Pandabearparade said:
I wrote up a whole point-by-point post but I think this part really gets to the heart of the matter.
The Amazing Atheist and Thunderf00t have both had worse trolling done to them. No news stories or violins playing on their behalf.
Because this is a gaming site, and those people are not really related to gaming. Like it or not this story being known is in the best interest of the public. It's newsworthy for gaming sites, whereas atheist YouTubers and their antics and harassment isn't, they may have mindless followers and attackers just as here, however that doesn't make it relevant to games.
If either of those people were connected to gaming in any meaningful way then I would agree there seems to be a double standard. Not that this shouldn't be news but that those others things should be. However your examples are from outside gaming, and that is where the "bad stuff happens so who cares" vibe is coming from. I don't see the political battle over asylum seekers coming to Australia reported in gaming news, and I don't expect to.
Why is this newsworthy? Because crap like this needs to be brought into the light and shown not to be ok. Far too many people accept this as being normal. Why are your examples not news? For the same reason my local paper isn't reporting on this, it isn't relevant to the scope of the newsroom.
[sub](apologies if this comes across as me speaking for any member of staff or any of my local paper contributors. This is my judgement of how they
do operate, not any attempt to put words in their mouth or say that they
should have a particular focus)[/sub]