Public Confessions
Gizmodo has long been regarded as on the scale with one of the more popular tech blogs such as Engadget, but they recently came back from the Consumer Electonics Show 2008 in Las Vegas with some heavy confessions to tell. They took along a device called TV-B-Gone, which, I assume, scans infrared frequencies that turn off televisions. So, naturally, there are a huge amount of televisions at the fair. They went around turning them off for fun.
As you can see in the video by following the link, they may have gone over the line a little bit. Oh sure, cutting off booth sets are harmless fun, something I would definitely enjoy, but shutting them down during presentations and live events? That may be toeing, if not stepping over the line. It's a childish prank, worthy of a couple of high school students. You can see poor product reps glancing about in confusion as their displays went black, during their presentations. For their careers may depend largely on how they manage to market their product, and through no fault of their own, these mishaps occurs. You have to give Gizmodo credit for issuing an apology in the latter part of their post, but isn't this a bit like closing the barn door after the horses have escaped?
Let's hope that there are no serious repercussions from their little fun, both for the reps and Gizmodo themselves.
http://gizmodo.com/343348/confessions-the-meanest-thing-gizmodo-did-at-ces
Edit: Here is another post about the incident, more information than mine, actually. They contacted Gizmodo's publisher on whether the persons responsible would be fired, his answer was a terse no, but I do believe there will be suitable actions taken within the company. They also expand on the possible ramifications of this act, reflecting badly on all bloggers everywhere. Quite a shame, really.
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9848317-7.html
Further Update: Aaand, they've been reportedly banned by CES and Gawker Media, the site behind Gizmodo is probably going to get slapped with a lawsuit. Looks like that little prank has wide reaching repercussions eh?
Source: http://www.rlslog.net/gizmodo-remotely-shutting-lcds-at-ces-banned/