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#GamerGate: ‘Your Check – From A Publisher – Is In The Mail’ States GJP Thread

"One of the threads in the Game Journo Pros mailing group dealt exactly with what the headline states: what happens when a check from a publisher arrives in the mail? Only, it’s a check from a class-action lawsuit… and the journalist was part of that lawsuit. Is there a need to disclose to readers that a check arrived in the mail directly from a publisher? Does it create a conflict of interest?"

Back on November 5th, 2013, one of the members of the Game Journo Pros – a current writer for Polygon, Samit Sarkar – posed the questionin a thread called ‘Your Check – From A Publisher – Is In The Mail’ about a conflict of interest, as he was unsure about the ethical line of receiving a check from EA as part of the Madden NFL lawsuit while still covering them in the news in articles like the ones covered in the past here or here , or the ones that followed here and here. Sarkar linked to a Kotaku article where writer Owen Good showcased the check from the Madden NFL EA monopoly lawsuit for $64.14, and explained the situation to the public.

Kyle Orland, the creator of the Game Journo Pros group, was the first to reply in the thread, stating the following…

“I don't see this as ethically questionable at all, really. Yeah, you're a game journalist, but in this context you're a consumer that a court determined is entitled to a little bit of money, alongside millions of others. There's really no way to interpret this as any type of quid pro quo or even any kind of special consideration coming from your position as someone who covers EA. You're receiving a court-ordered settlement because you're one of millions that bought a game, not because you're a journalist. If someone wanted to spin that as how they're bribing us now, it seems… pretty inefficient.”

“If you're being hyper-vigilant, I could see refusing it on general principle and to avoid even a hint of impropriety and financial gain directly from a publisher. If you've ever taken a water bottle at an E3 press conference, though, I'd say you're already much more "compromised" than you'd be if you took this check.”