newVideoPlayer(”ugly_game.flv”, 475, 376);
Congratulations, Eidos: You’re officially off the hook. Responding to rumors that CNET fired GameSpot editorial director Jeff Gerstmann for slamming a game heavily advertised on the site (check out the highlights in the above clip), spokesperson Sarah Cain told Joystiq, “We do not terminate employees based on external pressure from advertisers.” We doubted that CNET would toss away its credibility so readily.

Kotaku got a longer if less poignant spiel from CNET’s improbably named director of public relations, Leslie Dotson Van Every:

“GameSpot takes its editorial integrity extremely seriously. For over a decade, GameSpot and the many members of its editorial team have produced thousands of unbiased reviews that have been a valuable resource for the gaming community. At CNET Networks, we stand behind the editorial content that our teams produce on a daily basis.”

Stand behind? If CNET stands behind its editorial content, why did it take down Gerstmann’s video review in the first place?

Source:Valleywag

Ahh, that feels good right there. I don’t think we’ll be talking about this week next week. The Facebook pile-on continued. Amazon’s Kindle reader suffered a surprise media backlash. I’d hoped for another bank-employee-in-tutu photo to liven things up. Instead we got Gerstmanngate. At least we still have jobs — oh wait, Valleywag party girl Megan “Leggy” McCarthy is heading to Wired. I think I’ll go curl up in the tub with my INVISIBLE PUPPY. (Photo by Jason Calacanis)

Walt Mossberg, surprisingly slow out of the gate, has finally deigned to review Amazon.com’s Kindle e-book reader. He was not kind, calling it “mediocre” and “marred by annoying flaws.” He also says that Amazon “nailed the electronic-book shopping experience,” which is no surprise given the success of Amazon.com, “but it has a lot to learn about designing electronic devices.” Harsh words from a top reviewer who can make or break a device. Here’s our question: what took him so long?

Newsweek had an glowing exclusive review from Steven Levy and New York Times tech reviewer David Pogue wrote up the Kindle soon after it was made public, but it took Mossberg more than a week to review the device. What happened? Another tech columnist told us that Mossberg “was only interested in reviewing it if he could be first. When Steven Levy got it first Walt threw a tantrum.” Classy. We also hear Mossberg tried to edge out other reviewers to be first on the iPhone — but got turned down. Incidentally, I still haven’t gotten any response from Amazon PR about a review unit. What’s up with that? I’ll be nicer than Mossberg — maybe.

Got 30 seconds? Read my summaries of the early reviews of Apple’s new operating system in Thursday’s papers. Wall Street Journal columnist Walt Mossberg, New York Times reviewer David Pogue, and USA Today’s Ed Baig agree: Time Machine backups, yay. See-through menus, boo.

Walt Mossberg, The Wall Street Journal: Faster, easier than Vista. For me, the marquee features are Time Machine that automatically backs up your entire computer in the background; Cover Flow and Quick Look, for rapidly viewing the contents of files; and new technicques that allow you to access other computers on your network or over the Internet with no technical expertise. The menu bar is now translucent, which can make it hard to see the items it contains. The new folder icons are less attractive than their predecessors.

David Pogue, The New York Times: Sleek, modern-looking desktop. Time Machine, Quick Look. Having virtual-screen software built in with so much polish makes a huge difference. A more polished Boot Camp lets you restart in Windows. Screen sharing lets gurus assist newbies from afar. iChat blue-screen effect. It also lets you display documents, presentations or movies to your videoconferencing buddies. The most serious misstep: See-through menus.

Edward C. Baig, USA Today: Time Machine. Cool video chat. Pretty e-mail: more than 30 stationery templates — baby announcements, party invitations — with integrated photo browser. You can create Notes and To-Dos inside Mail. It can detect addresses, phone numbers and dates inside a message. If you join the $100-a-year .Mac online service, you can access your machine remotely. I ran into snags trying to remotely connect from a hotel.