Gizmodo Gives Bloggers a Black Eye
written by John Chow
2008 was suppose to be the year when blogging became legitimate. However, the prank Gizmodo pulled at the 2008 CES may have set blogging back a year or two in the eyes of major trade shows.
For those who don’t know, Gizmodo went around the show floor with a high power IR transmitter and proceeded to shut down a bunch of TV displays. They interrupted product demos from Motorola, Intel, my friend Fatal1ty and who know how many others. The end result: a ban for Gizmodo, a bunch of pissed off exhibitors and a black eye for blogging.
This year was the first time CES recognized bloggers as legitimate media and set up separate registrations for bloggers (they even had their own media room and workstations). Before then, Gizmodo and other big gadget blogs attended CES as press.
Many of the other press events at CES does not welcome bloggers. This is the notice found at the ShowStoppers event concerning blogs.
Anyone can post a blog. Anyone can post to a blog. That does not make you a reporter. Just like driving fast does not make you a professional driver of race cars.
Hopefully, CES won’t change their stance on bloggers after Gizmodogate.
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I think they crossed the line here as well.
I am all for pranks, but messing up with someone else’s presentation is too much. There is business in the middle here, and money.
I guess people are updating dictionaries as we speak and inserting
the expression “You just pulled a Gizmodo!”
Well, at a certain point that line of ShowStoppers does make sense. But after all they can’t just generalize, some blogs have the audience to be considered as reporters.
wow this is the first i heard about this. that’s really messed up, i agree they crossed the line. i mean, it’s one thing to launch a mini foam missile across the expo hall
and another to shut down a major corporation’s means of presentation. it may be funny to some people but it doesn’t make gizmodo look good to a lot of companies now, including conference organizers, at least for the moment.
I agree that they crossed the line but I don’t think that should reflect poorly on blogging as a whole. I mean it’s not like we judge all members of the press by the actions of the paparatzi do we?
I agree, just because they have chosen this “approach” doesn’t mean that all bloggers should be blamed. If a journalist were to have done this, would it have given journalists in general a bad name?
Alan Johnson
Wow! They shouldn’t have done that.
I think they are right bloggers are not reporters in anyway. There is a difference between reading a news and reading blog which differentiate bloggers from reporters.
A lot of what you read in the news is crap to be honest. The whole media thing puts a slight spin on what actually happened and blows it out of proportion. A lot of what you read on good legit news websites isnt really good at all to be honest. Yes, you get the message, but not the full truth all the time.
There is definitely a difference between SOME bloggers and the press but I also would argue that there are definitely bloggers out there that should be considered members of the press.
I wouln’t have done that if I were them.
.
But that was fun, I imagine what would be like if someone took one of these devices to some Microsoft (usually bugged) presentation
microsoft doesn’t need gizmodo to mess up their own presentations
Yeah, that was very childish of them. I can appreciate the humor in shutting off a wall of demo TVs, but interrupting a press event was uncalled for.
What’s the difference between bloggers and reporters?
Bloggers write interesting stories.
And make more money.
I thought the difference was that people actually read what bloggers write.
that deserved a drumroll
[...] Gizmodo Gives Bloggers a Black Eye [...]
[OFFTOPIC]
Hey John, Did anyone ever win that TTZ Media Contest?! I never could find a post.
Thanks!
Jonathan Volk
http://www.jonathanvolk.com
I am waiting for BlueFur to draw the names of the winners.
It’s a shame that such a high profile brand can lower itself to such a low standard.
I have never been a great fan of Gizmodo myself but this has certainly lessened the chance of me ever changing my opinion.
Yeah the big story here is the damage to their rep, not to blogging.
I honestly can’t understand why on Earth they would choose to act this way. How can anyone think that messing up other people’s presentations is in any way funny?
Alan Johnson
[...] Everyone complaining about how gizmodo ruined CES by having fun and turning off some monitors. [...]
I think blogging is still in its infancy. Particularly because I feel small business hasn’t really bought in especially in the UK.
Heck, some still haven’t got a web-site. And even then, the quality is still poor.
It can be a business in itself (which I suspect this one is John?). It can be a social and fun thing. It can be both a business and a hobby.
But it can also be a medium to engage with your clients and feed stuff back to them. And widen that audience beyond your immediate clients.
Even when you can only deal with a local or regional market - and I mean within a city because you are geographically restricted in what you do, it certainly has a place.
I think it will gain increasing credence as blogs become the TV channels of the future.
Reporters (especially print) are pissed because their medium is increasingly irrelevant. And television reporters are just shills for whatever sponsor is paying their salary this week.
Both print and broadcast journalists go to blogs for half of their info, anyways, because the real difference between reporters and bloggers is that bloggers break stories before the traditional media even knows a story exists.
Sorry but that notice pissed me off more than the Gizmodo prank.
