My personal thoughts
At first it came off a bit whiney, but I watched the entire thing and I’m glad I did. It shows a pattern of carelessness and in some cases complete douchebaggery of LMG.
What they did to Billet Labs is absolutely un-fucking excusable. LMG and Linus, in particular, needs to be mercilessly shamed for that until Billet Labs gets a clear and unequivocal apology and paid restitution for damages. Fucking shameful. What a bunch of pricks.
Video Description
This video is not monetized. This video covers our serious concerns regarding the data accuracy of Linus Media Group, including Linus Tech Tips, ShortCircuit, and TechQuickie, particularly as it relates to rushing content out the door to favor – by staff’s own admission – quantity over quality. As the company continues to expand into its LTT Labs direction, the importance of accurate data increases; however, even as ‘only’ entertainment, there are still certain responsibilities to the consumer and the manufacturers to report fairly (and to have defined corrections processes in place). We tried to approach this as objectively as possible and hope that viewers are able to listen to the evidence we present, particularly as it relates to significant and frequent data errors that now present in nearly every technical review video.
Because Linus put sell in quotation marks, implying GN misdirected viewers on this point when in fact no such thing happened. GN literally said the item was “put up for auction at [LMG’s] Extra Life auction event”. Extra Life is a very well-known charity and the fact that you weren’t aware of that is definitely not evidence of a lack of “proper journalistic practices” as claimed by Linus.
I dunno, I’d expect journalists to provide that information instead of assuming you’re familiar with a charity which has a name that sounds like any ol gaming event. I don’t think it was done out of malice but I do think it’s your job as a journalist to recognize how that will sound to people unfamiliar with the charity and to inform them in turn. Leaving that ambiguity makes GN’s argument’s sound stronger to those uninformed and I think most writers are familiar with that effect. You aren’t saying anything untrue or even really lying by omission, but you are making use of people’s ignorance.
My point isn’t that that was some major deception or a massive problem, just that if I was on the other end of that I would want it to be very clear what that auction was being run for, as it can impact if people think you’re being malicious or if you’re just incompetent. God knows LTT makes bigger mistakes regularly nowadays.
(and yes, I do think Linus pinpointed the issue about the block because it’s the easiest to address without changing anything or addressing any real problems)
It’s a perfectly valid assumption to make, considering Extra Life is the most well-known gaming related fundraising event (not a charity, that was a mistake on my part) and GN is a channel dedicated to PC gaming. Ultimately not every piece of content on the internet is going be be perfectly understandable for you. That is not necessarily an indication of a problem with the content itself.
But that is what Linus himself suggested. The very first point he makes is that this video is a case of poor “journalistic practices” and that it was not made in good faith. The crux of this argument is that GN misled viewers over the sale of the item, which is a complete fabrication on Linus’s part.