Bloggers behaving badly: Gizmodo messes with CES flat screens

The Gizmodo kids pulled a good stunt at CES: they fired TV-B-Gone remotes at walls of shiny new monitors on display and during press conferences, much to the displeasure of booth staffers.

No colors anymore.

(Credit: Gizmodo)

The video is funny. The ramifications of prank will not be. The CES organizers only grudgingly gave bloggers press credentials to the conference, and even then kept them segregated into a working lounge that was a step down in amenity and luxury from the "press" lounge and work area. This prank will not endear the blogging class to either the CEA, which produces CES, or the companies that paid dearly for the right to occupy CES floorspace and show off their products.

I would not be surprised to see Gizmodo banned from the show and possibly sued by either the CEA or the companies its bloggers harassed. For journalists (in my mind, all bloggers are journalists), legal and constitutional protection does not extend to mischief or sabotage. Publishing news reports, opinion, and satire are protected acts. Physical interference is not.

I asked Gizmodo publisher Nick Denton if he was going to fire the Gizmodo crew for their prank. "No," is all he said in an instant message. He did not reply to followup questions.

Gizmodo added this apology after the post first ran, but I don't think it will mollify the victims.

It was too much fun, but watching this video, we realize it probably made some people's jobs harder, and I don't agree with that (Especially Motorola). We're sorry.

There are other likely outcomes of the prank. From now on, no one with an infrared-controlled device at a tradeshow is going to leave it exposed. A few tabs of black electrical tape will thwart TV-B-Gones. Beyond that, as our security expert Robert Vamosi said about this incident, expect TV manufacturers to think seriously about building encryption into their remote controls.

[michael_kpar]

Ban 'em for life

There's just no need for childish pranks like that at public events
like this. Perhaps if it was done with a little more taste, it would be
somewhat funny, but repeatedly shutting off screens while people
are doing presentations and whatnot, that's just not right.

[gggg sssss]

taser

not usually a fan, but maybe they would be good Karma here

[faust]

Dopes

Now all bloggers might suffer because of these nimrod. Amazing

[kabong]

Typical Gizmodo

Those guys are pretty much always pushing the lines of acceptable
behavior. I got to the point where I dropped them from my
bookmarks because they just flat annoy me, and post some things
that tend to be of a more adult nature (which is fine, but I don't
want a story about a sexually modified Robosapien while my kid is
right behind me). Just a shame that now the CES folks are going to
punish everyone because they're a bunch of unruly school kids.
(God, that makes me sound old.)

[ITmarketingMan]

Can't people take a Joke!

I just wish that I could have been there to see it happen in person.

[KCL]

I wish you were there, too...

... and were a principal who wrote a check to promote your TVs,
only to have valuable floor time lost to these idiots.

Ha-ha. It wasn't even a clever hack. I agree with banning the
whole organization -- unless they take action against those
responsible. You'd think Gizmodo would hire people a bit above
the fourth-grade mentality. They haven't, so they need to take
some responsibility other than, "Gee, I guess that was bad."

[willie342]

moron

I dont think you would have viewed it as a 'joke' if you were one of the people presenting.

[MadLyb]

This is great

Wow, I am amazed at the posts on this.

The coverage for CES has made it clear that show has become an overblown pretentious load of crap and this is exactly the kind of thing it needed.

My inner 14 year old really would have loved to be there.

Go Gizmodo!

[MrBlondeX]

A True Show of Class

I wrote a blog about the incident, which you can read here (http://chrispyx.com/?p=37) if you're so inclined.

I'm coming at this from the perspective of a videogame journalist/enthusiast who has worked at trying to garner respectability for the online blogging/website community for almost seven years. This is truly disgraceful, and as I say in my blog, this sets us back and is going to make it even more difficult to become credible.

[rnieves1977]

Hilarious

You'd think they would have disabled the IR. They're in a room with a bunch of technology including new IR immitting devices why wouldn't you disable the sensors. As far as all bloggers being banned I don't think it's going to happen. Maybe Gizmodo might be for a year in which case they'll probably find an alternative way to get in. Granted the interruption of a tech presentation is a little over the top BUT a professional can make light of the situation and carry on, like the MOTO guy did. People will be talking about this at CES for years. I think the video was pretty funny.

[JadedGamer]

Professional conduct expected

They did not disable IR because they thought they were in the presence of professionals.

Apparently, Gizmodo staffers wanted to behave in a different manner.

[tsieling]

Congrats on reaching puberty

Lame. Sometimes pranks like this can make a statement, but this
sounds merely childish and mean.

[thetimekeeper]

A shameful act

I agree with a lot of the points in the article, especially about the unfortunate ramifications for bloggers everywhere. I've also posted a more extended take on the situation here: http://blog.polity.ca/?p=5

In all honesty, I sort of expected the outbreak to be bigger, even though it got on here, and digg.