Engadget Senior Editor Jess Conditt. Her vile and uncritical coverage of Zoe Quinn’s unproven allegations burdens her with moral culpability for Alec Holowka’s unimaginable suffering and the death of this vulnerable, tragic and disabled man.

Speaking ill of the dead has always been thought of as wrong. A thing inherently bad and a sign of poor character. So it is unsurprising that the despicable Scott Benson and Jess Conditt have been doing that to Alec Holowka in a desperate and futile attempt to salvage their ruined reputations.

Alec Holowka was a successful game developer who tragically suffered from mental illness. Despite his disabilities, he had made a success of his life until it was cruelly taken away from him by Zoe Quinn. Quinn is a controversial figure in the gaming industry. In 2014 a former boyfriend called Eron Gjoni accused her of abuse including various kinds of sexual misconduct. Another man, Wolf Wozniak, bravely came forward and accused her of sexual harassment.

Quinn applied for a restraining order against Gjoni which was granted. However when he appealed, backed by donations from the community she applied to have the order vacated and records of it expunged rather than face him in court as I reported in my article, ‘Epic Gjoni Win‘. She did not want the substance of their dispute argued.

As my previous article sets out, Quinn is presently under pressure to explain how she spent $85,000 she took in a Kickstarter campaign for a game she has yet to release. It was due in 2017. As a key anniversary approached she came out on Twitter to accuse Holowka of imprisonment, sexual assault by penetration and emotional abuse. Left wing media including the horrific Jess Conditt piled on, ignoring Quinn’s history, court failure and financial pressure. Holowka’s so-called friends at the gaming cooperative Night in the Woods cut ties, claiming that they had “[…] corroborated just about all of it […]” (archive). So suddenly Alec became a pariah, under attack from all sides by Quinn’s unthinking, thuggish followers on Twitter.

Tragically, Holowka killed himself and of course, as I pointed out in my last article, Benson’s claims of corroboration could not possibly be true. The reason? Zoe herself had admitted there were no witnesses. She said that Holowka acted “normal” when other people were arround. The awful cravenness of Holowka’s decision to sever ties with a colleague and his misleading statements about the controversy no doubt contributed to Alec’s decision to end his life.

Now however, Benson has gone further. In a lengthy, near ten-thousand-word Medium post (archive) he sets out his alleged experience with Alec. He posted a link on Twitter, retweeted by Conditt. It is a sickening and, in this context, heinously misleading tarring of his friend’s memory. The friend he betrayed.

Benson’s post is truly the work of a man who seems without honour. It begins as follows, “Alec Holowka died last week”. What weasel words! I was under the impression he committed suicide after being viciously attacked and abandoned by some of his friends, Scott.

The repugnant, self-serving post describes a troubled but greatly talented man. Benson describes challenges and erratic behaviour but his accusations are frequently unparticularised what he does not describe is any ‘corroboration’ of imprisonment and sexual assault. The allegations, put at their highest, are as follows – “He was physically threatening to those around him. For the first, but not the last time, Alec threatened to kill himself if I didn’t do what he wanted”. It is worth noting that Benson knew his ‘friend’ was a suicide risk. It is clear from the prose that Benson’s concern is all about himself.

In response to a small group of leftist well-wishers, he wrote the following – “Yeah we’ll be alright at some point” (archive). I beg to differ Scott Benson. You will not be okay. Not in this industry. We’ll make sure of it.

Benson’s post on September the 3rd, along with Conditt’s sharing of it, was vile. It was a low act. The kind of thing that is done by people whose main and only concern in life is themselves. As one Tweet replied, “ME, ME, ALL ABOUT ME”. The man who gave Benson his big break is dead and all he can talk about is how it impacted him. It is as if Benson and Conditt paired up to desecrate Alec Holowka’s corpse before it had even cooled.

Meanwhile, there has been silence from Verizon, Engadget’s parent company. Basic research into Conditt reveals she was formerly employed at Joystiq a company that was shut down as an underperforming brand. Then there was the time she defended an incident in which CNN randomly hunted down a Reddit user who had created a meme image critical of them and (in effect) threatened to ruin his life. Is this how Conditt sees herself? A media goddess smiting the unworthy … to death, if needs be?

I asked Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg and Verizon Media CEO K Guru Gowrappan the following questions –

1. Please provide a copy of any code of ethics / journalistic practice adopted by or in force at Engadget?
2. Please state ‘yes’ or ‘no’, does Engadget have any rule or policy document prohibiting doxing? Please provide a copy.
3. Please state ‘yes’ or ‘no’, does Engadget have any rule or policy document regarding reporting of allegations of crime? Please provide a copy.
4. Please state ‘yes’ or ‘no’, does Engadget have any rule or policy document regarding reporting of disabled or vulnerable subjects? Please provide a copy.

I received no reply. These arrogant men seemingly have nothing to say about Alec’s life. They must be held accountable.

A draft of this article was put to Scott Benson, Jess Conditt, Dana Wollman, K Guru Gowrappan and Hans Vestberg. No denials or objections were received.

Actions and Accountability

In my last article, I asked, what can readers do? Well firstly they can express their disgust and (courteously) demand justice and restitution to @BombsFall (Scott Benson), @JessConditt, @DanaWollman, @GuruGK and @HansVestberg on Twitter. They can send polite emails to mrscottbenson@gmail.com, jessconditt@gmail.com, dwollman@gmail.com, gkguru@gmail.com and hans.vestberg@verizon.com. It is important to be polite and do nothing unlawful no matter how robust the criticism that is warranted. People can make it clear they will never buy another game from Benson, and he is unwelcome in the industry.

Readers can go to the Engadget website, identify firms which are advertising their and complain to their PR departments and CEOs. They can contact major investment companies with shares in Verizon and write (by email or ideally by post) to board members of the Verizon parent company who are all named and pictured here. The smell of blood is a rapid way indeed to get the attention of company directors.

I strongly believe that Guru Gowrappan and Hans Vestberg can still show leadership. Perhaps they will. If Conditt and Wollman were escorted from the building and Engadget properly scrutinised Quinn I for one would praise Verizon to the high heavens. That will only happen however if readers make their feelings clear. Drop Vestberg and Gowrappan polite emails and let them know how you feel.

A final option is to involve your elected representatives. For example, here in the United Kingdom you can ask your Member of Parliament to put forward a petition. False allegations are in the news at the moment due to the Carl Beech trial (archive). This has led to calls for anonymity for those accused of sex crime until conviction, backed by criminal sanctions. It would be ironic if the vile conduct of Jess Conditt, Dana Wollman and Verizon led to greater rights for those accused of sex crime. It would honour Alec’s memory.