Well one thing's for sure, I think he's pretty fair towards reviewing Nintendo games...so yeah. I don't think he's pulling anything shady with that.

To be perfectly honest, I dont think PR could change the pace of Nintendo right now, be it positive or negative. Greenpeace tried (and we all laughed.)

Never the less, full disclosure is important to maintain integrity in journalism.

Darn lack of an edit button.. well, at least my typos show how strongly I feel about news sources who intrude into people's personal lives.

Hey I have that shirt....

I'd only really be worried if they weren't married and were just having a relationship.

Meh.

More interesting question, did they meet before or after they got there current jobs.

I've been reading the reviews and opinions of Matt's for years and have never seen a case where he tried to "go easy" on Nintendo in regards to anything. He gets excited about games, pushes for people to play less heard of titles (Zack and Wiki FTW), and has been pushing Nintendo on issues like internet play and chat to the point that Nintendo has to make statements about it. If he was just tossing 10's around and saying everything was great..I would have an issue. But he's proven over the years that he believes in what he's doing, and has proven a good source when looking at different games from Nintendo. He lambasted Red Steel just like everyone else and I'm sure Nintendo PR would have loved better reviews on that launch title. I still trust him as long as he keeps that up.

Arlen, you may be as appealed as you like, however I will continue to believe that without evidence of actual wrongdoing (not just possibility of wrongdoing), people's personal lives should be immune to scrutiny, most importantly public scrutiny.

Fancy losing your job over who you marry? Fancy having photos of your children in newspapers? Fancy having some filthy scumbag with a camera hovering outside your door when someone you love is mortally sick?

@Arlen
"This is a clear example of the lack of journalistic integrity in the game-coverage media."

"Journalistic integrity" is an oxymoron in any media, just ask the New Republic.

@konrad_arflane
"And anyway, aren’t marriages public record?"

Yes, they are. They are usually filed with the Circuit Court (or the equivalent) of the state where you live and pretty much anything that is processed in that court is up to FOIA.

Ever.. not every... damnit I hate when I get worked up >.>

Being married to someone does not mean that you allow their opinions to influence your working practices.

Hell, I worked with my wife for many years, and one day we intend to open another business together.. and when it comes to our jobs, it is business, an we will not compromise our professionalism.

I am not saying that this guy should not be looked at by his employeers... I'm saying its none of our damn business, and if they who are paying his wages feel its good enough, then it is, and should never have been made public.

I oh so eagerly await the gaming media equivalent of people hovering in helicopters over someone's home to snap shots of their personal lives...

"Breaking News, Blizzard Developer dating Sony Developer, company merger?!?!? Sizzling pics tell all!"

@Thomas:

"Being married to someone does not mean that you allow their opinions to influence your working practices."

But it significantly increases the odds that their opinions do influence the reviews you write. Or, in this case, how you edit various articles. I know that I wouldn't trust a review of a game written by a PR person. I wouldn't trust a review written by a grunt reviewer that was married to a PR person at nintendo.

Being a reporter means you give up some expectation of privacy.

-P

Honestly...I trusted him before from his work and attitude, and I see no reason not to now. If he's so "corrupted" by this fact would he be so critical about the lack of features, games, and options for the Wii (or Nintendo in general) as he is? Most people are going to find their better half just sitting there in regards to work or general life, so he was already running a good chance of finding someone else in the videogame world. He's happily married, happy to be a Dad, and good at his job. Good enough for me.

@Thomas

I think you are missing something. There is no expectation of privacy to the fact of you being married or who you are married to. This is a matter of public record. The disclosure would not constitute an invasion of privacy any more than a direct quote from court proceedings, which are all recorded. Moreover it is the ethical duty of any journalistic venture to report any and all potential conflicts of interest.

I too feel strongly about this but in another direction. My wife is a journalism major and I work for the city. If there were a potential conflict of interest at some point due to our publicly documented legal status that we did not or refused to report not only do I risk being fired, She could risk being fired and more seriously she would have the stigma of the non-disclosure following her for the rest of her career.

It is our business to know who is delivering us our news, I would go a step further and say that it is our duty as proper citizens to know where our news comes from. I wouldn't want the brother of a political candidate delivering "fair and unbiased" news about the candidate without knowing who the reporter was. There are all kinds of things ranging from the benign to the truly terrible that can come from improprieties just like this.

