Everyone at E3 MS Press gets a free 360

[HappehLemons]

http://tnerd.com/2010/06/14/everyone-at-e3-gets-a-free-new-xbox-360-how-cool-is-that/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+TechnologyNerd+(Technology+Nerd )

What? That's crazy!!
To top it off it's the new redesigned 360.


http://img809.imageshack.us/img809/5403/xbox360.png

[Sothy]

oh really hadnt heard that in the thread above this one that is all about MS at E3

[Enigmus]

I'd be honored to be the first one in this thread to say "facepalm."

[The 1 2 P]

I wonder if Skaar got one.

[Smoke]

Only reason for this was so the journalists would give Microsoft top marks after a shocking conference.

[skaar]

Mother FUCKER. I'm flying in Tuesday so I missed it.

[kupomogli]

I wonder if Skaar got one.


Mother FUCKER. I'm flying in Tuesday so I missed it.

I guess not.

[shopkins]

I just wonder what kind of ethics code game journalists operate under that allows them to take a $300 bribe. I worked as a reporter for years and I've been chewed out by my bosses for taking a sandwich, and I only did that to shut up the person who was offering it to me without making a scene. One time a lady baked a cake, a cake, just for me. I had to turn it down, it was pitiful.

[The 1 2 P]

I just wonder what kind of ethics code game journalists operate under that allows them to take a $300 bribe. I worked as a reporter for years and I've been chewed out by my bosses for taking a sandwich, and I only did that to shut up the person who was offering it to me without making a scene. One time a lady baked a cake, a cake, just for me. I had to turn it down, it was pitiful.

Gamepro is giving their 360 slim away in a twitter contest this friday. Apparently they still have an ethics code there.

[Richter Belmount]

/me watches topic for future oprah jokes >_>

[joshnickerson]

/me watches topic for future oprah jokes >_>

Happy to oblige...


YOU GET A 360! YOU GET A 360! EVERYBODY GETS A 360!

[skaar]

I just wonder what kind of ethics code game journalists operate under that allows them to take a $300 bribe. I worked as a reporter for years and I've been chewed out by my bosses for taking a sandwich, and I only did that to shut up the person who was offering it to me without making a scene. One time a lady baked a cake, a cake, just for me. I had to turn it down, it was pitiful.

It isn't for press, it's for all attendees of their event. Event it open to all Microsoft Devs, Press, and various other people with an affiliation with Microsoft in some form or another.

It's no bribe, it's a party favour :D

[shopkins]

It isn't for press, it's for attendees of their event. Event it open to all Microsoft Devs, Press, and various other people with an affiliation with Microsoft in some form or another.

It's no bribe, it's a party favour :D

Well, it isn't -just- for the press, but I definitely have seen media outlets like Kotaku unboxing them so they clearly gave them to the press, too. I'm not saying there's an issue with anyone who isn't trying to pretend to be objective, unbought media getting one, though. Even the journalists could avoid impropriety by cutting MS a check for $300, but I kinda doubt many of them will even bother.

[Oobgarm]

Situations like this are why Joystiq gives away all freebie and promo items.

[DonMarco]

What kind of ethics code is being broken? Last I checked, they reviewed games not consoles. Furthermore, given the nature of E3, its more likely to be considered "swag" than a bribe.

Sit for two hours then get a free 360. How is this different than getting a free T-shirt after watching a call of duty trailer and playing five minutes?

Any outfit giving the console away realizes its just another damn 360. They probably already have 50 of them lying around the offices and would get better hits/publicity giving theirs away for free than keeping it.

[Bojay1997]

What kind of ethics code is being broken? Last I checked, they reviewed games not consoles. Furthermore, given the nature of E3, its more likely to be considered "swag" than a bribe.

Sit for two hours then get a free 360. How is this different than getting a free T-shirt after watching a call of duty trailer and playing five minutes?

Any outfit giving the console away realizes its just another damn 360. They probably already have 50 of them lying around the offices and would get better hits/publicity giving theirs away for free than keeping it.

