Can We Trust CNET Again After a Scandal This Shady?

CNET, one of the Internet's first and most influential authorities on gadgets and tech news, watched its editorial integrity spiral out of control Monday, with staffers quitting and editors left to explain themselves in the wake of explosive new charges over its annualConsumer Electronics Show awards — a scandal, it would appear, that goes all the way to the top of its corporate umbrella, and could shake the entire ecosystem of online tech journalism.

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Contrary to an already controversial move first reported last Friday, CNET parent company CBS didn't just asked the site to remove Dish's Slingbox Hopper from consideration for its Best of CES Awards amidst a lawsuit between CBS and Dish; the removal came after executives learned the gadget would take the top award, and that request came down from CBS CEO Leslie Moonves himself, sources tell The Verge's Joshua Topolsky. Now, CNET's corporate responsibilities appear to have made the long trusted site bend at will and, despite desperate pushback from some of its writers and editors, it appears CNET may have moved to cover up the series of events that led to the removal of the award.

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For CNET, all of this looks very bad. How can readers trust the site for its famously unbiased reviews and industry news coverage if a media-conglomerate overlord is insisting that some things just "can't exist"? The events that have unfolded since the scandal broke wide open haven't exactly restored anyone's faith. Greg Sandoval, a seven-year veteran of the site, announced his resignation Monday morning on Twitter, citing a lack of "editorial independence" from CBS as his motivation. In a separate tweet, he called CNET's dishonesty about its parent company's involvement with Dish "unacceptable." Since, both CNET and CBS have released not-too-convincing statements. 

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Following the Verge report and Sandoval's resignation, CNET Editor in Chief Lindsay Turrentine explained how CNET editors did everything in their power to fend off corporate insistence on its editorial decisions, but found the power of a pending deal between two bigger media companies too intimidating. So the editors gave in, and waited. "We were in an impossible situation as journalists," Turrentine wrote, adding that she thought about resigning. "I decided that the best thing for my team was to get through the day as best we could and to fight the fight from the other side." 

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Speaking for many a media and tech pundit, Reuters's Megan McCarthy questioned the front side of the internal debate: 

CNET’s editor-in-chief’s explains why she caved to CBS. Why didn’t she just refuse to award the Best in Show? : news.cnet.com/8301-30677_3-5…
— Megan McCarthy (@Megan) January 14, 2013

For her part, Turrentine seems to have one major regret: "I wish I could have overridden the decision not to reveal that Dish had won the vote in the trailer." That doesn't exactly scream editorial independence, as The Verge's Sean Hollister pointed out on Twitter.

CNET doesn't get it either. "I wish I could have overridden the decision not to reveal" is NOT editorial independence. cnet.co/VWBv5o
— Sean Hollister (@StarFire2258) January 14, 2013

Turrentinge went on to say that if she had to face this "dilemma" again, she would not quit. Meaning, if this turns into more than a one-time incident, she wouldn't have a problem bending to CBS again? 

CBS's statement to The Verge hasn't calmed the critics, either. "In terms of covering actual news, CNET maintains 100% editorial independence, and always will. We look forward to the site building on its reputation of good journalism in the years to come," reads the CBS reply. But when you're dealing with angry tech readers, their nerdfest of the year, and the corporate responsibilities  therein, 100 percent of trust is tough to build back.

While CNET struggles to emerge from this mess, the situation appears to be threatening the entire ecosystem of the technology press, which has a history of reinventing its standards on bias in product reviews. A number of gadget and tech-news sites fall under larger corporate umbrellas: AOL owns Engadget; NewsCorp owns The Wall Street Journal and its influential tech coverage; BuzzFeed FWD has to answer to its investors, who put money in all sorts of tech ventures; IAC invests in companies like Aereo but owns The Daily Beast. Turns out this wasn't just a family feud — the CNET and CBS scandal at CES could set a precedent for years to come.

Former President George H.W. Bush leaves hospital

Former U.S. President George H.W. Bush was released from a Houston hospital on Monday after more than seven weeks of treatment for bronchitis and related ailments, according to a statement issued by a family spokesman.

"Mr. Bush has improved to the point that he will not need any special medication when he goes home, but he will continue physical therapy," Dr. Amy Mynderse, the doctor in charge of Bush's care, said in the statement, issued by Bush spokesman Jim McGrath.

