Save us the trouble, bring back prior restraint

There was a time when governments would censor material before it was published to make sure that they found it satisfactory to their liking, today that process is known as "prior restraint." Maybe those were easier times due to the government always being happy and journalist stuck writing PR since they were devoid of all rights. Kind of seems like the good ol' days right? Besides, freedom is overrated.

Lucky for us those times have never left due to the video game journalism world being set ablaze by the recent Gamespot incident. Most other reviewers and game sites have thus decided to unite against the notion of advertisers threatening journalism's integrity. Some people have shown their support for Jeff Gerstmann, the game reviewer fired, and others have taken it upon themselves to mock Gamespot, such as Destructiod.com's new name and site design.

The good news is that we haven't let this slide since people have begun boycotting Gamespot. And owner-company CNET might be worrying from the idea of a united movement to stop visiting Gamespot since it might cause other advertisers to pull out their campaigns. On the other hand, this boycott will probably not do much because advertisers will pay for a spot and expect good reviews and publications will once again have that internal struggle between it's sales and editorial departments on who actually has the companies better interest in mind.

While in college I took an ethics class and I remember being told that a journalist's integrity is his most valuable asset, give that up and no one will hire him. I'm sure most of you would agree with that, but most of today's publications are owned by conglomerates and sometimes they'll trade that asset if it'll make their wallets just a tad fatter.

It's sad, but true.

- R