I have perhaps a different perspective on Jeff's firing than most of the regulars here. I used to check Gamespot many times a day to engage in long winded debates but I slowly and quietly found myself not having time.

So when I logged on and saw all hell breaking loose, it seemed to me like a lot of people were jumping ship without really knowing the facts. While there's no shortage of conspiracy theories, the only fact is that we don't know the reason why Jeff was fired. And, while I'm as much a Jeff Gertsmann fan as anyone (I even included a reference to Jeff in my Achievement Unlocked song) that doesn't mean that he's immune from ever making a mistake. I'm not saying that Jeff did anything wrong, only that we don't know why Gamespot did what they did.

I've always been a little naive about people, willing to trust the people I admire most. Lately, that trust has been shaken a bit. The boss of my department at work suddenly resigned one day, and the pretty reliable rumor is that is was because of a sexual allegation. Nobody saw it coming. And I have had close friends recently behave in ways I never would have expected from them.

It's easy to put people we admire, like Jeff, on a pedestal, but we have heard neither Jeff's side or the story nor have we heard Gamespot's reason for firing him. If, hypothetically speaking, Jeff did something really wrong or inappropriate, itis actuallyhonorable of Gamespot for not saying what that was, even though it would be much better for their image to do so.

Now, if Jeff comes out and says, "I got fired for my Kane and Lynch" review, well now we have reason to reconsider Gamespot's editoral integrity. But that hasn't happened.Yet people are still leaving the site that they trusted for years and years without the facts, without even the shred of a benefit of a doubt. Thisis the behaviour of people that are, perhaps, too involved in the minute-to-minute happenings in a website about video games. And it's also pretty insulting to the rest of the editors here who really don't have anything to do with what happened, and yet, are still being treated like criminals by the die hards.

I'll wait to hear Jeff's side of the story. Innocent until proven guilty -- that applies to both Gamespot just as much as it does Jeff.