Inside Bobby Kotick's Campaign Against the Press

In recent years, the games media has quietly begun to change the way in which it writes about Bobby Kotick, the former CEO of Activision Blizzard. PMG investigates the way in which Kotick has used the threat of defamation to reshape the way in which his own legacy has been documented by the press and whether these changes have been made in good faith, or if they're actually being driven by the media's inability to stand by its reporting in the face of costly legal action.

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Sources (including a gift link to the WSJ investigation): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fqv6lsL2IHSavhByiRbbgwehH3yh6ZppelP64XJUIuQ/edit?tab=t.0

Reporting by Mikhail Klimentov:

https://bsky.app/profile/leadergrev.bsky.social

Created by Chris Bratt:
https://bsky.app/profile/chrisbratt.bsky.social

And Anni Sayers (Doesn't like social media)

Stock footage: Getty Images, Reuters

Music & SFX: Epidemic Sound

00:00 - Intro at Blizzcon
01:11 - Mikhail hears about Kotick from a source
03:49 - The Activision Blizzard lawsuit
06:34 - The WSJ investigation & the settlement
09:49 - Kotick's defamation letters
14:19 - What is "actual malice"?
16:55 - The GameSpot example
21:16 - Has the WSJ reporting actually been "debunked"?
27:27 - How a Swedish pension fund pushed back
29:03 - Bobby Kotick sues Kotaku & Gizmodo
36:02 - Check out the video description
36:30 - This story almost didn't happen
39:41 - And one more thing...
45:04 - Outro & End Credits