Why then should game journalism be any different? Cause they are just games? kids stuff? shouldn't be taken seriously? As a self-proclaimed regular reader of this site I would assume that you do not feel this way.

In the end these ethical guidelines are all there for reasons. Really bad things can start happening if you ignore them

Golin Harris, as game journos know, has handled Nintendo’s public relations for years.

Oh yes, I do know.... Those bastards don't even answer the phone or return emails when smaller news outlets (like myself and a few others I know) try to even get a small inquiry from them. Good luck just trying to get a press release.

Sorry for the rant. Just had to vent there for a brief second.

P.S. IGN is owned by FOX Media. We all know FOX does not run like a traditional news paper. Damn if IGN comes close to doing the same.

I dunno, I think if the newspaper was WSJ 2.0 (now with more republican party bias in every article!) and an editor was married to Karl Rove it wouldn't make a difference. The public already percieves bias in papers no matter what, it is really a Moot (Doug) point.

Also, when newspapers report things like "Republican minority uses phillibuster to block simple majority vote 62 times so far this year, surpasses old record in half time" they'd be seen as being biased, whereas when they report "Democrats in congress, senate simply cannot get anything done for some unknown reason we refuse to investigate" they're seen as Fair and Balanced.

That's kind of disturbing news... MattC is one of IGN's most reliable writers, I almost always agree completely with his reviews. Because of that, and my own objectivity, I don't think he's been abusing this position at all.

As far as making his relationship public goes, that's a difficult one to call. On one hand, it's public record anyway. On the other hand, bringing it to peoples attention would hurt his reputation, and every positive review he writes would be called on by the anti-fanboys "way to promote Nintendo, man!". Tough call, really.

@JBourrie

I know what you mean, but the problem with 'fanboy' mentality, is that this happens already, you cannot have an article on an XBox, for example, without people pointing out that they think the XBox 'sucks' or that the PS3 'pwns' it. I wouldn't suppose it would actually have changed the fan-base to that great a degree had it been announced from the start. The problem is that by not reporting it, either by accident or deliberately, they have added an aura of 'conspiracy' to the whole proceedings, and the Internet just loves conspiracies.

Both Matt and The PR company have issued statements. Matt has said both companies were informed of the releationship when they started dating. He said him and his wife keep professional and personal reletionships seperate. The PR company has stated that all employees are under strict NDAs regarding clients accounts. IMO their has never been a conlfict. Matt has always been Nintendo's harshest critics. If IGN didn't think that him being married to a executive at Nintendo's PR firm should be discloused who are we to say that they are wrong.

It isn't like Gamepolitics that is OWNED by the company they are reporting on. Matt doesn't get support, money, or any other kind of help from his wifes PR firm or Nintendo. If that was the case then yes I could see where full disclosure would be necessary. Not when he is just married to someone who works for a company that works for Nintendo.

What Brandon said.

And many people assume that just because they're married they share information... what happened to innocent until proven guilty?

Prove it, and you have a case, and yes, it should be exposed and then IGN needs to look at disclosure and so on.

Furthermore, shouldn't GP disclose that 'Joystiqs' Kyle Orland is the former editor of VGMwatch and still contributes?

Or don't you hold to the same journalistic standards that you feel others should?

[...] 9:34pm by Geoff digg_url = 'http://alinktothefuture.com/2007/12/20/non-scandal/'; digg_title = 'Non-Scandal?'; digg_bodytext = 'I can’t get too exorcised about the fact that Matt Cassamassina ismarried to a Nintendo PR executive.  Yes, IGN should have disclosed this fact… but there’s no evidence that Cassamassina’s coverage has been affected by that connection, it’s unclear whether his wife actually works on Nintendo products, and the fact appears to be relatively widely known [...]'; ( function() { var ds=typeof digg_skin=='string'?digg_skin:''; var h=80; var w=52; if(ds=='compact') { h=18; w=120; } var u=typeof digg_url=='string'?digg_url:(typeof DIGG_URL=='string'?DIGG_URL:window.location.href); document.write(""); } )() I can’t get too exorcised about the fact that Matt Cassamassina is married to a Nintendo PR executive.  Yes, IGN should have disclosed this fact… but there’s no evidence that Cassamassina’s coverage has been affected by that connection, it’s unclear whether his wife actually works on Nintendo products, and the fact appears to be relatively widely known within the industry.  In my opinion, at least, VGMWatch should have gotten a statement from Cassamassina first, rather than attempting to muckrake some fairly thin dirt here. Posted in Geoff, Journalism |        [...]

