DryvBy
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RT article
Maybe we need more right-wing political representation in game journalism before we scream we need more politics in games. But nah, let's focus on those journo unions because they treat the elitists poorly.
“If you were openly a conservative and tried to apply to any of the mainstream outlets that are on the coasts, I don’t think you’d have a chance in hell of getting in,” says the senior source, who wishes to remain anonymous for fear of repercussions.
“There’s a lot of us that probably think there’s a clique, well, that know there’s a clique,” they say.
The “clique” is composed of journalists from well-known gaming and tech websites: among them Kotaku, Polygon, Vice, Ars Technica, GameDaily, Gamespot, Eurogamer and loads more.
The dominance has directly impacted the integrity of the journalism at the publications run by the clique members.
In one example, which was described to me in detail that I have obscured to protect my source, staff members were discussing coverage of a controversial figure who’d been wrongly punished by a gaming organization.
Several members of the site objected, saying that the figure did not deserve fair coverage because they are not a good person.
My source is particularly outraged over the clique’s duplicity when it comes to mental health.
On the one hand, mainstream games journalists will talk up its importance in the industry and within games themselves, or even set up mental health initiatives. In the next instance, they will destroy the public lives of potentially vulnerable individuals for the most minor transgressions.
“People forget how dangerous it is for people with fragile mental health to be dogpiled by potentially thousands of people on Twitter,” they tell me.
My source, who does not consider themselves a conservative – closet or otherwise – says that “people have confused journalism for activism.”
The most notorious recent instance they discussed was the suicide of developer Alec Holowka last year, following accusations of sexual abuse by feminist campaigner Zoe Quinn.
Maybe we need more right-wing political representation in game journalism before we scream we need more politics in games. But nah, let's focus on those journo unions because they treat the elitists poorly.