There are actually specific FTC regulations which now cover what bloggers or on-line journalists must disclose with regard to compensation they receive from companies. As long as they disclose, there is no legal problem, but from an ethics standpoint, this raises some issues. I know most major news organizations limit what their personnel can accept to items of diminimus value. Certainly, most major news outlets will not allow their personnel to accept a $300 console.

[shopkins]

What kind of ethics code is being broken?

Specifically, the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics. These are general rules that most reputable journalists follow even if they aren't SPJ members.

http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp

Act Independently
Journalists should be free of obligation to any interest other than the public's right to know.

Journalists should:

—Avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived.
— Remain free of associations and activities that may compromise integrity or damage credibility.
— Refuse gifts, favors, fees, free travel and special treatment, and shun secondary employment, political involvement, public office and service in community organizations if they compromise journalistic integrity.
— Disclose unavoidable conflicts.
— Be vigilant and courageous about holding those with power accountable.
— Deny favored treatment to advertisers and special interests and resist their pressure to influence news coverage.
— Be wary of sources offering information for favors or money; avoid bidding for news.

[DonMarco]

Clearly this can all be avoided if you don't call yourself a journalist. What ever happened to reporters? However, in this day and age, when everyone has a twitter account or facebook page, who isn't already technically a journalist? And are modern journalists even close to journalists from 5 or 25 years ago? And knowing rules like this exist out there, wouldn't it be better for new people in the industry to avoid calling yourself or being labeled a journalist?

Even if they were forced to disclose or give them away the damage has already been done. MS gave out the consoles, no take-backsies. What the attendants do with them is between them and their God.

And who really cares about a free system? We're talking about hardware, it's not reviewable. Any reporting on it would be the facts, specs and prices. It plays 360 games, uses the same controllers, has built-in wifi, looks like this... Done. No opinion or bias- just reporting. If it was a free game, it would be open to interpretation, reflection, impressions and personal interests.

[MachineGex]

And who really cares about a free system? We're talking about hardware, it's not reviewable.....If it was a free game, it would be open to interpretation, reflection, impressions and personal interests.

I hope your joking....cuz you are making zero sense. Consoles, controllers, etc. get reviewed all the time. Clearly, you are joking.

If you don't see how this could be a conflict of interest, there isn't much else to say.

What MS needs to do is give us "paying customers" a huge price break on a new system, since some of us have had to send in our systems several times just for playing it once in awhile.

[chrisbid]

eh, i dont see the problem.

on microsofts part, its telling... if they really wanted to impress, they shouldve given away kinect systems to everyone

[Therealqtip]

they deserve it, that conference blew ass

http://thiswasworsethennintendosinoheight.ytmnd.com/

[shopkins]

It doesn't matter what label you put on it. If you're trying to convince people you're providing them with unbiased, unbought news, you're trying to convince them you're a journalist.

Video game journalism is generally such low quality today that people have low expectations about its ethics and it objectivity, but the fact that we consume it with such low expectations about quality, ethics and objectivity enables the terrible quality and shoddy ethics. It's one of them there vicious cycle thingies.

[skaar]

Most of the people who work for media outlets in the gaming industry I'd hardly consider journalists. They're more like entitled fans who are spending this week getting their dicks sucked by the gaming companies to offer their valueless opinions which are suddenly given some kind of validity by writing for a website instead of a blog.

They sell themselves every day.

They'll walk away with the 360 and complain they didn't get a free dinner too.

[shopkins]

Most of the people who work for media outlets in the gaming industry I'd hardly consider journalists. They're more like entitled fans who are spending this week getting their dicks sucked by the gaming companies to offer their valueless opinions which are suddenly given some kind of validity by writing for a website instead of a blog.

They sell themselves every day.

They'll walk away with the 360 and complain they didn't get a free dinner too.

