“The Best Obtainable Version of the Truth”

Tell you what’s awesome? Fact. Solid fact without any speculation or conjecture. Has anyone in the videogame press ever heard of this mystifying concept?

Yesterday the videogame news world was ablaze with the incredibly sexy story that George “Geohot” Hotz, the man in a legal bout with Sony over PS3 jailbreaking, had fled the country to South America.

What a story! Crime, exotic locations and sticking it to the man. What more could fapping, adolescent writers want? Only the addition of a sexy femme fatale that could be strewn all over their pages would make the story even more tantalising.

The source of this is a Sony legal document where it states:

Hotz is now in South America, an excuse for why he will not immediately provide the components of his hard drives as requested by the neutral.  Hotz’s attempts to dodge this Court’s authority raise very serious questions.

And:

Recently, in fact, Hotz conveniently traveled to South America in the midst of jurisdictional discovery, including his court-ordered deposition.

And that’s it, by the way. Sony hasn’t said he’s “fled the country”, a phrase in itself which is lifted out of some spy thriller because that’s the only thing these morons understand.

However, despite how sexy the story is, the reality is that Hotz isn’t fleeing the law like some Jason Bourne action movie. In fact, he’s just on holiday. Speaking to IGN, Hotz’s lawyers issued this statement:

The ‘integral components’ SCEA is talking about are stock controller cards, not the hard drives themselves. The neutral subsequently had to explain to SCEA the form and function of hard drive controller cards. Those controller cards have since been provided to the neutral so the point is moot.

You can never take a vacation from a lawsuit. Mr. Hotz has had to make himself available 24/7 for this litigation, which has been quite demanding on him. You have to remember that Mr. Hotz didn’t choose to fight this battle, but now that he has been sued, he has put his heart into fighting this case that has enormous implications for consumers world-wide.

As for any question as to whether Mr. Hotz has used donation money to take a trip to South America, that’s pretty silly. Litigating against a massive company like Sony, who is represented by five attorneys, is very costly for a 21-year-old. The donation money George has received is being used exclusively for his legal defense. If there are any funds left after the lawsuit, George is planning to donate the money to the EFF [Electronic Frontier Foundation].

So now we have Sony saying saying he’s in South America and Hotz’s lawyer saying he’s there on holiday, not using donations received.

Oh and look! A blog post by Hotz himself! Shall we read it?

Factually, it’s true I’m in South America, on a vacation I’ve had planned and paid for since November. I mean, it is Spring break; hacking isn’t my life. Rest assured that not a dime of legal defense money would ever go toward something like this. And of course Townsend loves the idea of painting me as an international fugitive. I have been in contact with my lawyers almost every day; I would not let the case suffer. That said, I also won’t let this ridiculous lawsuit run my life either. Then the fearmongerers win.

Now there is a chance that Hotz and his lawyer are lying and in fact, Hotz is on the run from the law and using funds that were donated to him to pay he legal defenses. But where’s the evidence? Basically there is none. Speculation led people to suggest he was using donation money for the trip, not fact and yes, perhaps he’s there to prevent the case from moving on. Oh and maybe he’s snorting coke off of hookers and using his newly found millions to fund an invasion of Grenada. Speculation rocks!

Perhaps one or two publications reported that he had fled and then, because the internet is stupid, it spread to even the biggest news sites, all now with hastily added “UPDATE” tags. This is why independent verification of stories is important and why simply waiting until you know more information can prevent shit like this happening.

The videogame press (and many outside of that lurid category) seem to have the journalistic abilities of a three year-old, acting like moronic tabloids printing whatever fantasy-based story hits their tips email. Sometimes we just don’t know enough verifiable information and it’s down right damaging to speculate around the issue.

A journalist’s job (or a blogger’s for that matter) is to find the “best obtainable version of the truth,” not the most entertaining.