Yeah…

Before I was generally on the side of “ask for comment even if you don’t have to”

LMG/Linus have shown exactly why it is sometimes better to be “unprofessional” considering that they apparently sent a quick email to Billet saying they would pay them right before hitting submit on the forum post so that it sounds like GN were negligent.

its not unprofessional to give the subject of a story that is doing active harm a heads up so they can use their position to pressure you into silence, or try to come up with some last minute hooplah to try to discredit the reporting rather than addressing the core issues in their own company.

Thats like telling a company that is actively dumping toxic waste into a river that you know they are doing it, and you would like comment before they report on scene next week. All you do is give them time to stop the dumping, clean up the obvious signs, and put out an undercutting statement to try and discredit/dismiss the legitimacy of the story.

See, that is somewhere that I very much disagree with GN on

Using your toxic waste excuse: if it gets the company to stop dumping toxic waste a week sooner then… that is a week less of making three eyed fish and killing kids.

That said: I do agree that timing and pressure are a problem. GN likely already know what the fallout of this will be and went in eyes open. So LMG pressuring them is not the issue. And even in terms of leadup: It is “kind of shitty”, but timing an email to be sent after WAN show on Friday and then posting Tuesday would leave minimal room for the obvious hit pieces.

Like I said, I don’t think GN had to. But in terms of outcome: most people aren’t going to watch the follow up so it will just be LMG’s gaslighting response that makes GN look unprofessional.

Using your toxic waste excuse: if it gets the company to stop dumping toxic waste a week sooner then… that is a week less of making three eyed fish and killing kids.

And then they resume the dumping next week, maybe at a different location and long term nothing changes.