Bush said in the statement that he was grateful to the "wonderful" doctors and nurses who took care of him.

"Let me add just how touched we were by the many get-well messages we received from our friends and fellow Americans," the former president said. "Your prayers and good wishes helped more than you know, and as I head home my only concern is that I will not be able to thank each of you for your kind words."

The 41st U.S. president, 88, was admitted to Methodist Hospital on November 23 for bronchitis and then transferred to intensive care in December after coming down with a persistent fever and other complications. He was moved to a regular patient room after his condition improved last month.

A spokesman for President Barack Obama - the nation's 44th president - posted on Twitter Monday that Bush's discharge was "great news."

"From 44 down, we all are relieved he's out of the hospital and wish him & his family well," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney wrote.

Bush, a Republican, took office in 1989 and served one term in the White House. The father of former President George W. Bush, he also served as a congressman, U.N. ambassador, envoy to China, CIA director and vice president for two terms under Ronald Reagan.

As president, Bush routed Iraq after former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990. His public approval ratings soared, but just 20 months later he was defeated in his re-election bid by Democrat Bill Clinton.

Until recently, Bush was known for an active lifestyle. He went skydiving to celebrate his 75th, 80th and 85th birthdays.

He met with former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev late last year in Houston. In March 2012, Bush formally endorsed Republican Mitt Romney for president.

Women pry open door to video game industry’s boys’ club

When video game developer Brenda Brathwaite Romero started her career in the 1980s, she could count the number of female developers in the industry on one hand.

Today, many "Women in Games" roundtables she attends are filled to capacity with new faces. The 46-year-old, sometimes referred to as the longest-serving woman in the video game arena, jokes that these days one can even encounter long lines for the ladies' room at the Game Developers Conference, one of the industry's largest gatherings.

"Over the years, greatly helped by the social and mobile boom, there have been many, many women coming into game development," Brathwaite Romero said.

With women comprising just over 1 in 10 in the video game workforce, the industry has a reputation for being among the most testosterone-fueled of the traditionally male-dominated technology sector. But thanks to the mobile revolution, industry executives say that's changing.

With smartphones going mainstream and delivering gaming to a new, broader population, publishers and developers are keen to tap an audience beyond young males. And, not surprisingly, as women have explored a growing range of mobile games on Facebook or other platforms, they have discovered the allure of working in the industry.

The number of women hired by game companies has tripled since 2009, according to recruiting firm VonChurch, based on over 350 placements it has made in digital gaming firms like CrowdStar and GREE.

In 1989, when veteran games designer Sheri Graner Ray started out, women made up less than 3 percent of the workforce. That's now up to 11 percent.

"In 20 years, it's not a lot of growth," said Graner Ray, who has worked at leading companies like Electronic Arts and Sony Online Entertainment. But she agrees that number will rise as more women assert themselves in the industry, educational programs take hold, and mobile games continue to flourish.

Some of the first engineers at mobile games maker Pocket Gems were women, and though that wasn't intentional when the company was founded in 2009, it proved instrumental to success, said Chief Executive Ben Liu.

Pocket Gems, best known as a maker of family-friendly mobile games like its popular "Tap" series, recently launched "Campus Life", where players can build and run a college sorority, to target a female audience.

"I've worked at other, different game companies and I've been on floors where it's only guys," Liu said. "Our aspiration is to create games that are mass market and accessible to all people, and having that representative base of employees helps us keep true to that."

DEBAUCHERY 'WAY, WAY DOWN'

Gaming still conjures up images of young men glued to flickering screens for hours on end, fueled by energy drinks and waging online battles unto death in such "shooters" as "Call of Duty" or tactical war games like "Starcraft."

But the advent of affordable smartphones and tablets and the burgeoning world of social media has drawn in a whole new world of gamers. Individuals who had never been tempted to plunk down hundreds of dollars to buy a gaming console found themselves enticed by a whole new genre of games.

These days, gaming might just as easily mean launching attacks on pigs in "Angry Birds" or slicing produce with swiping motions in "Fruit Ninja" -- games that have mass appeal.
"Mobile is still the Wild West and it's founded on this idea of inclusion, because everyone has these mobile devices and everyone wants to play," said game content designer Elizabeth Sampat, who works at social game company Storm8.

