Social Justice Warriors unequivocally excoriated Kotaku, their writer Laura Kate Dale, and John “TotalBiscuit” Bain, recently. Why? Laura Kate Dale interviewed TotalBiscuit about how he deals with harassment and the tools people can use to help moderate some of the noise. Social Justice Warriors were beyond incensed, and attacked Dale and TotalBiscuit. In the ensuing aftermath, Kotaku UK’s managing editor, Rich Stanton, apologized to Social Justice Warriors following their attack on his writer, Laura Kate Dale.
The apology was posted up on August 17th, 2017, where Stanton wrote…
“Yesterday we published an article which has attracted a great deal of anger, and I wanted to address that as soon as possible […]
“Much of the criticism we received centred on the decision to publish an interview with someone who has been identified with the Gamergate movement on the anniversary of the hateful post that spawned it. This timing was an unfortunate coincidence. […]”
The interview in question was basically about how up-and-coming content creators can make use of certain tools in order to lessen the amount of hate, abuse and harassment they receive while attempting to publicly produce content.
SJWs took offense to the interview because TotalBiscuit at one point supported #GamerGate and its fight for better ethics in media journalism. As some of you may be aware, media journalists painted #GamerGate as a harassment campaign in order to deflect from their own wrongdoings, some of which included illegal behavior. Many of these instances of wrongdoing have since been cataloged on the site DeepFreeze.it.
Nevertheless, the media’s own boogeyman has come back to bite them, given that everyone else that had any affiliation or association with #GamerGate or the people involved, were labeled as hateful, racist, transphobic, misogynists. This narrative-concocted label extended even to well known figures such as TotalBiscuit.
Of course, when Kotaku published the interview with TotalBiscuit, this was seen by SJWs – and one of their leaders, Anita Sarkeesian – as consorting with the enemy. Sarkeesian directed her audience after TotalBiscuit and Laura Kate Dale after she saw the article appear on Kotaku UK, and this resulted in a massive wave of attacks on Dale and TotalBiscuit. The latter fired back criticisms on Sarkeesian, saying that she stands shoulder to shoulder with “bigots” and “4chan trolls”.
Kotaku’s response has been to apologize.
Stanton wrote…
“That context would be that Bain inarguably came to engage with and encourage Gamergate. He has in the past argued that it was not a harassment campaign and not a misogynist movement, an account that any of us working here at Kotaku UK would vehemently dispute from personal experience. It was a mistake not to include this context in the interview, and it was insensitive to those to whom Gamergate and its followers have caused pain […]
“We are always ready to hear criticism from our readers of what we publish here on Kotaku UK, and happy to acknowledge and apologise when we screw up.” […]
“I find it bitterly ironic that our attempts to shine a light on online harassment have led to this conflagration, and the personal targeting of the author, Laura Kate Dale. Scare tactics and threats shouldn’t be part of anyone’s job. […]”
Stanton never reproaches Sarkeesian’s targeted tweet that led to Dale and TotalBiscuit getting harassed. Instead, he side-steps it to continue the narrative about #GamerGate.
Laura Kate Dale also commented about the apology, noting that it had nothing to do with the harassment received from Social Justice Warriors on social media, writing on Twitter…
“I wish I could have [apologised] at the time it all went down. To be clear, the [apology] appearing on Kotaku UK was in no way caused by the harassment of me. This [isn’t] a victory for harassing me.”
Stanton’s lack of acknowledging the harassers, much less even making any condemnation of those acts, seems to stand contrary to claims about Kotaku’s stance on harassment. Even without proof of harasment, #GamerGate was labeled as a harassment campaign by the media, despite the fact both the FBI and a peer reviewed report from WAM! couldn’t find evidence of #GamerGate being a harassment campaign.
Nevertheless, TotalBiscuit’s response was to distance himself from Dale, writing across a number of tweets…
“Kotaku UK successfully revealed that their concern about harassment only goes as far as until their own journalists are harassed. And then they instead of standing up to them, they kneel, beg and plead for mercy and forgiveness. Behold old medias next dumpster fire. I’d have a case in the U.K. Pretty easily I reckon. I’m considering it, but I don’t think they are worth the time […]
“Those concerned about Laura i suggested we go separate ways because the circles she moves in, will hate her for even knowing me. We are having a full and frank discussion now though. I don’t want to lose a friend but it might be the only way to protect that friend. Don’t blame any of this in her. She’s a new hire and her boss overrode her. Her boss is a damn coward. People gotta make a living.”
Essentially, the friendship of TotalBiscuit and Laura Kate Dale must end to appease Social Justice Warriors. Kotaku UK forfeited any attempts to condemn harassment instigated by Anita Sarkeesian and carried out by angry mobs on the SJW side. Worse yet, Kotaku UK’s head honcho, Rich Stanton, apologized on behalf of a writer who was harassed by SJWs, which further enables their disturbed behavior.
