This year, the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada decided to recognize bloggers by giving some well known blogs access to the show much like they’ve given access to the press for years. This was a great step forward for bloggers. Now let’s take a step back. No really… Let’s let Gizmodo do it for us.
What happened?
Gizmodo staff, treated like responsible reporters by CES, decided to “give bloggers a black eye” as John Chow put it, by playing a childish prank with a nifty little tool called TV-B-Gone. Gizmodo proudly provided details, received a boat load of backlash, and then tried to downplay it with a story about a dumb teen who derailed trains with an IR device. Personally, it makes me sad to see a large, known blog cop out like this.
Why did they do it?
Let’s be fair. You don’t have to be a twelve year old to think a prank with someone’s TV is funny. I still plan on buying one of these to mess with friends. According to Gizmodo, the initial intent was just to mess with a couple people. Too bad they have no self-restraint.
Way too far
There’s two problems with this prank. First and foremost, it affected much more than just a couple buddies. Instead, their fun and games affected convention-goers looking for the latest demonstrations of products and the companies trying to give those demonstrations. Not only did their prank inconvenience many people, it also may have cost companies sales and credibility. The second problem with their prank is much more devastating, in my opinion. Gizmodo was supposed to be at CES in a professional capacity, and whether they like it or not, their actions reflect on the blogging community as a whole. It’s hard enough for a blogger to get event organizers to recognize us as legitimate media outlets. Now, Gizmodo has made us all look like a bunch of kids joy-riding on the internet.
What Gizmodo should have done
As I mentioned above, Gizmodo bragged about the event, offered an incredibly weak apology, and then tried to brush it off as nothing when they were called out around the blogosphere. Apologies are great, but they don’t excuse actions, and theirs didn’t seem very genuine, anyway. I would have liked to see an open letter to CES, Motorola, any other companies affected, CES visitors affected, and the bloggers of the world. That open letter would have included an admission that they did something they really shouldn’t have and that it was very thoughtless of them, an apology for having been so incredibly thoughtless, and a plea to CES and any other event organizers to note that the actions of Gizmodo should, in no way, reflect other bloggers in the world who seek to be seen as responsible media outlets. Of course, if there was a surplus of intelligent thought at Gizmodo, perhaps there wouldn’t have been anything to apologize for in the first place.
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