That's partly why more than half of America's social and mobile gamers are women, according to research firm EEDAR, while they comprise just 30 percent of those who play hard-core violent games like Microsoft's "Halo 4" on game consoles.

Erin McCarty, 24, grew up playing such fare. She went to engineering school at Carnegie Mellon University, with a goal toward working in the video game industry.

Today she's the only female engineer in a seven-member team crafting multiplayer-shooter game "Realm of the Mad God" at social and mobile game company Kabam that targets male gamers.

But far from feeling different, McCarty considers herself just another coder at Kabam, where women make up just a fifth of the payroll.

"I'm around guys a lot and they are always people that I'm happy to work with," McCarty said.

Brathwaite Romero recalls how her male coworkers on the team that created the mature-rated "Playboy: The Mansion" game with nude characters that was published in 2005, were wholly professional.

"I've fortunately not experienced the level of misogyny that I've heard other people experience," Brathwaite Romero said.

"Some of the debauchery that was evident in the early days of the industry, like meetings at strip clubs, having strippers at your party, that sort of stuff has gone down way, way down from where it used to be."

DANCING GIRLS AND SEXISM

That's not to say the industry doesn't have a ways to go.

First, there's a 27 percent gap in average incomes, with women making $68,062 versus men at $86,418, according to Game Developer Magazine's 2011 annual salary survey.
Women in the game industry are underrepresented in software engineering and top-level management, reflecting a similar trend in the broader technology sector, industry executives say.

VonChurch found engineering positions were skewed more toward men in their placements since 2009. Female engineers made up 21 percent from the pool of women it placed, while over half of the men it placed were hired in engineering positions.
Then there are the occasional throwbacks to the male-dominated 1980s and 1990s. Gameloft created a stir a few weeks ago after a holiday party at its Montreal studio ran amok.

The studio, which makes games for devices like Apple Inc's iPhone, hired a burlesque dance troupe that featured scantily clad women in body paint. By the end of the evening, several dancers began to discard their bathing suits, according to a person with knowledge of the event, who asked not be named.

The dancers were expelled from the event "as soon as their misconduct was brought to light," Gameloft said in a statement.

Over a month ago, a tweet from a male gaming professional -- "Why are there so few women in gaming?" -- ignited a top-trending Twitter conversation under the #1reasonwhy hashtag, that quickly morphed into a now infamous discussion of discrimination and sexism in the workplace.

"I was told I'd be remembered not on my own merits, but by who I was or was assumed to be sleeping with," Seattle-based pen and paper game designer Lillian Cohen-Moore, who goes by @lilyorit, tweeted.

Gaming conventions can bring out the worst in attendees, said several women gaming professionals. While not a pure work environment, they are a forum for professionals from across the industry to convene to talk shop and do business.

Cohen-Moore, 28, said she was appalled to see men at the annual Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle groping women working as costumed characters when she worked there last year.
"I've been leery about transitioning into video games because the culture over there is a lot more blatant and active in how many sex trolls they have," she said.

Brathwaite Romero, who is married to industry legend and "Doom" creator John Romero, also recounts a jarring instance at last summer's Electronic Entertainment Expo, the industry's biggest gathering.

"I was discussing a potential contract with somebody and the guy right next to me is talking about -- to quote him -- 'the tits and ass' on this particular model. And he's going on and on and on about this," she said. "This is wrong."

Sampat said in some workplaces, though not at her current employer Storm8, women are often expected to tolerate off-color jokes - of which they're often the target.

Before stepping into an interview at an online game company a couple of years ago, Sampat said a female human resources employee told her: "It's my job to make sure that all potential candidates can, you know, take a joke."

"I couldn't help but wonder if she asked the white male programmer who came in before me whether he could take a joke too," Sampat said.

Women outside the United States find similar challenges. Alisa Chumachenko, CEO and founder of Game Insight, a fast-growing mobile and social company in Russia, thinks having more women in senior and more diverse roles will help. Her company of 450 employees has three other women in high-level positions, but she wishes she knew more women in gaming.

"We need to really look at the women who have become movers and shakers in this industry," the veteran games designer Graner Ray said, "and claim them and hold them up and say: 'Here's where we are, here's what we can do. Pay attention to us.'"

