Some journalists aren’t giving up on #GamerGate and apparently #GamerGate isn’t entirely giving up on them. For AirPlay 2,one of the speakers from the first event will be making a return to discuss ethics in journalism.

Over on the update page for AirPlay 2 they mention that gaming advocate Mark Ceb will be returning to discuss the issues of ethics in journalism, and that the date for AirPlay 2 is to be announced for the February, 2016 event. Right now the date itself is not made public, likely to cut down on potential organized harassment or disruption from trolls attempting to scuttle the whole thing into the trash can. However, they do note that the public are welcome to join the event via RSVP. Security is also going to be a top priority this time around (not like it wasn’t last time), in hopes of curbing any attempts to derail the discussion.

What’s interesting is that this time around the SPJ’s Michael Koretzky won’t be involved. While he’s still rolling out updates in regards to the Kunkel Awards – a celebration of journalism within the realm of video games – he won’t be participating in Airplay part deux.

Koretzky will be working with the organizers of this second event to help them put together and structure an event mirrored after the first. It’s not entirely clear how this will all play out given that it’s just a few short months from the February date, but we’ll see how it all goes.

This news comes shortly after CJR did a very lengthy editorial on the involvement of the Society of Professional Journalists with #GamerGate, and how it all came to be and where it might go from there. It’s a very evenhanded piece that attempted to get quotes from people on both sides of the fence. However, they didn’t really seem to get any legitimately noteworthy quotes from the anti-#GamerGate side since the people they interviewed apparently believed that providing a quote why #GamerGate is bad is giving the scandal “legitimacy”.

Slate’s David Auerbach did provide CJR with a very interesting quote, stating in an e-mail response…

““I think that there is next to zero interest among the press in establishing the facts around Gamergate, and quite a lot of pressure *against* establishing a factual record,” “It has made any sort of public discussion around Gamergate impossible, and it is why I no longer participate in such discussion…I did my best to bring the actual facts to people’s attention, but as I told Koretzky when he invited me to the Florida SPJ event, I’m done with that particular Sisyphean boulder.”

Auerbach is right. Kotaku can complain about blacklisting all they want but you’re not allowed to bring up one of their own staff using a secret mailing list to do the same. Kotaku can complain about sexism and misogyny in gaming all they want, but you’re not allowed to point to their past of cashing in on Eastern games centered on exploiting sexually suggestive material for clicks. Worse yet, Kotaku and their sociopolitical echelon of gaming journalists can write all day long about the horrors of game culture, but you can’t mention that they’re breaching trade commission laws by making money off undisclosed affiliate links.

These people have no intentions of addressing corruption in video game journalism. For them, it’s not about ethics at all.

Nevertheless, we’ll see if AirPlay 2 can make ground where AirPlay 1 only managed to set foot onto the tarmac of ethics. With a nice follow-up at SXSW also discussing the failures of media journalism, it’s possible that these events could help turn the tide in the perception shared by the average news consumer.