Good evening, readers. Let’s get to work talking trash about outlets like BuzzFeed. As you know, I don’t portray TheRalphRetort.com as some journalistic wonder. In fact, I’m not a journalist at all, and the site is chock-full of opinion and snark. But when you think of BuzzFeed, you think of utter garbage. I think I can safely say that I put a lot more energy into editorial diligence than any of the clowns who help run that place. I might post some controversial posts here and there, but I try extremely hard to always couch what I post with what I know. If it’s a rumor, I tell you it’s a rumor. Everything I put up is tinged with my opinion, as I said, but I think I make that pretty clear as well.
Plus, the people who compare me to mega-corps like BuzzFeed need to think about their logic. I’m just one man running a personal opinion blog, at the end of the day. You know what would probably put me out of commission, though? An $11 million lawsuit, that’s what…
On Monday, journalist Michael Leidig and Central European News filed a defamation lawsuit demanding more than $11 million in damages over an Aug. 24, 2015 BuzzFeed article headlined, “The King of Bullsh*t News,” and subtitled, “How a small British news agency and its founder fill your Facebook feed with stories that are wonderful, wacky — and often wrong.”…
“As a direct result of defendant’s publication, plaintiff CEN lost a potential high- six-figure investment that had been in the works for many months,” states the complaint…
And then there’s what allegedly happened to Leidig’s father. According to the complaint, the journalist traveled to England to see him shortly after the BuzzFeed article was published and the event was dominated by discussion about the article and possible consequences for him, including the possible closure of CEN. “The day after Mr. Leidig and his father had spent the evening discussing these matters, his father had a massive stroke that left him unable to communicate with others, a condition not expected to change for the rest of his life,” adds the complaint. “Thus the last memories Mr. Leidig’s father had of him were of disgrace and possible ruin as ‘The King of Bullshit News.’”
Of course, if you were paying attention to the controversy last fall, you would know very well what “both sides” represent: GamerGate, as many reporters have extensively documented, acts like a goon squad that gussied up its retrograde agenda in language about journalistic malpractice. The largely anonymous partisans of the largely anonymous movement were responsible for persuading brands to cancel ad campaigns with several major outlets, including Gamasutra and Gawker; the doxxing of several prominent women in the games industry; and scores of death and rape threats against the game critic Anita Sarkeesian and others. “Anti-GamerGaters” united a group of game journalists, mainstream journalists, and internet social progressives against a movement they characterized as a thinly veiled campaign to keep game culture an immature boys’ club.
