When I received my personalized apology email from Rorie over suspending me multiple times for bringing up the Max Temkin rape allegations, I was led to believe the Giant Bomb forums/comments sections would be safer places for discussing abuse. Today, when I look at this podcast's comments section, I see many great people using their voices to issue their concerns. Unfortunately, I also see users dismissing concerns by saying things like "Remember when this site used to be about video games?" and "Well IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII looked and IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII didn't find anything! Therefore nothing must exist! Cancel culture!" I cannot imagine a victim of a guest on Giant Bomb coming to this site and feeling safe expressing themselves when the moderation team cannot curate a decent fandom. Safety, self-expression, and justice are not just about permitting difficult discussions, but discouraging bad-faith users who want to halt those discussions.
The majority of my "discourse" time is spent reading Twitter, where I follow over 1800 accounts. It's probably too many. But I care about a lot of people and a lot of issues, so I've become the tiniest bit familiar with this topic. Here are some things I've noticed.
The people making allegations towards (or even being the mildest bit critical of) Merritt K have, like myself, small accounts with no-to-few fans. This does not invalidate their concerns, and given their varied nature from multiple sources over a period of years should actually heighten them. Big accounts, like those run by Giant Bomb staff and others in the regular games media, haven't even defended Merritt, but have opted to say nothing. That's telling.
Nearly a hundred people-I-follow also follow Merritt, but that number has dipped in the last few days. Several personalities I deeply trust have unfollowed her, which leads me to presume that this conversation is primarily taking place in DMs, not the public space. This same appearance of legitimacy (follows from verified accounts, good references, multiple salaried positions) is what propped up abusers such as Nick Robinson for years.
I do not blame anyone. Because the allegations are squirreled away in forum posts, old threads, and broken links, on top of existing in a poorly-recorded queer and trans online space, it is not shameful to be ignorant or confused. Ultimately, if there are stories they are the victims's stories to tell. That's why there isn't much chatter. All we can do is create a welcoming space.
Here are my thoughts on Giant Bomb's involvement with the matter.
The disclaimer merely in the show notes is insufficient. I've been following Giant Bomb since before Giant Bomb, but my interaction with the site's content is through QLCrew, YouTube, and Downcast, not usually the site itself. That's why I fly in with a controversial comment every once in a while but am not a power user. I certainly don't expect any overwrought apologies on future content, but I think Abby's disclaimer (which is great) should be somewhere more accessible, like the podcast description or in a tagged comment or more visibly on Twitter.
Mods: CLEAN. UP. YOUR. HOUSE. I'm not disgusted that Merritt came on the podcast. It happens! But I am disturbed by the lack of effort in the disastrous followup that is the comments section, that is the fandom, that is allowing assholes to thrive. I've already seen several people (including, uh, a Top 10 list contributor) expressing being done with Giant Bomb due to how this has been handled. I've considered it too. If you want to be better, be better. If you don't want to be better just say so and everyone cool will dip.
I liked the episode it made me laugh :)
I've been staring at this post for a couple hours now and want to move on with my day so am gonna hit post. I'm not looking for argument or even acknowledgement. Peace
Hey, that was a very nice discussion! Abby said something that resonated with me: sexism (and racism) is deeply rooted in our culture and must be fought off at all times. It's incredibly difficult to maintain this momentum, and everyone is almost inevitably bound to slip up. I know that I've failed - especially failed my first girlfriend at age 19, when I was immature and stupid. But that doesn't mean learning and growing and fighting back against a culture of abuse and harassment is impossible or hypocritical. I'm happy Giant Bomb finally addressed these issues and these people by name. I hope for the best going forward.
I listened to every HotSpot episode from the very first (in Summer of 2005, while I was at the beach, covering the San Andreas "Hot Coffee" incident) to Vinny's exit sometime in 2008. You have no idea how happy this makes me!!!
Baron Corbin gun. Shoot at a demon, hold him in a headlock, put the controller down, play with your phone or make a sandwich, come back and you've automatically beaten the level but that's okay because it wasn't interesting to watch anyway.
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