The Dragon Demands • 1 hour ago

Dear TMS: I am one of the head Admins from Game of Thrones Wiki, and I run a YouTube analysis channel with a humble 8,000 subscribers. Some of my videos have over 100,000 views. For MONTHS, I have been trying to submit behind-the-scenes analysis videos I've made
- 2 hour documentaries in some cases - criticizing the show for how it treats women and rape (offline, I have an MA in medieval history, and the real middle ages weren't like this). You don't have to like or agree with my content and I understand that, but you've never sent me a rejection letter - or, even acknowledged me in discourse of any kind. And you have full editorial control I understand that, the rejection itself wouldn't bother me....it's that I think you're intentionally ignoring my submissions.

Now, this did fit with the idea that you were enforcing a strict "no Game of Thrones reporting" policy - a policy I sympathized with even if I argued it was self-defeating: it served its purpose as a protest 2 years ago, but you're not even posting CRITICISM of it? Silencing rape critics? I mean if we found out that, I don't know, a major comic book CEO was accused of rape, would the reaction be "this offends us so much we're not even going to report on it to criticize it".

But while I felt this blanket policy was counter-productive, I always respected that you stood by it.

Now....now I'm deeply unsettled.

Maybe you didn't put this in - it is a Sponsored Content post. Maybe the Abrams Media staff did it without contacting you.

But the fact remains....this isn't even "analysis". It's a Sponsored Content generic promotional giveaway for "Game of Thrones".

You are "promoting" Game of Thrones now, in as many words.

Yet you are still enforcing a ban on submitting Game of Thrones content.

You won't even consider reporting on analysis videos I've submitted as news to your website....criticizing depictions of rape in the TV show? Revealing behind-the-scenes comments the writers made? (they admit in the Blu-ray commentaries that they basically put all of the invented rape scenes in to bait for Emmy awards.....knowledge I could have shared with a wider audience had you reported on it. Now they're the showrunners on HBO's Confederate, and you wonder why more wasn't done to stop them? To criticize them in the mass media? I was hoping on TMS for help.)

Not even CRITICAL content, if you find that controversial on the other end: last year I hosted a two hour convention panel on "Gender & Sexuality in Game of Thrones" and "Social Status of Medieval Women in Game of Thrones" -- based on my graduate-level history courses and knowledge from running an online encyclopedia about the show. I recorded all of them so it's 3 hours of panel content....on topics directly within the mission statement of TMS. I've tried submitting these as "found news" posts to TMS to run as news, and again, I'm not even being acknowledged with rejection letters.

Your website promised 2 years ago to never "promote" Game of Thrones again...to the point of counter-productively banning even criticism.
...and now, you're running Sponsored Content promos, while STILL not even sending rejection letters for submitted criticism by outside sources.

My submissions might not be to your liking, if you watch them/read them then reject them, that's up to you. But it feels like you're outright avoiding them and not even acknowledging them - I'm struggling to find a rational reason of self-interest why this is happening.

Please, let me submit my analysis videos as "found news" you report on......in order to balance out the Sponsored Content posts like this one with Game of Thrones giveaways. Please balance out these GoT promotional posts with some found news posts of rape criticism. This is your mission statement.

You don't need to like them - heck, run a *negative* "review" of them saying all the flaws you find in my analysis and criticism. Or, you don't even need to run them - all I ask is that you review my submissions made in good faith, and send back a rejection notification indicating that you watched the whole thing from start to finish and felt it wasn't up to your standards - I entirely respect this as a professional choice.

But it feels like you've silently blackballed even allowing "Criticism of Rape in Game of Thrones" on TMS, to the point you're not even acknowledging submissions in order to reject them - are you even reviewing this?
What can you possibly gain from not posting news on criticism of rape in Game of Thrones? I really do not understand anymore. The protest ran its course, you're promoting them again now, why is there still a ban in effect *silencing rape critics*....by The Mary Sue? At a time of the #MeToo movement? What is going on?

I will politely and through proper channels try to contact your editorial board. I hope that works out, and I'd settle for a formal rejection letter.

But if you do not even acknowledge this message, I will mount a write-in campaign from my YouTube Channel (8,000+ subscribers), targeted NOT at you but at your *superiors* at Abrams Media.

Two years ago it was Jill Pantozzi who was Chief Editor at TMS who instituted the Game of Thrones reporting ban. I respect her and still do. She's not here now but I want to think you will continue her legacy - if Abrams Media still wants to continue that legacy of journalistic integrity, as I hope they do.

I have screenshotted this post in the event it gets deleted.

We will take back everything we have lost. We will take our dignity back.

I am tired of waiting for other people to do that right thing. But I'm not alone: Rhaenyra Has An Army.

But I'm seeking mutual benefit - I really want that. I want you to be the champions I hope you are, and I want my content to be good enough that it generates a lot of pageviews for your site, and thus ad revenue for Abrams Media. While my criticisms get exposure. We all gain from this.

Are there no true knights among you?