Thâ–³t Pooka · @TheQuQu
9th Oct 2015 from TwitLonger
An apology to my fans and viewers for potential COIs. #GamerGate
This week, some potential conflicts of interest that I was involved in were brought to my attention. An act of whistleblowing was performed that revealed that I was involved in a DM group and Skype call that may create the appearance of impropriety.
Both conflicts of interest involve a DM group on August 6th and a Skype call on August 9th 2015. Within the call, I (along with Allum Bokhari, Ashe Schow, John Smith, Mark Ceb, Paolo Munoz, LeoPirate, and Sargon of Akkad) were involved in the planning and script writing process for the SPJ Airplay event held on August 15th 2015.
The first conflict of interest is as follows: Following this call, I was involved in multiple acts of journalism and punditry which reported on this event without disclosing my involvement. This can be perceived as a conflict of interest, as my involvement in the planning and script writing process is likely to bias my coverage and discussion of the event in a manner that my viewers should be informed about. The coverage I provided that contains potential conflicts of interest is:
Pundit news reports on my channel:
RECAP: #GamerGate summary, 1st half of August
RECAP: #GamerGate summary, 2nd half of August
Commentary, punditry, and interviews on other channels:
Commentary the day of Airplay in the Dountain Dew and Moritos stream.
"#GamerGate Insanity: Pre-SPJ Airplay w/ Game Diviner" on Lord Nurgle's channel.
"GamerGate Insanity: Aftermath of SPJ Airplay Bombs Over Miami" on Lord Nurgle's channel.
"GJN Interview with Qu Qu" on GJN - Game Journalism Network
If any viewer discovers that I provided other coverage not reported here, please indicate it to me so I can take remedial action.
For the videos on my channel, I will attempt to add an annotation indicating my potential conflict of interest that displays during the SPJ Airplay title card. I will also add an explanation of my potential conflict of interest to the description.
For videos on other channels, I will reach out to the channel operators and request that they add a note to the description indicating my potential conflict of interest. This should provide disclosure of my involvement of the planning and script writing for SPJ Airplay that I was involved with.
If you are a fan and viewer and you think this is insufficient, I am open to having a discussion with you. You can reach out to me in public on Twitter or in #burgersandfries on Rizon, and my DMs are open if you prefer private correspondence.
The second potential conflict of interest that I was involved in was as follows:
As a result of the script writing process that I was involved with, all references to bad behavior and impropriety on the part of YouTube content producers was removed from the script. As I am a YouTube content producer, this could be perceived as a modification made with my own rational self-interest in mind. This was an error on my part, for which I wish to apologize here to all viewers of the SPJ Airplay event. I am at a loss as to what further actions I can take to make up to all of those affected by my behavior. Forgive my coarse language, but all I can say is...I fucked up, I'm sorry, and I promise to do better in the future.
If you believe I was involved in more conflicts of interest than these two, please contact me about them so I can take appropriate action. Again, you can reach out to me in public on Twitter or in #burgersandfries on Rizon, and my DMs are open if you prefer private correspondence.