Online Media Morals - AMDmb Editorial

[Nautis]

Descent read IMO and something ive been waiting for someone to address for a while now. (the first part)

http://www.amdmb.com/article-display.php?ArticleID=243

What say you?

 

[Tahir2]

THG sponsored the event - paid for it etc... if they wanted exclusivity on the Athlon64 then why shouldn't they?

 

[Nautis]

Agreed Tahir, I checked into it more after I posted.

-

I still find the first part to be interesting though. You don't see many sites talk about the shady practices that go on behind the scenes.

Having been on both sides of the line myself (marketing/reviewing) I found the process to be most disgusting at times. It just seems to me there are alot of people who dont know how much of a business this is, on both sides.

 

[Solomon]

THG sponsored the event - paid for it etc... if they wanted exclusivity on the Athlon64 then why shouldn't they?

Tell that to Ryan.

 

[jvd]

Its a public event. If i was at the event i could have put up information on any website . If i had some free space on a server i could have put up everything i saw , since i was under no nda. So why shouldn't the press be able to do that. THey signed no ndas .

 

[Tahir2]

jvd of course you could have but then you would have to do it without authourisation of the event sponsors and AMD. Nothing illegal about that it is just etiquette.

I think the story is a little blown out of proportion.

And I don't wanna say anything to Ryan cos he might not like someone stating the obvious.

IMHO there really are too many amateur journalists with ego's to match their knee jerk reactions. I was in some form of agreement with Ryan initially but after weighing it up a little more I believe mistakes were made on both parties (or all three) but it certainly did not warrant a full blown "Kyle style" editorial. I wonder what would have happened if this was Chris Tom rather than Ryan Shrout (I think Chris would have commited hari kari tbh).

It's like this, "Whatever, get over it!"

 

[Dave Baumann]

You might like to look at the front page of [H] for more on this.

 

[davefb]

Looks like this little spat has got nastier :-/

thg are threatening laywers claiming what amdmd said is libellous ,, according to [h] website . . guess theres no love lost between [h] and thg either

-dave-
edit . sudhian is actually covering it. . .
http://www.sudhian.com/showdocs.cfm?aid=405

 

[Tahir2]

Bah humbug EDITED by Tahir.

What is the point? What a shitty world we live in at times...

 

[MfA]

THG sponsored the event - paid for it etc... if they wanted exclusivity on the Athlon64 then why shouldn't they?

Because AMD wanted to give a public demonstration.

On AMD's part using overt threats by your PR department (using their only weapon available in this case, access to future private demonstrations and pre-release info) to surpress the information from a public demonstration is just totally unprofessional.

On THG's part, putting AMD and other sites in this uncomfortable situation is immoral.

On AMDMB's part, he should have reported anyway or have represented his own actions in this in a different light ... if you buckle you have no right to take the moral highground.

 

[Tahir2]

Because AMD wanted to give a public demonstration.

There was a public AND private demostration from what I heard.

Hopefully everything will clear up in the coming days. At this time it is unhealthy to speculate when only one side is doing the talking and the other side is taking legal action.

 

[digitalwanderer]

Woo-hoo!

Hmmm....[H] backing someone to defend them against alleged slander charges from THG?!?

Give me some popcorn and save me a seat on the sofa! I don't really care who wins, I just want to see them both slamming each other.

(Sorry, but I really do feel that there might be some slight "sour-grapes" motivations behind [H]'s stance on this one and I'm gonna stay that way until they make the tapes public. Not that Kyle is likely to be still bitter over his firing from THG or nothing... )

 

[MfA]

There was a public AND private demostration from what I heard.

Making demands on keeping the public part embargoed to even get access to the private part is just as bad.

 

[Tahir2]

...just as bad.

As bad as what exactly?

Ryan did get entry to the event from his own account didn't he?
I am not supporting either Ryan or Omid or AMD or even ATI who were all there. Why mention ATI? Driverheaven.NET were ASKED not to post their article until THG had finished there coverage giving them a lead time.