I agree that in a lot of cases that's true, but why do so many of us who know that continue to tolerate it and keep consuming mainstream gaming media? If you found out that the reporters at the New York Times took $300 bribes from BP, you'd stop reading the New York Times, and you certainly wouldn't trust them if the subsequently came out with an article that said BP wasn't at fault and has the oil spill under control.

I know games aren't as serious as a lot of other news topics, but there's nothing useful about video game news coverage and reviews if they're essentially just ads for whichever company pushed the most graft the outlet's way. It would be better to follow the outlets that do have ethics policies and independent reporting and shun the ones that are clearly just whoring themselves out.

[skaar]

The average gamer could care less. They just want to hear things they like about things they like. Kinda like the rest of the "news" - it's not so much about telling people what's going on, it's telling people what they want to hear.

ZOMG NEW ZELDA PIXXX!!!!

[Hep038]

I just wonder what kind of ethics code game journalists operate under that allows them to take a $300 bribe. I worked as a reporter for years and I've been chewed out by my bosses for taking a sandwich, and I only did that to shut up the person who was offering it to me without making a scene. One time a lady baked a cake, a cake, just for me. I had to turn it down, it was pitiful.


So you did take the sandwich?? I will no longer concider your posts about sandwiches unbiased.

[Oobgarm]

And how do we know you're not trying to save face with the cake story?

From now on, you + cake = lie

[portnoyd]

Dude, no one turns down free cake. No one.

[Icarus Moonsight]

Ethics in journalism, as in recently? Lalz hath been brought, I see. Besides, this isn't actually journalism... They are reporting on products, not events. If a war correspondent can eat a shell covering a war, let the guys have their freebies. If that reduces your view of their output, that's your cross JC.

[shopkins]

So you did take the sandwich?? I will no longer concider your posts about sandwiches unbiased.

You shouldn't. That's my point. I could be completely in the pocket of the sandwich lobby. :)

And yeah, I was so committed to my ethics I actually summoned the will to turn down delicious cake. It was heartbreaking for both the lady that baked the cake and me. It looked fantastic.

I think people who report on and review products are even more susceptible to being bought than people who report the news. If a reporter lets bribes influence him to lie in a news story, other people know the facts and he'll get caught. But games reporting is subjective and if freebies and special treatment and the hope that one day they might get a job with the game company influences reviewers to give a higher score or give a company more prominent placement, how will we know? We just end up buying the game they gave such glowing coverage to and realizing that, hey, it sucks.

Anyway, here's a post about that gives a pretty good impression about the current state of video game journalism.

http://kotaku.com/5564774/thanks-for-the-jell+o-shots-toy-story-3

It's one of Kotaku's correspondents bragging about how much free Yoo-hoo, candy and Jell-O shots he scarfed at a Toy Story 3 event. There's a line in there about how getting him sugared up and drunk put him in the "perfect frame of mind" to watch the movie so he could, as far as I can tell, review it, and from the marketing team's point of view I bet it did.

They even got this bonus post out of it. After leaving journalism I went over to the dark side and became a marketing person, although I tell myself I'm not completely evil because I work for a nonprofit that helps the poor find jobs. But as a marketing person I can tell you that any time you get your product mentioned and it's not in conjunction with phrases like "causes cancer" or "class-action lawsuit," it's a win. And all they had to put out for the placement was some candy and Jell-O shots.

[TonyTheTiger]

I guess the problem is that gaming journalism was never real journalism to begin with. At least not in the sense that most people involved actually started with internships at CNN or something and then moved on to EGM or Gamespot. There's probably not a whole lot of game journalists who've done any kind of journalism outside of the industry. Because of that the bar is just lower. Especially since most professional game reviews are really just higher budget versions of what you can find on GameFAQs.