Gun lobby: Congress doesn't have the muscle to pass gun control

Nearly a month after the massacre of 27 people in Newtown, Conn., lawmakers on Capitol Hill are dialing back expectations on whatCongress can – or should – do on its own to curb gun violence.

After initial expressions of outrage, lawmakers and the White House are getting down to counting votes on what can actually be achieved on Capitol Hill, where limits on gun rights have has been a taboo for more than a decade.

On Sunday, top gun lobbyists predicted that there’s not enough support in Congress for a new ban on assault weapons and that even curbs on high-capacity magazine clips were in doubt.

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“When a president takes all the power of his office, if he’s willing to expend political capital, you don’t want to make predictions,” saidDavid Keene, president of the National Rifle Association, on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“But I would say that the likelihood is that they’re not going to be able to get an assault weapons banthrough the Congress,” he added.

Since the Sandy Hook shootings, gun sales and request for background checks have spiked, in anticipation of new curbs on guns. The NRA reports that it has gained 100,000 new members since the Dec. 14 shootings and expects to soon top 5 million members.

There's a window for action after incidents like the Sandy Hook shootings, and that window is beginning to close, says Julian Zelizer, a congressional historian at Princeton University in Princeton, N. J. "Memories of the shooting start to fade, the NRA starts to be more comfortable, reformers start to back off and they are much more timid."

"If Obama wants to do something, he has to make this front and center, because it's getting harder by the day," he adds.

Vice President Joe Biden, who met last week with a wide range of interest groups on gun violence, is expected to deliver recommendations to the president on Tuesday.

On Capitol Hill, lawmakers are proposing measures to renew the assault weapons ban, limit the size of high-capacity magazine clips, require universal background checks, increase mental health screenings, and pressure Hollywood and the video game industry to dial back the violence.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D) of West Virginia electrified the pro-gun control community when he announced that the slaughter of children at Sandy Hook “changed me,” and called on his “friends in the NRA” to be “at the table” on preventing gun violence.

But his main focus in appearances on Sunday talk shows was to assure gun owners that Congress will not rein in gun rights.

“I would tell all of my friends in the NRA, I will work extremely hard and I will guarantee you that there will not be an encroachment on your Second Amendment rights,” he said on ABC’s “This Week.”

“An assault weapons standalone ban on just guns alone will not go anywhere in the political reality we are in,” Senator Manchin said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” It has to be a “comprehensive approach,” he added, including mental health and video violence. The issues is not guns, he said, it’s a “culture of mass violence.”

The assault weapons ban passed mainly with Democratic votes in 1994 contributed to the GOPtakeover of the House (for the first time in 40 years) in November elections that year. The loss of pro-gun Democratic voters in states like West Virginia also helped sink Al Gore’s presidential bid in 2000. It’s been a toxic issue for most Democrats ever since.

Most Republicans still oppose curbs on gun rights. “We obviously have a situation where crazy people, deranged individuals are having access to guns,” said Sen. John McCain (R) of Arizona onCBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday. But “just taking guns away from people” is not the answer, he added.

Meanwhile, Democrats are proposing administrative measures that the White House can take on its own to rein in gun violence. Senior Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee wrote to Vice President Biden on Jan. 11, urging him to include a recommendation in his report to increase research on gun-related violence. Since 1997, House appropriations laws have included language to bar theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention from using funds “to advocate or promote gun control," language which has had a chilling impact on studies of gun violence, they say.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D) of Connecticut on Friday called on the Obama administration to ensure that all federal agencies are providing needed records to the National Instant Criminal Background Check system. "Many federal agencies still do not report the necessary information to the database," he wrote in a letter to Vice President Biden.

Also on Friday, Sens. Tom Harkin (D) of Iowa and Al Franken (D) of Minnesota, called on the Obama administration to use executive powers to expand access to mental health and substance abuse services.

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D) of Maryland told CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday that "it's going to be very difficult" to revive the assault weapons ban. But there's a better chance of winning agreement on universal background checks and limits on high-capacity magazines, he added.

But even such measures are now in doubt, says Larry Pratt, executive director of Gun Owners of America on “Fox News Sunday.” "We don't think that there is much likelihood that the Congress is going to move on making gun-control laws worse than they are.”

