A deep dive into Gamergate
Do you remember Gamergate?
The year was 2014. And, as Poynter managing editor Ren LaForme described it to me, “Gamergate turned a niche feud over video game reporting into a culturewide firestorm — and a blueprint for undermining the press. Mainstream journalists were caught flat-footed, and the tactics pioneered then — swarming critics, spreading conspiracies, reframing harassment as ‘ethics’ — have since fueled movements from QAnon to MAGA. A decade later, many newsrooms are still struggling to cover these online movements with the depth and urgency they demand.”
It was one of the more significant moments in media over the past 50 years. Which is why it has been selected as the latest entry in The Poynter 50 — a series reflecting on 50 moments and people that shaped journalism over the past half-century, and continue to influence its future.
And Gamergate is the subject of the latest episode of “The Poynter Report Podcast.” The episode is hosted by LaForme and Poynter’s Alex Mahadevan, the director of MediaWise and a member of Poynter’s faculty.
LaForme says on the podcast that Gamergate “pioneered a playbook for online movements that can cloak harassment and misinformation under the banner of a higher purpose.”
Think of dangerous movements such as PizzaGate, QAnon and Stop the Steal, and many of the conspiracies embraced by members of MAGA.
As LaForme and Mahadevan write for Poynter, “The movement was disorganized and leaderless. There was no definitive Gamergate website, no set mission statement, no agreed-upon demands. Instead, it was a swarm: thousands of loosely connected participants using social media, forums and comment sections to coordinate and amplify. Most adherents didn’t even use their real names. Many of their claims were unverified or outright false.”
As LaForme and Mahadevan noted, journalists covering this found it challenging at best. They wrote, “Reporters accustomed to reaching out to spokespeople and conducting in-person or phone interviews struggled to report on a movement led by anonymous Twitter users with characters like Kirby and Sonic the Hedgehog as avatars.”
They added, “For journalists, Gamergate was a trial by fire in covering online movements that didn’t follow the usual rules. The techniques used by its adherents — tactics that included swarming critics, reframing harassment as defense and invoking ‘ethics’ as a rallying cry — would soon surface in bigger and more consequential arenas.”
So read the story and be sure to check out the podcast. Aside from watching on YouTube, you can also find the show on Apple, Spotify, and most other places where you find podcasts.
Who is Lachlan Murdoch?
One day after the announcement that Lachlan Murdoch had survived the battle to take over his father Rupert’s media empire, The New York Times’ Katie Robertson and Michael M. Grynbaum are out with “Lachlan Murdoch, the Media Prince Who Would Be King.”
Four of Rupert’s six children have had a “Succession”-like battle for decades to see who would eventually lead the company, and that all came to a conclusion this week. Thanks to a deal that will pay out $3.3 billion to three of Lachlan’s siblings, Lachlan now becomes one of the most powerful men in media and, really, all the world.
Robertson and Grynbaum add, “And it means that his companies — which own Fox News, The New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, among other properties — are likely to maintain their firm conservative tilt. Keeping that ideological bent has been a top priority for his father, who has preferred his elder son as his permanent successor over the three less politically conservative siblings.”
Lachlan, 54, has essentially run the business for the past couple of years, but this new agreement means he will be in charge through at least 2050.
Media Matters’ Matt Gertz tweeted, “The lie factory will continue manufacturing lies for another generation, deliberately deceiving audiences in service of authoritarian politics on three continents.”
Another printing plant goes down
The Minnesota Star Tribune announced this week that it will close its printing facility on Dec. 27 — a move, it says, will “affect” about 125 employees. The printing facility in Minneapolis that is being closed has printed the paper for nearly 40 years.
After it closes, the paper will be printed by Gannett’s printing plant in Des Moines, Iowa. That, of course, will impact deadlines. Deadlines will be 5:15 p.m. for weekday papers, and 4 p.m. for Sunday papers. Stories that can’t make the paper will appear immediately on the Star Tribune’s website and mobile app.
According to the paper, the move will save “several million dollars” in expenses.
Steve Grove, CEO and publisher of The Minnesota Star Tribune, said in a written statement, “This is a difficult but necessary decision to position the Minnesota Star Tribune for future growth.”
Grove told the Star Tribune’s Brooks Johnson, “Nothing about this is easy. But we’re not deserting print. We’re just changing how we produce that paper.”
There will be no interruption
