Because, even in that first day*, the topic was not "Is it right for a journalist to sleep with a game developer"? Frankly, even if that was the topic, it's meaningless. Any real journalist might be in a relationship with could end up being someone or involved in something they eventually write about. It's journalistic ethics to step back and say "I can't write about this, I'm too close." If that is truly a complaint, state it for the entire profession and stop targeting the women who might be linked to the journalists. It isn't the journalist's SO that has the ethical issue.
At no point was that the actual discussion being held in the vast majority of subr or 4chan boards. It was a panic of "a woman developer slept with a guy, she must have done it for trade for good reviews." No proof was offered, it was assumed that "if a shitty game" (to quote others) "could get green lit on steam, it had to have inside help."
*The second problem is that this wasn't the first day of "gamer gate". The storm over Depression Quest getting green lit on Steam was already rolling before then. The trolls had been threatening Anna Sarkisian for over a year about her documentary about "misogyny in video games". The "five guy" blog post was what many of the others latched on to in order to make their trolling seem "more appropriate" . . . as if any game developer's sexual habits are grounds to send them death threats, publish their home addresses and the addresses of the people someone claims they slept with, or any of the other harassment that followed.
And if the GGers tactics were not so egregious, driving women from their homes and threatening their safety and life, I could agree with you that ignoring them is the best policy. But, let's look at the actions: Chris Klewe, a male gamer, posts some rather disparaging remarks about "GGers" . . . nothing happened. Felicia Day, a female gamer, posts that this had scared her even though she isn't linked to it, and isn't a game developer; and since "how dare she speak about us" is apparently how GG rolls, her private information, address, phone number, etc, is all published publicly for other to harass her.
If this weren't an attempt to silence the voice of women in video games, they would have a much better time convincing the world of their real complaints if they stopped harassing just women. Feminists (not in quotes because there is real post-gender and post-3rd-wave feminism that is not "white women over white men" in this discussion) don't take kindly to being told "You have no place in this discussion, guys are talking about guy issues; gaming is obviously a guy only issue because we make up 99% of gamers". The feminist response, prior to GG, was simply "And we are trying to develop games that women will like as well, so the community of gamers expands." . . . which lead to GG's response of "Evil women are trying to destroy male-dominating games by . . . . making games women will play? No, that's not a good reason, oh look, someone might have used sex to get something. Since we haven't gotten to do the same, let's slut-shame everyone!" and devolved into race-baiting caricatures based on NeoNazi agitprop and actual Nazi propaganda.
hey, /., just because I used the word 'troll' doesn't mean the lameness filter needs to be involved. I'm referring to those in the GG movement who the rest of the movement sees as the extremists. Doesn't mean I don't think they are the actual core of the GG movement, but since some otherwise rational people think that way the word is a valid term to describe the difference.