Last Updated on May 4, 2020
Left-wing outlet Kotaku launched another round of politically charged attacks last Friday against the face of Twitch, video game streaming personality Guy “Dr Disrespect” Beahm.
Kotaku has previously tried to tar Dr Disrespect with racism, male toxicity, and other left-wing talking points, resulting in a years-long public feud that has seen many casual observers come to view Kotaku as a laughingstock.
Dr Disrespect’s public image and immense success as a 6’8″, athletic, “ripped out of his mind” gamer has resulted in intense seething from corporate media outlets ever since he began streaming H1Z1 battle royale matches on Twitch several years ago.
Last Friday, Kotaku published a hit piece titled “Dr Disrespect’s Shtick Takes A Dangerous Turn Into Spreading Coronavirus Conspiracy Theories,” which took aim at the streamer for exploring dissident perspectives on the official COVID-19 lockdown.
Kotaku gravely notes that Doc is not an actual “licensed medical professional after all,” before taking issue with the streamer sharing an article from The Hill with his audience.
The opinion piece from The Hill, titled “The data is in — stop the panic and end the total isolation,” went viral in April and laid out a case for lifting lockdown measures. The Hill is a highly respected mainstream publication, and does not fall into the category of “right-wing” or “conspiracy theory” that is often applied to unorthodox takes on COVID-19.
The article from The Hill was later retweeted by Elon Musk, who has been campaigning to reopen America on Twitter. “I don’t need Elon to convince me… but to have someone of his magnitude and his expertise – it’s pretty clear that he gets it,” Dr Disrespect said of Musk.
Kotaku continues to critique Dr Disrespect’s stream, noting that some viewers “cheered him on, praising him for pushing back against ‘the liberal establishment'” before stating, “This kind of conspiratorial rhetoric, when widely disseminated, has an impact.”
Kotaku goes on to complain that, “Time and time again, he’s acted with reckless irresponsibility while streaming, only to briefly lose his platform or not lose it at all, then reach even greater heights of success. He’s used racist accents on stream and faced no consequences at all. He streamed from a public bathroom during E3 and got booted from the convention, only to get his channel reinstated after just a couple weeks. He constantly walks a line between comedy and outright toxicity, never very carefully. Despite all this, he remains one of Twitch’s most-promoted faces, with numerous brand deals under his belt.”
“If history is anything to go on, he probably won’t face consequences,” Kotaku seethes, implying that Twitch should mete out some form of punishment to Dr Disrespect for expressing unorthodox opinions about a trending news story. To this end, Kotaku “reached out” to Twitch and Dr Disrespect, but was ignored.
The hit piece was widely critiqued on social media.
Kotaku seemingly wants @drdisrespect deplatformed cuz he has ‘bad’ opinions about lockdown & cuz he believes(?) a conspiracy theory. Regardless of how wrong he may be,this is a deplatform attempt built around wrongthink. Not hate. Not bigotry. But simply believing the wrong thing pic.twitter.com/TpDTYXJftW
— Narwitz (@SophNar0747) May 2, 2020
it's Kotaku if Disrespect was a thot they would praise him pic.twitter.com/iyuOpHhC5a
— itsagundam (@GundamIsHere) May 2, 2020
Dr Disrespect has previously trolled Kotaku employees for the outlet’s negative coverage of his work.
Hey guys, Jason Schrierer here, editor for Kotaku.
Analytics shows that Kotaku is on the uprise, averaging 3-5 likes per tweet compared to 1-3 likes 1 year ago.
I also wrote a book about video games, I don’t want to brag but it’s a favorite here at the offices.
I hate myself pic.twitter.com/Lw5NWbzHrD
— Dr Disrespect (@DrDisrespect) July 2, 2019
Kotaku previously allowed employees time off to deal with the immense stress generated by reviewing video games for a living.