Sure, maybe getting free swag from Capcom influenced some guy at Gamespot to score Street Fighter IV a few points higher on the grounds that in the back of his mind "Capcom rules." But the swag might have nothing to do with it. Maybe he thinks "Capcom rules" because he's an MvC2 fanboy so now every Capcom fighting game is the shit. But since this is all equivalent to some random guy's opinion anyway it's not taken as seriously. Essentially, it's supposed to be biased. Or at least people don't care as much if it is biased. In essence, gaming journalism is like a glorified blog. They try a little bit harder today to come across as "serious" but open up a Nintendo Power from the early 90s to see mullets and phrases like "Way cool!"

[Icarus Moonsight]

What a reviewer puts down can be very subjective, but it's relation to the reality of a product/service is absolutely objective. Biases or mere differences of judgment can be uncovered and routed out by comparing your experience with theirs. It's not so much that they are absolutely wrong, although that might be the case. It's that you and their value judgments are not compatible, or your experiences were different enough to some degree for any number of reasons (like when/if a restaurant serves a known food critic much better than their average walk-in diner).

They have rating boards for lots of other things... Third party evaluation of journalists work might prove handy. If people were to actually care enough anyway...

[Bojay1997]

I guess the problem is that gaming journalism was never real journalism to begin with. At least not in the sense that most people involved actually started with internships at CNN or something and then moved on to EGM or Gamespot. There's probably not a whole lot of game journalists who've done any kind of journalism outside of the industry. Because of that the bar is just lower. Especially since most professional game reviews are really just higher budget versions of what you can find on GameFAQs.

Sure, maybe getting free swag from Capcom influenced some guy at Gamespot to score Street Fighter IV a few points higher on the grounds that in the back of his mind "Capcom rules." But the swag might have nothing to do with it. Maybe he thinks "Capcom rules" because he's an MvC2 fanboy so now every Capcom fighting game is the shit. But since this is all equivalent to some random guy's opinion anyway it's not taken as seriously. Essentially, it's supposed to be biased. Or at least people don't care as much if it is biased. In essence, gaming journalism is like a glorified blog. They try a little bit harder today to come across as "serious" but open up a Nintendo Power from the early 90s to see mullets and phrases like "Way cool!"

I don't agree with this at all. While there are certainly some "magazines" and websites that utilize the services of game enthusiasts or fan boys to do reviews, magazines like Edge and in the old days EGM actually hired journalism graduates and at least attempted to uphold some ethical principles in their content. Yes, the subject matter probably means that there is less scrutiny of ethical lapses throughout the industry, but I personally expect reviewers to be just as unbiased as the people doing reviews in any other medium and when I find that not to be the case (i.e. Nintendo Power, most of the official publisher magazines, etc...), I disregard those media outlets as a valid form of critical journalism. That doesn't mean I can't look at the pretty pictures and some of the features in those magazines, but I just don't include them in my process for evaluating which games to buy.

[TonyTheTiger]

In the grand scheme of things there are very few full time employees in the world of gaming journalism. There has to be more interest in the profession for there to be high standards. And that's just it. People don't care. At least not about something as trivial as video games. How often do we see "X magazine exclusive"? Those are total payoffs. Same when you load up IGN and see giant ads for the next huge release.

The Jeff Gerstmann fiasco is probably the most obvious example of impropriety in gaming journalism and all that really did was tell everybody what they already knew. Certain games are "supposed" to get good reviews. It happens all over. Famitsu regularly gets called out for giving high marks to games readers want to see scored high. It's the elephant in the room.

I think the issue is that people tend to approach gaming less like objective criticism and more like sporting events. I can't really blame them since gaming's roots are in the competitive player vs. player activities but what you see is less about "Tell me if Final Fantasy XIII is actually good" and more "I hope Final Fantasy XIII gets great reviews because I'm rooting for it." And if the reviewer doesn't oblige well then either the publisher gets fed up and doesn't give the mag/site the next exclusive or the readers get fed up and look elsewhere because the reviewer "is clearly a moron who dissed my favorite game."

[Gentlegamer]

Gamepro is giving their 360 slim away in a twitter contest this friday. Apparently they still have an ethics code there.John Davison is an upstanding dude.

