Machinima has never set right with me in the first place. From what I've heard over the years, they don't really play nicely with the people they bring on as partners on Youtube. That is why I don't watch many Machinima content makers. The ones I do watch, I watch for comedy entertainment, not opinions and news.
For the good info I watch:
I've come to use YouTube as my main source of gaming entertainment and news. TotalBiscuit's "WTF is" series is now one of my main sources for looking at and finding out about new games. I literally have to be drug away from my computer for me to miss one of his live podcasts.
I relatively regularly watch around eight or so YouTubers other than TB, all of which work with or fall under the same umbrella as him. All are honest and straight forward. If they do a brand deal, they are right up front about it, and they will rip a game apart regardless of that fact.
What I fear is that as some companies find that there are more and more successful YouTube gaming personalities like TB, that won't take shit from them and will expose them and reveal the truth when things are bad, come into prominence, that is when it will be harder for such good YouTubers to make to keep their honest word out there.
The whole copyright wars stuff on YouTube shows this. It seams more and more the jerky/dirty gaming companies are trying to work and change the system so that the people that point things out honestly and making an honest living off if it, get forced out of the job and the spotlight.
But I feel confident that there will be a strong fight mounted against them. TB has show in the past couple years that if companies using dirty tactics want to screw with big name YouTubers, they are going to get burned.