Fired Kane & Lynch guy fights back, says video game writing isn't corrupt

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More Kane & Lynch fallout, ladies and germs ($1 to John Biggs). As you may already know, a GameSpot editor was recently fired in the wake of his review of the game. Was he fired because the review, especially the video review, was harsh on the game (Eidos is a major advertiser on GameSpot) or for some other, unknown reason? No one knows yet, which, in accordance with the Rules of the Internet, allows us to speculate ad infinitum.

New today, the editor in question, Jeff Gerstmann, says that he was “shocked” to lose his job so abruptly, especially after 11 years working there. In speaking to Joystiq, he also tried to defend video game journalism (that is, journalism about video games) saying, “to mean that game writing is ethically bankrupt, I don’t feel that’s the case.”

Call me a cynic (because I am one), but I rarely ever looked at video game writing as something 100 percent “real,” you know? Like, there’s a talent to it, sure, and it’s a craft that can be honed, but things like “XBOX 360 IS HERE!!!” with eighteen exclamation points and “SUPER MARIO GROWS UP!!!!” with nineteen exclamation points hardly seemed super trustworthy to me.

Now that I think about it, that sort of credibility problem is prevalent in all media nowadays, media that seems to be more interested in entertaining or getting lots of Diggs or whatever than legitimately informing the public.

Exclusive: Gertsmann speaks about K&L review, future [Joystiq]