LTT doesnt make deep investigative hours-long videos anyway
Comment on THE NVIDIA AI GPU BLACK MARKET | Investigating Smuggling, Corruption, & Governments
muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
I really respect Gamers Nexus for actually doing the shit Linus Tech Tips just haws and haws over.
lefixxx@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Buffalox@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Oh I almost forgot about him, I blocked his channels years ago. He is an idiot and a shill, and did illegal hidden advertising.
Why anyone would still watch his channels is very strange IMO.lefixxx@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Illegal hidden advertising?
Buffalox@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Yes, he would make a paid advertisement camouflaged as a review and never disclose that it was in fact not a review but an advertisement.
He had even set up a scheme to hide the fact, and make it look like the payments were for something else, like consulting.
The guy is absolute scum, and the success of his channel is based on illegal practices.lefixxx@lemmy.world 1 day ago
That is not the reality as I see it. They don’t hide the fact that it’s a sponsored video (marked as “sponsored video”) until the end of the video. They seems mindful to always disclose conflict of interest (everytime framework, the NAS company) and they stopped working with Anker publically and immediately when the eufy camera scandal broke. They seem to hold them selves to a high ethical standard and disclose information even though it paints them in a negative light (they admitted they knew honey was swapping advertiser links but they didn’t make it a big story)
Source: I watch around 2-3 LTT videos per week and around 50% of the WAN show podcast
I used to watch less because I couldn’t bring myself to click on the god-awful distasteful thumbnails but then I installed “dearrow” and sponsorblock and they are more than tolerable.
Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
Not that it makes it any better, but that just seems like typical business practices. Almost everything we watch in America is an advertisement.
DacoTaco@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Youre forgetting that time they did a scrapyard war which was sponsered by dbrand, in which somebody was constantly in view, playing on a switch with a dbrand skin.
muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
It’s kind of a guilty pleasure for me. I like it in the background sometimes. It’s like watching code blue cam. Cops are occasionally useful bullies but I don’t watch it for the cops. I watch it for the white trash judge judy bullshit. It’s a methed out freak show sometimes. It’s spectacle.
amju_wolf@pawb.social 1 day ago
I don’t think LTT ever did or claimed to do investigative journalism (or really journalism at all)?
They make entertainment videos that sometimes have mildly informative value.
Default_Defect@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
I just got sick of there always being a new “controversy” with him and his inability to seem like he gives a shit about it. Each time he gets accused of something, whether he did it or not, he just goes on the WAN show to sigh as big as possible and say “Guys…”
amju_wolf@pawb.social 18 hours ago
I mean it’s fair to avoid “drama” no matter who stirs it, but most of their controversies were fairly well handled and largely overblown.
I think my biggest issue was the whole “trust me bro” “warranty”, but that was mostly a cultural clash and Linus still had some good points even originally when he talked about it, even if the way he did so was extremely tone deaf.
Default_Defect@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 hours ago
The tone deafness is it, you’ve put it better words that I could. It doesn’t matter to me whether he was right or wrong about it, he still manages to come across as abrasive at best or smug and shitty at worst. Like, let Luke talk about it instead or something.
Buffalox@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Bullshit, straight up bullshit.
amju_wolf@pawb.social 18 hours ago
Um, can you give some examples (with proof) of where LTT got paid to give a good review?
That’s an extreme accusation, and everything I’ve watched for the past decade+ seems to contradict that.
For obvious reasons that’s something they want to avoid. Hell they’re still happy to get on the bad side of companies for integrity, they’re just way less aggressive and outspoken about it compared to GN.
In fact I feel like GN sometimes overplays it a bit.
Buffalox@lemmy.world 17 hours ago
Yes, and I can make it without fear of him suing me, because it’s true.
It was pretty obvious if you have more than 2 brain cells and the ability of critical thinking.
But Gamers Nexus actually gave examples of conflicts of interests:
youtu.be/FGW3TPytTjc?t=1575
This is actually from way after I stopped viewing LTT trash, but I can’t just go back multiple years and dig up the evidence.
But if you really are curious, you would have to track his “sponsors” and compare them to his reviews. And the evidence will quickly be pretty clear.
It was very obvious that after AMD became a sponsor around 2018, Radeon suddenly got way better reviews.
Raja had tried to suck up to him, and give him special treatment and privileges with the Vega release, which didn’t work the slightest. But when they became a sponsor THAT WORKED!
But if you don’t have eyes to see what’s going on, I really can’t help you.
muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
LTT and gamers nexus face similar but not exactly the same pressures. Gamers nexus is able to be more aggressive than Linus is but Linus structures his business on such a way that made it vulnerable to such a thing.
The clearest example of this was when the Intel overcoming bug was being hidden by Intel PR spin and GN noticed a pattern, said fuck all that noise, and raised hell over it. GN was right. Intel was wrong. And GN was rewarded for it. Linus has to keep sponsors happy whereas GN regularly throws punches with industry titans like NVIDIA.
The risk is higher but so is the reward. People trust GN specifically because of that reputation. Linus is fun, his channel is interesting, but he’s squarely in the influencer/entertainment category.
Buffalox@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Meaning that for Linus you are the product, and the advertisers are the real customers.
Again meaning the videos are not made for you, they are made for the advertisers.
brucethemoose@lemmy.world 1 day ago
But thats how it’s presented, and that’s how many viewers interpet it.
amju_wolf@pawb.social 18 hours ago
Again, what? Where? Their most informative videos do reviews and testing, which is regular journalism at best.
I can remember maybe one or two videos that were somewhat investigative.
It’s just not what they do or what they claim to do.