It has zero credibility in gaming journalism so I'm sure nobody really cared that he called out Kotaku.
btw - I called the PS2 pricecut and stuck by it even before the announcement was made. Where is my cookie!!!!!!
And we have SOME cred. Give us a break here.
And for the people who are asking if I'm a chick, I am a female. I have no reason to lie about my gender.
Second of all, if there was any wrongdoing involved then I apologize.
Well, they're jealous that a female knows more about gaming and being a GAMER than some of the guys that visit and comment on this site, so you may need to tell them you are a guy in order to keep them from having to swallow their pride. :D
Hey I've done stupid things to impress the girls, I think as a male it's your right of passage.
I mean, this WAS April Fools week, after all. Can't believe you would actually post something...hilarious.
One, we never actually came out and said "hey, there's no doubt in our minds that Kotaku did this". I said that because no one was sourcing Kotaku but Smarthouse, that there was something wrong with that picture. We concluded that there was some form of plagiarism at work there when neither Smarthouse nor Kotaku sourced each other. Also, keep in mind that Kotaku was in that situation before.
I don't apologize for anything because I didn't do anything wrong. I didn't make a concrete accusation one way or another. If you read the article, it was not making that decision one way or another. It was only making the case and putting the possibility out there, plus making sure there wasn't any trickery.
Actually, I think YOU owe US an apology for trying to boost your own ego by calling us out on something that you spun anyway.
If I read your site all that much, I'd probably call for an apology too because from where I sit now it looks like a double standard. Of course since I don't really visit you or Kotaku you could probably give a sh*t.
*thumbs up*
"However, consider that Kotaku has been no stranger to stealing stories and claiming them as their own. If you recall, The Bitbag conducted an interview with Microsoft PR Aaron Greenberg a few months ago. A few days later, both Kotaku and IGN posted the interview, but didn’t credit the source. While IGN quickly backpedaled and called their lack of sourcing an oversight, Kotaku was more defiant. They, for a while, refused to source the interview (they since have, though), and even banned Torrence Davis from commenting on the site (the banning was probably the exposing on THAT incident)."
I took that into consideration when saying all of this. I wouldn't ever make an accusation (or whatever else you would think it is) unless I knew I had sufficient evidence to present that would make my case to the people who would read the story. I had a tip that Metacritic might have been sabotaging the Killzone 2 score on their site somehow, but upon further inspection, I didn't think they were, so I didn't go with the story. Here, I knew something was amiss, so I went ahead with it.
Whether or not you agree by my decision is your problem, and I know some people won't agree with everything. But I always stand behind my convictions and my stories, and this is no exception. I'm sorry if that annoys or angers people, but if I am angering people by making sure that people get fair and truthful coverage of the game industry without any bias, then that means I'm doing my job because that makes the gaming media just that more aware that they have to show that they are going to be fair and not be fanboys in their reporting. I do think there are far more anti-Sony stories that are untrue than anti-MS stories that are untrue, which is why you usually see more MWs that are calling out the anti-Sony stories on the site.
I'm sorry if this bothers you, but I think Slime making this only drives me further to continue my duty to the gaming public. I think I've been touching a nerve on the media that not many thought could be touched, and hopefully, it's working.
Kotaku is NOT above such behaviour since they have, as you mentioned, acted like asshats in the past. But in this particular case, the evidence presented so far seems to exonerate them. No one says we have to start trusting them, but they seem on the level in this case and not deserving of the perpetuation of negative branding that comes with your accusation.
You don't have to apologize. But to me (and maybe me only since no one's really chiming in) it looks like you accidentally followed Kotaku into the crap. Don't we revile Kotaku for that stupid stunt with Home, then refusing to admit wrong after the fact? Are we holding ourselves to the same standards for which we castrate the enemy? Or just throwing stones in a dirt war?
Still makes little difference to me. At the end of the day you run your site and I just comment. And as audience I don't presume to tell you how to run things behind the curtain. This is only my view point presented (hopefully) for the benefit of you who're concerned enough to take the time to respond to the comments.
I'm not gonna keep pushing it after this since you got the one bubble left so thanks for the debate and keeping things chill
I just think that it was a bit awkward to see something like that. I wouldn't say something if I didn't think there was anything to it. I don't like fishing for hits.