I couldn’t have put it better myself - and I went to journalism school!
Perhaps it was bad what they did, but it is still funny.
I just think they could have toned it down a bit. That is, stop ruining so many people’s presentations.
All they did was turn off some monitors. It was not a big deal, no matter how I look at it. I think it was funny
Gizmodo didn’t just get a ban, they’re likely getting sued (by CES and/or motorola and others affected). Gizmodo staff is on BIG TIME kiss butt mode today sending out appologies profusely I’m sure. They don’t deserve one, that was just plain “Grade two” in my books.
I don’t even read Gizmodo (or Gawker Media blogs in general) because of the constant flow of “look at my cool speak” writing so it doesn’t surprise me that they pulled a “i’m an attention whore idiot” move. It’s going to take them pulling off a long string of inteligent things to remove that stigma now.
I hope they get sued HUGE, so that they never forget they are priveledged to be where they are (were) and not some 9 year old in a candy shop like they act all too often.
Pranks that cost people money or public embarrassment are invitations to get sued. They should have thought about that before pulling this stupid stunt.
On the media debate - things have changed during this decade.
No longer is it mega corporations alone who can hold the populations attention. No longer is it mega corporations alone who can build the best quality websites.
YOU can command more traffic than the big boys if you do it right and have something valuable to share (daily). traffic is paramount, not how big the company is, It’s traffic pure and simple, those who have it vs those who don’t. The money goes to those who do.
Gizmodo, you are idiots for doing this. But CES should take it out on these idiots, bloggers in general.
I meant to say, not bloggers in general.
Agreed. You don’t judge a group by the actions of one of its members.
LOL what sneaky little devils
Oh BTW John, you spelled fatal1ty wrong when you linked the URL, you have it as “fatail1ty”.
I’m not saying that what they did was ok but I do think that the real mistake was bragging about it on Gizmodo. It’s one thing to do it and joke about it with other Gizmodo employees it’s another thing to do it and brag about it on your website for everyone to see.
Personally, I’m fairly sure that the same thing would have happened even if they hadn’t bragged about it on their blog, it is the gesture in itself which is just plain foolish.
Alan Johnson
What the heck where they trying to do?
So does this mean that any publicity is still good publicity?
that much I doubt, at least in this scenario
I think you’re trying to inflate this entire story a bit too much. The video *was* funny, and yes - I agree with others - they over-stepped the mark.
It hasn’t effected the perception or viability of blogging at all though. Outside of a very narrow niche, this story has not been reported at all. It was a prank too - go read about some of the things Woz did back in the day - following your reasoning, the entire industry should have been set back several years as a result…
I agree. It’s not as big of a deal as it’s being made out to be. Even if Gizmodo gets sued, that’s hardly setting blogging back a few years. If anything it could legitimize blogging as a business.
Turning off the demo wall TVs was entertaining. Turning off the TV used for a presentation by a guy who probably has the success of their first quarter as well as his job riding on it has crossed the line in the sand.
While it shouldn’t make any difference to how CES sees blogging it’s certainly done nothing for it’s reputation either. Gizmodo should know better and I hope the powers that be make an example of them.
Seriously, stuff like this was funny once in 1998, to go around and disrupt one of the highest profile events is just stupid. Companies like Motorola will put a lot of resources into their presentations, to be interupted like this is infantile irresponsibility. Shame on you Gizmodo.
Maybe it was for the environment
All this green speak over the last few years made Gizmodo listen and try to conserve some energy by switching off a wall of 20+ LCD’s 
I can see this maybe being funny at Best Buy etc; but not at a major trade show like CES. They definitely crossed the line.
Totally hilarious. And blogging isn’t legitimate press and shouldn’t be treated as such.
If a blog has a greater reach than established media, it’s press.
Unless you think a newspaper with a circulation of 50,000 somehow deserves more credibility than a blog with an audience of say, 750,000.
I trust most bloggers, something I can’t say about the professional hacks that attend certain anti-blogger events.
“Your blog has a greater reach than most small city newspapers, but I’m sorry. You’re not a real reporter. Besides, we’re far too intimidated by you. Your efforts are destroying the top-down business model that we thrive on, and encouraging people to express themselves. We can never forgive you for participating in the democratization of the media. We want a dictatorship. Come back when you have the same contempt for democracy that we do.”
No need to get excited. Everything of any importance will be forgotten a month from now.
I agree, it’s just something which people talk about for a short while and after a few days, they forget about it, blogging in general will definitely not have to suffer as a result of their childish prank.
Alan Johnson
Tell that to the CES staffer next year when they turn down your press request.
I highly doubt that they will make a decision which affects all bloggers based on this incident, that would be plain foolish. Ok, they can ban bloggers now, and, if a journalist does something similar next year they can ban them as well.
It will be interesting to see who will be covering the event under such circumstances
Alan Johnson