I had a ridiculously long commute home today (thanks, multiple accidents on 520 in Seattle!!), so I decided to reorganize, edit, and expand on my post.
[Fantastic summary here]
I feel like people are insisting there is a scenario where publishers are directly paying for coverage. The evidence of this appears to be that there are full-page ads for games, so clearly publishers are controlling the content.
...
Honestly, if Gamergate wanted to stand for ethics, they would pursue publishers' many, many problems. But it's not about that, because it's about journalism. But then it's not about that, either, because it's about women.
Wanted to pull these posts out specifically. Thanks dLMN8R for an excellent summary that let me get up to speed and thanks Alberto for putting into words a lot of what I've felt over the years regarding many of the hysterics about game journalism "ethics." It's always nice to read a rational perspective.