I'm still trying to digest what happened here, so I'll just start with what I know. Joystiq, the popular gaming news blog, fired one its writers, Robert Summa, after a heavily hyped bit of news, which was teased as a "major next-gen console" announcement, turned out to be not so huge and enraged its readers. The blog post in question, penned by Summa, revealed nothing more than an embargoed press release from IBM that confirmed the Wii processor had been shipped to Nintendo. It obviously wasn't the big announcement that many expected -- the Wii release date. The post, found here, went up at midnight on Sept. 8 and soon readers were filling the comments forum with scorn and venomous insults. This is big news? This is what I stayed up for? many of them asked.

Hundreds of comments later, Joystiq decided to wipe the egg of its face and
terminate Summa's employment as one its most prolific bloggers. Joystiq editor
Christopher Grant quickly wrote a thoughtful href="http://www.joystiq.com/2006/09/08/an-apology-and-a-note-on-
hype/">apology to readers, which essentially put the blame on Joystiq for
succumbing to the rules of Internet hype instead of real news.

Grant states: "The worst part is, we understand that it was our hard-earned
credibility that contributed to this excitement cocktail. There are gaming
websites that trade in hype, and we've always prided ourselves on avoiding it.
If we tell you that something is "major" and "worth waiting for," naturally you
would expect it to be."

Well, it didn't take long for Summa to land somewhere else -- a new gaming blog
called Destructoid -- and fire back at
Joystiq. In a post on Destructoid, Summa declared that he was
"very happy to be free from Joystiq's shackles" and that "Joystiq takes
themselves WAY too seriously." Summa doesn't apologize and instead paints
himself at Joystiq's scapegoat. Here's more from Summa's post:

"I in no way meant to hype anything. There was no ulterior motive to bring
increased traffic. The entire affair was blown way out of proportion. Joystiq
fired me because of fan reaction and their fear of losing whatever credibility
they think they have. Also, we were both headed in different directions. They
wanted content that was long, boring, and obscure. I want to write about fun
stuff like rumors, culture, and everything that is humorous out there."

And rumors it will be, apparently. One of Summa's recent posts on Destructoid is
a self-described rumor about Wii online beta testing, which Summa got off a
forum from a guy who he writes is "just talking out of his ass." Ironically,
Summa started off the post with "I don't normally like to take rumors from
message boards, but considering how plausible it sounds, what the hell." (the
post also featured the above image of "Rumor Has It...", and I can't tell if
that was meant as a disclaimer to readers or a tounge-in-cheek gag)

I think I have an idea of what's going on here. Clearly, Summa wasn't adhering
to the same journalistic standards as his employer. Joystiq is trying to ensure
quality the same way a newspaper or magazine would, whereas Summa feels the site
is just shoot-from-the-hip blogging where the rules of journalism don't apply.
Summa isn't a reporter -- he's a blogger. But even a blogger, who's delivering
information to the masses, has a duty to be truthful and accurate. So is Joystiq
to blame for hiring someone they knew was a blogger but who they wanted to act
like a journalist? Are they to blame for allowing Summa to hype a press release
as a "scoop" and then firing him when readers reacted badly to the news? Or is
the unapologetic Summa to blame for callously discarding his responsibility to
readers and laughing off Joystiq's credibility? Should Summa be blamed for
acting unprofessionally, even if he's not a "professional"?

Maybe it's all of the above. I'll need a few more days to think about this
one.