Following less than a week on air, Brazilian esports channel Loading has fired its entire editorial staff. The channel that was created and featured several prominent Brazilian esports journalists has decided to offload its entire editorial department due to "misalignment" between the staff and values of the site.
Loading first broadcast a week ago, from a building that used to be an MTV headquarters in Brazil. Reported by The Esports Observer, the channel was also claimed to use the equipment from the MTV broadcast days to produce the show, making it challenging for staff to create a modern high-quality production.
Then, to add further dismay to the issues, Loading received several complaints as the channel had reported on negative news at times on a show produced by the editorial staff called Metagaming, where they covered a fraudulent scheme on Twitch for example. Due to Loading's staff being composed of experienced journalists it had a mixed array of content, and according to the report by The Esports Observer, many of Loading's management did not like this style of investigative journalism.
The following day, a similar show was produced, seeing an investigative report on an organisation being left out of the Brazilian League of Legends Championship, which was not a great piece of publicity for Riot, and ended up being the final straw for the management staff. The editorial team then fought back by saying they were being censored even though they were employed to do proper journalism, and subsequently produced a list of demands (including the right to free speech) if management wanted them to continue.
The management answered back by taking the editorial teams show off the air the following day (Thursday), so the editorial staff decided they would all resign when back in work on Friday. Management flipped this and fired them all before they could do so.
It should be noted that the majority of Metagaming's content was positive and the negative stories they produced were few and far between.
In a statement to The Esports Observer, Loading said; "Due to the misalignment between Loading's positioning, focussed on entertainment, and the Metagaming program's editorial team, we decided to restructure the attraction.
It is important to note that Loading's core is entertainment and a positive agenda. Thus, we will seek to deliver content that further enhances esports, but with an editorial line focussed on entertainment.
We publicly thank the entire Metagaming team that has shared with us these past few months, including the incredible debut. We followed different paths, but with the certainty of competence and success for all of you. Thank you for being part of our history."
What do you think about this situation?