[Emuaust]

Skaar, you suck, also Cake, I like free cake, did someone mention free cake?

[Fiesta Rocket]

I wonder if Skaar got one.
I wonder if Skaar got one.
I wonder if Skaar got one.
I wonder if Skaar got one.
I wonder if Skaar got one.I wonder if Skaar got one.

Quoted to highlight Skaar's disappointment

[Icarus Moonsight]

Skaar, you suck, also Cake, I like free cake, did someone mention free cake?

Canned and precooked reply: LIES!

You can have the rest of my sandwich though. All it will cost is your objectiveness and reputation.

[rbudrick]

Damn, I guess this mean that game journalists shouldn't get to have all the free booze, hookers, and blow they get at the big after parties of E3 and they are DEFINITELY not allowed to watch the big-name bands at said parties.

Hell, they shouldn't even take the free first-class tickets provided to come visit companies to review their products. Oh, and they should definitely BUY all the games to be reviewed, never accept demo copies, unless they give them back EVERY TIME.

Get over so-called "ethics." They barely ever existed in the game journalism field and they will continue to barely exist. Fact, and you'll never change it.

-Rob

[migo]

How is it different from getting free products for review? They're going to get one anyway, and Destructoid posted a video of Allan Wake getting horribly scratched, so MS evidently didn't have any strings attached.

[TonyTheTiger]

They still didn't fix the disc scratching problem? WTF.

[rbudrick]

They still didn't fix the disc scratching problem? WTF.

Wait, you don't mean on the new models, do you? Sorry if I missed something in the thread. I wasn't sure what you meant.

-Rob

[TonyTheTiger]

I don't know. Migo made it sound like the new models still scratch the discs. Sure, moving a console while the disc is in the drive isn't the brightest idea but not many consoles actually grind the disc up if you do. That should have been fixed.

[nhm]

John Davison is an upstanding dude.

What gives Microsoft more publicity? A video game writer taking the console home as swag, or a media outlet taking the console and PUBLICIZING that they are going to give it away? By giving it away, they are creating FAR more pub for Microsoft. They make Microsoft AND the holier-than-thous happy.

You've just been hoodwinked ;).

[nhm]

I'll just add my 2 cents here in regards to journalism. I will start this off by admitting that I have a batchelors degree in journalism.

There are two types of journalism: soft journalism and hard journalism. Hard journalism is the news, political happenings, etc. Soft journalism is arts and entertainment, opinion, etc. Video game "journalism" is at best soft, and most likely less than that. I wouldn't call video game reviewers journalists, I would call them writers. Most of them wouldn't be able to tell you what an inverted pyramid is, or what proper interviewing techniques are.

The give away of these Xbox's are NOT bribes. Is Microsoft requiring everybody to write a positive review of it? Everyone that recieved one can go home and write a review that says it's a piece of shit. It's only a bribe if you agree to give them something in return.

Furthermore, if entertainment companies didn't send out free games and consoles, none of them would get reviewed. How much money do you think a journalist earns? Very, very little. They can't afford (nor can their publishers) to go out and buy everything that comes onto the market.

[shopkins]

They still didn't fix the disc scratching problem? WTF.

Anandtech did some tests on the new one and claim that it does still scratch discs if you move it while the disc is spinning.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3774/welcome-to-valhalla-inside-the-new-250gb-xbox-360-slim/3

From the article:

While spinning a disc the old Jasper was absurdly loud it is more bearable on the new 360. It’s still not silent (nor can it be while quickly spinning a disc) and you’ll still scratch discs if you move the Xbox 360 while a disc is spinning, but it’s an improvement.

[PapaStu]

Anandtech did some tests on the new one and claim that it does still scratch discs if you move it while the disc is spinning.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3774/welcome-to-valhalla-inside-the-new-250gb-xbox-360-slim/3

From the article:

While spinning a disc the old Jasper was absurdly loud it is more bearable on the new 360. It’s still not silent (nor can it be while quickly spinning a disc) and you’ll still scratch discs if you move the Xbox 360 while a disc is spinning, but it’s an improvement.