So this DOES fit in with some of what Ryan was saying in his article? Yes. Perhaps Ryan demanded that he would post whatever he wanted whenever he wanted and neither AMD or THG could tell him otherwise.

The AMD representative (from Ryan's account) was agreement with THG yet Ryan has not damned them nearly as much if at all. Do you find it ironic that AMD pissed off one of their biggest fansites? Ryan cannot bring it to himself to admit to the fact that whilst he blames just one person from AMD for making a mistake he blames the entire THG staff for forcing this embargo.

Personally I do not agree one bit that THG is now suing AMDMB.com because from beginning to end it looks to me like a playground tiff and is so bloody petty a prize winning authour couldn't make this kind of tripe up.

People lose judgement when they get angry. The answer is simple, and the simplest things are the most difficult to make reality: spread more love and kill that ego

 

[MfA]

It is still unprofessional.

The PR value of a single public exhibition without media attention is nil ... doing it this way they might as well have saved their money, as far as the public part goes.

 

[Tahir2]

THG has posted a retraction of legal actions and claims that there was no media blackout.

 

[WaltC]

THG has posted a retraction of legal actions and claims that there was no media blackout.

I'm glad to hear that as any thought to a "libel" suit THG might have engaged in would have done little more than make their lawyers more wealthy before being dismissed... THG had no libel case whatever.

I think that what happened here is that Ryan made the trip to MML for professional reasons mainly with no inkling whatever that there was any sort of exclusivity between THG and AMD pertinent to the event. This came as a rude suprise to him since it apparently was not revealed ahead of time. I would have been upset myself under similar circumstances because, at the least, it would make you feel like an idiot... (When you aren't.)

I think the AMD exclusivity aspect was unwise, especially considering how the A64 information imparted was all common knowledge ahead of the event anyway. It's one thing to be selective in your PR approach in managing a new hardware release--quite another to do so during an event to which everyone is invited like the MML. At the very least, I think the sponsors of the event (and there seems to be quite a lot of confusion as to who sponsored what, exactly) could have done a much, much better job laying out the press coverage specifics prior to the event. That way nobody goes with preconceived notions that wind up being disabused. Basically, I think Ryan attended the event under a set of presumptions as to his role that were unfulfilled when he arrived. I'm not so sure that he misunderstood anything so much as the MML sponsors failed to adequately inform people as to press-coverage specifics they needed to know about beforehand. The sponsors of the event (whomever they are) should have handled this aspect of things much better than they did, IMO.

 

[micron]

I mailed Omid and told him just to let this shit die off, instead of fueling Kyle's fire. He sent me this strange e-mail back....

But I need this fix of flames every now and then. Like people taking mud
baths for their health. It's mud for chrissakes, but you can't help
lolling in it.

Omid Rahmat
Tom's Guides Publishing
www.tomshardware.com

I really dont know what to say.....

 

[Dave Baumann]

I think that what happened here is that Ryan made the trip to MML for professional reasons mainly with no inkling whatever that there was any sort of exclusivity between THG and AMD pertinent to the event.

But the question is - was there any exclusivity? THG says there wasn't, and other have reported it. If others have reported on it then that doesn't sounds like exclusivity.

 

[micron]

I have no direct knowledge of how any other media company at the event (including Ryan from AMDMB) was treated and therefore am unwilling to speculate on the basis of what is entirely second-hand information as far as it relates to me. What I will say, however, is that I was well-treated and encountered none of the problems Ryan did. I was never told I couldn't participate, never told I'd be denied access to vendors, and never told I couldn't publish on the MML. I was able to take pictures of Opteron and talk to the AMD staff demonstrating the system (though they couldn't tell us very much for the usual reasons) and you'll see those pictures later today.

http://www.sudhian.com/showdocs.cfm?aid=404