Austin360 blogs > Digital Savant > Archives > 2008 > January > 11 > Entry
Gadget site rattles trade show with TV prank
Gizmodo.com has been one of the gadget blogs that I’ve been reading for a few years and it’s one that I’ve linked to frequently on this site. In the past, I found them to have a healthy sense of humor and skepticism about the press-release-heavy world of consumer technology.
Today, I removed them from my RSS feed reader. The primary reason was a prank the site pulled at the Consumer Electronics Show that has caused a stir in the blogging world. Titled “Confessions: “the Meanest Thing Gizmodo Did at CES,” it features a video prank. Using a gadget called TV-B-Gone, staffers from Gizmodo turned off televisions at the trade show, interrupting presentations and displays. Hilarious, right?
The video struck me as funny at first, and then annoying and lame. I know a lot of people who work electronics trade shows, and most of them will tell you it’s long hours and days of being on your feet and talking. They really don’t need a third-rate gadget blog making their jobs more difficult for a few online chuckles. Everyone likes to goof on companies that pour so much money and effort into what amount to bloated sales pitches. But embarrassing people who are on stage putting their jobs and reputations on the line veers wildly away from journalism and blogging and into cruelty.
The blog post has so far garnered 636 comments, ranging from disgust to Gizmodo supporters telling everyone else to lighten up. A lame addendum to the post said “sorry,” especially to Motorola, but it sure doesn’t make it sound like Gizmodo won’t pull something like this again, given the chance.
Bloggers who cover the electronics and video game industry have typically been treated with less regard than traditional media. It’s hard to get a press pass for a big convention without established credentials, and even then bloggers are often given different press accommodations than print or broadcast media. Gizmodo’s stunt won’t help the cause of bloggers, and I wouldn’t be surprised if editor Briam Lam and company (owned by Gawker Media) are banned from next year’s CES, or even the upcoming Macworld.
For me, it was an excuse to purge from my daily reads a site that has been sliding into sophomoric, negative and increasingly not-safe-for-work coverage for the last year. Here are a few of today’s “tech news” headlines on Gizmodo: “Gizmodo’s Very, Very NSFW Porn Convention Adventure,” “Even More Booth Babes from CES 2008” and “Hands-on With FyreTV, the Best Porn in the Living Room Solution Yet (NSFW).” By trying to be the Maxim or “Jackass” of gadget blogs, the site has blown its credibility and will no doubt lose some readers.
Who knows — maybe the prank will earn them the devotion of 12-year-olds and socially stunted tech geeks. Maybe they’ll even get a little bump in traffic.
I do know that I won’t be reading. Engadget and Techcrunch do a better job covering tech news without the immature pranks.
Permalink | Comments (3) | Post your comment Categories: Gadgets, Internet
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By Lefty
January 14, 2008 5:46 PM | Link to this
No, you're not the only one. The Gizmodo gang is not just juvenile, not just unprofessional, they're hypocrites, too...
TV-B-Gone: "a gadget [for] self-important cocks who think they're waging a subversive culture war". Given Brian Lam's latest whine about this all demonstrates what a bastion of journalistic "integrity" Gizmodo is, the irony is stunning...
By Ed Cowsar
January 13, 2008 4:17 PM | Link to this
Omar,
Trade shows are a big investment of cash, time and the lives of us product launchers and evangelists of Web 2.0 technology - We don't really think its too cool when folks blindside us, or promote those that do.
Great blog, as always - but even better.
Can you put me in touch with your brother, with the comic strip?
I'd like to discuss putting it on BrainFlick after seeing it.
Thx,
Ed
See the latest at: www.BrainFlick.com/Examples.html
By John Q Public
January 12, 2008 3:24 PM | Link to this
Am I the only one who finds it hypocritical that the Goo Goo Ga Ga Gizmodo pre-school pranksters had so much fun with the very device they ripped to shreds in an earlier review?
http://gizmodo.com/archives/tvbgone-023694.php