Why are you surprised? The disc isn't held down by a spindle, its on a tray. That means that its not locked into place like on a portable CD player and thus when moved while on, it could (and most likely will) scratch discs. Even if this new one is fed into the machine like the PS3, its still not locked into place in that manner.

[Bojay1997]

I'll just add my 2 cents here in regards to journalism. I will start this off by admitting that I have a batchelors degree in journalism.

There are two types of journalism: soft journalism and hard journalism. Hard journalism is the news, political happenings, etc. Soft journalism is arts and entertainment, opinion, etc. Video game "journalism" is at best soft, and most likely less than that. I wouldn't call video game reviewers journalists, I would call them writers. Most of them wouldn't be able to tell you what an inverted pyramid is, or what proper interviewing techniques are.

The give away of these Xbox's are NOT bribes. Is Microsoft requiring everybody to write a positive review of it? Everyone that recieved one can go home and write a review that says it's a piece of shit. It's only a bribe if you agree to give them something in return.

Furthermore, if entertainment companies didn't send out free games and consoles, none of them would get reviewed. How much money do you think a journalist earns? Very, very little. They can't afford (nor can their publishers) to go out and buy everything that comes onto the market.


Spoken like someone who has clearly never actually worked as a journalist or in a media organization.

[nhm]

Spoken like someone who has clearly never actually worked as a journalist or in a media organization.

Well then, please enlighten me.:popcorn:

[shopkins]

Why are you surprised? The disc isn't held down by a spindle, its on a tray. That means that its not locked into place like on a portable CD player and thus when moved while on, it could (and most likely will) scratch discs. Even if this new one is fed into the machine like the PS3, its still not locked into place in that manner.

I don't think I said I was surprised, it seems obvious to me if you move a console while the disc is spinning it'll probably scratch. I was just providing some info to answer a question.

As for nhm, yeah, that's not really the way it works. It's not like you throw all of your ethical standards away when you start writing for the lifestyles section. In fact, the lifestyles editors I worked with probably had to be more vigilant because there were lots of people looking to do them favors or bribe them for special treatment or to get them to make exceptions for their wedding photos and such things. Working in harder news I generally got threats a lot more than bribe offers. It's really more like there's hard and soft news, but the journalism behind them should stay the same.

The thing about a gift like this is, it doesn't have to come with an overt condition of positive coverage. It's still a gift that could make the outlet think more favorably of the company and thus it should be avoided.

Also, I think a lot of videogame journalists probably have BAs just like you, or at least English degrees. Besides, you really don't need a degree to figure out the fundamentals of journalism, some of the best reporters I know have no degrees in it. It's mostly a learn on the job kind of thing.

And, yeah, I don't think there's anything wrong with companies sending early hardware and games to magazines and bloggers so they can review it, but it wasn't one per outlet here and they weren't providing them expressly for review purposes, it was just playing Oprah to everyone there.

Look, I know that I'm on the losing end of this argument and that most people don't see what the big deal is. But I just think that video game journalism could be much better than the sewer that it's become and gamers would be better off for it.

[crazyjackcsa]

Well then, please enlighten me.:popcorn:
It's easy. Don't take things from a company that's offering them.

I work in a small town as a reporter at a radio station. It's come up on occasion at things I've covered.

As was pointed out, sometimes it's hard to turn things down. I've developled a little guideline to avoid the issue.

To me, If I'm covering a community event, like a charity group celebrating an anniversary or fundraising goal, I wouldn't have said no. You can only hurt peoples' feelings at that point. If the head of the local food bank baked me a cake, I wouldn't turn it down.

If it's a political or corporate story, avoid everything at all costs.

Maybe I'm rationalizing, but that's the way I view it.