Last week, Roll Call reported that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the campaign arm of House Democrats, launched an e-mail petition drive to support the president to take up the gun issue, a new version of the 2012 “Have His Back” campaign.

“We hear from the White House that they are going to lay down political capital on this issue,” saysNeera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress, speaking on "Fox News Sunday."

Britney Spears and fiance end yearlong engagement

Britney Spears announced Friday that she has ended her yearlong engagement, capping a week of changes that included her leaving "The X Factor" and promising fans she was returning her focus to music.

Within hours of confirming her departure from the Fox reality series, Spears also announced that her relationship with talent agent Jason Trawick had ended.

"Jason and I have decided to call off our engagement," Spears said in the statement. "I'll always adore him and we will remain great friends."

Spears' publicist Jeff Raymond said the breakup was a difficult decision made by "two mature adults."

"I love and cherish her and her boys, and we will be close forever," Trawick said in a joint statement that was first reported by People magazine.

Trawick also resigned his role Friday as a Spears' co-conservator, with Superior Court Judge Reva Goetz approving his departure from the case.

Spears and Trawick got engaged in December 2011 and he was added as her co-conservator in April.

Spears, 31, has been under a court-supervised conservatorship since February 2008, with her father and another co-conservator, Andrew Wallet, having control over numerous aspects of her personal life. The case was opened after several incidents of erratic behavior by the pop singer and a pair of hospitalizations, but Spears has recovered and she appeared weekly on "X Factor."

She said in a statement that judging young talent made her miss performing. "I can't wait to get back out there and do what I love most," she said in a statement.

Her father Jamie Spears met with Goetz for about an hour on Friday but left before a hearing where Trawick's resignation was announced.

Trawick has served as Spears' agent and the pair started dating in 2009.

Trawick did not have authority over Spears' finances, which have rebounded since her public meltdown. Goetz recently reviewed and approved of an accounting that showed Spears ended 2010 with more than $27.5 million in assets, including nearly $15 million in cash.

Attorneys handling the case are expected to file updated financial statements in the coming months.

Land ho: New island emerges off German coast

Germany has sprouted an island. The hook-shaped land is 16 miles off the coast of Germany, and it is 34 acres long. Dubbed Norderoogsand, the island, which lies in the German North Sea coast, has already become the home to more than 50 plant species and a variety of sea birds.

Amazingly, 10 years ago, the island didn’t exist. The speed with which it went from sand bar to land mass is surprising scientists.

“The fact that in just a few years a new island is formed is very impressive," local conservationist Detlef Hansen, who works at nearby Wadden Sea National Park, told the Telegraph. He added, "For conservationists, this is anything but ordinary."

The plucky island is bolstered against winds thanks to its 13-foot-high dunes and grasses that help it combat erosion. It was also helped by its location near other islands that buffered it from winter storms and the fact that few storm surges have appeared there in the past decade.

Still, don’t plan a vacation around this untouched paradise just yet: Scientists warn that one superstorm could wipe it off the map.

Healthy Hollywood: Kathie Lee & Hoda Put A Cork In It!

Kathie Lee & Hoda are toasting the New Year with a drop of sobriety. Yup! NBC's chatty twosome are giving up their morning on-air cocktails for a month.

"My first reaction was, 'Are you crazy?' But I'll do it to lose weight. In the past, I've given up cheese, pasta, sweets, bread...why not wine," Kathie Lee suggests in February's Ladies Home Journal.

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Kathie Lee and Hoda have made sipping morning cocktails a tradition on their daily chat-fest.

"I sometimes overindulge. But who's counting? I think it adds to the show. By 10am people at home have already had their fill of the heavy news. This is their time to have fun," Hoda reveals to Ladies Home Journal.

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The wine-inspired fun is not over; the ladies will be back to their happy hour in a month.

Ladies Home Journal calls these two on-air buddies "the craziest women on TV." And, their zany chemistry is not just for the cameras. "When we met, the click was immediate. Now we go to lunch every Wednesday and see a Broadway show," reveals Hoda.

"People aren't stupid if something's authentic, people know it. They can sense when there's tension between people. They can sense when something's forced and the can sense when two people genuinely enjoy each other's company," says Kathie Lee.

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-- Terri MacLeod

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