I was just passed this story that deals with a recent controversial firing of an 11 year staff member for a video game news site called Gamespot. Recently there was a highly anticipated game called Kane & Lynch that was released and the editor who was reviewing the game, Jeff Gerstmann, gave the title a less than admirable score of a 6/10.
From what I read, shortly after the person in question was fired and there were advertisements placed all over the site to advertise the game. This immediately made the majority of the public scream foul play such as concluding that the company who made the game, Eidos, was obviously paying Gamespot to help advertise its game.
As a result, people are saying that Jeff Gerstmann was allegedly fired partly due to some possible pressure from the advertiser that they would not do anymore business with them because of the review that was given. The company did issue this statement http://www.gamespot.com/news/6183666.html about it to hopefully tame it.
My personal opinion in general in regards to this is that there likely was pressure from the advertiser or that the company possibly wanted to get rid of the person for one reason or another. It just seems too odd that if you have someone working for you that long that you don’t at least give warnings if they are being unprofessional. Of course unless it was something serious such as stealing then that is a different question. What a story this will be if it was proven that money indeed played a big role in the decision making process.
I often hear the phrase on how everyone has a price. My personal train of thought is usually if there is a situation where you will be compensated financially to do something, at most money should only dictate your platform as oppose to your actions. Money can definitely help to facilitate you to do various deeds, but it shouldn’t speak for you.