[Icarus Moonsight]

As I understand, if I understood you accurately;

Journalism, as a concept, is the reporting of factual data and events. What you described as 'soft journalism' can only be defined and reduced down to partly the same as 'hard journalism' and also anything else given in a similar format. In Genus-Differentia terms; "journalism" the genus and "soft" the differentia. WTF is 'hard' or 'soft' in terms of journalism anyway? This only allows any non-journalism to go on and about as equally valid as actual journalism. Which is wholly destructive and derivative to the proper concept.


If it's a political or corporate story, avoid everything at all costs.

You know, once put to me in this way, I agree. And Microsoft too? Eww, gross! LOL

[shopkins]

As I understand, if I understood you accurately;

Journalism, as a concept, is the reporting of factual data and events. What you described as 'soft journalism' can only be defined and reduced down to partly the same as 'hard journalism' and also anything else given in a similar format. In Genus-Differentia terms; "journalism" the genus and "soft" the differentia. WTF is 'hard' or 'soft' in terms of journalism anyway? This only allows any non-journalism to go on and about as equally valid as actual journalism. Which is wholly destructive and derivative to the proper concept.

It doesn't make sense because he's got it wrong. Hard and soft apply to types of news, not types of journalism. To make it more clear, hard news is news that serves an informative and time-sensitive purpose first and foremost, serious events happening recently that may seriously affect you. Soft news is news that's primarily meant to enlighten and entertain. Hard news would be something like "Kim Jong Il To Fire Death Ray at Vancouver." Soft news is more like "John Malkovich's Favorite Types of Bunnies."

[crazyjackcsa]

As I understand, if I understood you accurately;

Journalism, as a concept, is the reporting of factual data and events. What you described as 'soft journalism' can only be defined and reduced down to partly the same as 'hard journalism' and also anything else given in a similar format. In Genus-Differentia terms; "journalism" the genus and "soft" the differentia. WTF is 'hard' or 'soft' in terms of journalism anyway? This only allows any non-journalism to go on and about as equally valid as actual journalism. Which is wholly destructive and derivative to the proper concept.

I see what you're saying and understand it and respect it. At the same time, the more human interest stories are "softer" than uncovering a scandal in city hall.

Both have their place in a newspaper or newscast. If I was seen having lunch with the mayor It would call my integrity into question.
If It was learned I had a lemonade while I interviewed a family who was organizing a bake sale for a church, it wouldn't

[nhm]

It doesn't make sense because he's got it wrong. Hard and soft apply to types of news, not types of journalism. To make it more clear, hard news is news that serves an informative and time-sensitive purpose first and foremost, serious events happening recently that may seriously affect you. Soft news is news that's primarily meant to enlighten and entertain. Hard news would be something like "Kim Jong Il To Fire Death Ray at Vancouver." Soft news is more like "John Malkovich's Favorite Types of Bunnies."

Damnit...you got me. I only said I had a degree, not that was actually a journalist! You are right....degrees mean nothing in journalism.

[TonyTheTiger]

Why are you surprised? The disc isn't held down by a spindle, its on a tray. That means that its not locked into place like on a portable CD player and thus when moved while on, it could (and most likely will) scratch discs. Even if this new one is fed into the machine like the PS3, its still not locked into place in that manner.

The PS2 used a tray, as did a number of older CD systems. Do any of them grind the disc if moved? For all the problems the PS2 had that wasn't one I heard about very often.

[carlcarlson]

"John Malkovich's Favorite Types of Bunnies."

Well?

Come on man, don't leave us hanging!

[shopkins]

Well?

Come on man, don't leave us hanging!

I don't want to spoil the whole thing, but the American Fuzzy Lop and the Blanc de Hotot are in his top five. His love of bunnies was the reason he took that role in "Of Mice and Men."

[rbudrick]

Spoken like someone who has clearly never actually worked as a journalist or in a media organization.

I know, seriously! He's obviously being bribed to say that.. ;)

NHM ftw, to be serious.

-Rob