Whilst I agree Matt, the thing about consoles is that they are polarising anyway, most people only buy a single console for their household, yes, I suspect a lot of people reading this own more than one console, and I, for example, own none, however, we are a slightly different demographic to many of the people who post on these sites.

I don't dislike any particular console, but will disagree with someone who claims that PC gaming is dying, I don't think it is, but I also have to be aware that it is also in part because I don't want it to be, I've actually got no idea, the market is too saturated and too malleable to be predictable for any length of time.

When the 'Red Ring of Death' situation arose with the 360, there was, without doubt, PS3 fans as well as plain 'hellraisers' posting stories of failed Xboxes that quite probably were made up on the spot.

Thing is, something like this if declared at the start would not, I think, have significantly altered the opinions of those that read those reviews, after all, if he says a game is good, and someone buys it, and thinks that it is good, then his review was accurate from their point of view, same for bad games. The only time a problem arises is where the persons' opinion doesn't match that of the reviewer, and, fans being what they, that would lead to accusations of being a Nintendo 'shill' regardless of his marital status.

Certainly, those people would use his status as an excuse for his review not matching their personal opinion, but at the end of the day, if most of his readers are happy with his reviews, that status would have no bearing, people can either trust his reviews or not.

Anyway, that's longer than intended :)

To everyone disagreeing with Dennis:
The lack of disclosure is in and of itself the wrongdoign here. No one is claiming Matt was unduly influenced as far as I know, just that when their is a situation that could look bad, it must be publicly stated. When you work in the public sphere, as anyoen in journalism or PR does, you lose your right to privacy for things related to your field of work. It's the onyl way of keeping people honest.

@Ashton - Your inability to read through comments, your lack of respect for others, and your excessive conclusion jumping is most likely what makes you sickened and disgusted.

You are obviously out of the loop and your blanketing insult of the readers here makes you seem ignorant. Now, you might be a highly intelligent person, but jumping into a conversation and immediately damning us with zero foundation does not give you much credit.

How difficult is it for you to comprehend that most of us do not have a problem with Matt's marital status. We have a problem with the lack of full disclosure from IGN and Nintendo.

You are actually performing a disservice to Matt, because if I were in his shoes, I'd rather have no one on my side than unintelligent loudmouths.

". . . gamers are the biggest bunch of assholes on the planet."

My opinion is that people are the biggest assholes on the planet, regardless of what group they belong to.

You make a valid point Ashton: is full disclosure necessary? That should be the topic of the debate, not Matt and his marital status.

Is full disclosure necessary? That depends on who you ask. Some readers do not care about connections, believing they can come to their own conclusion with or without an article. Others believe that if an article has any sway over their opinion, such as providing information about a game or political debate, then knowing the writer might be biased by way of connections would further help the reader come to a decision.

It can honestly go either way...

You think gamers are bad? Try hanging out with egotistical game developers =)

@Ashton

You call yourself a journalist and yet don't understand the importance of ethics in your field?!?! I weep for our society.

What I don't understand is why you are attempting to divorce him of the consequences of their actions. That's part of what ethics are they are there to protect everyone involved the readers, the outlet, and the individual. Yeah it can, may, and might have already gotten ugly. However, and I can think of no really nice way to say this, he has it coming. Really it's about personal responsibility, to his profession and to his readers.

Disclaimer:
I personally don't feel that anyone should send flame emails to the guy. He seemed to do an honest job. However, Dennis and all others involved with breaking this news did the right thing, even if it made them unpopular with some. That's integrity.

IGN has to be crooked. It is owned by Rupert Murdoch, CEO of News Corporation and the screwist CEO in the world. He hires screwballs like Bill O'Reilly to push his agenda. Thank God that Bill Clinton told off a Fox news Reporter that tried to screw him over. Here is a link to that video:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=3RLAKArfOe0
Ben