A Media Watch report shows trust can easily be eroded.
Image at top: A still from Monday night’s Media Watch report (ABC).
A Monday night ABC Media Watch report into a failure by Press Start’s Shannon Grixti to properly disclose sponsorships and sponsored content has highlighted the thin line that can exist between Australian influencers, journalists, and brands. It also raises questions on the trustworthiness of online content consumed by readers, listeners, and viewers.
Media Watch’s report, which can be viewed below, starts off with a report that Grixti failed to disclose he was paid by ASUS to not only host a ROG Xbox Ally event in Sydney, but to post about the handheld on his personal social media channels. While a disclosure statement (“AD”) was posted on said social media, it didn’t make its way to Grixti’s Press Start review of the handheld.
The report continues on to detail Grixti’s Lenovo Legion Go S reviews, which appeared nearly word-for-word on both his personal social media channels and on Press Start. While a social media disclosure of “Sponsored by Lenovo” was present, it wasn’t on Press Start.
“In the last year alone, we found eighteen instances… where Shannon Grixti wrote about products for Southern Cross Austereo [Press Start’s owner] without any disclosure,” reported ABC Media Watch’s host, Linton Besser. “That when he posted about the products on his personal social media, they were marked as ads.”
Shown on screen at the time of Besser’s quote (seen at the top of this article) were five of the eighteen articles in question: reviews and analysis of MSI’s Claw 8 AI+, MSI’s RTX 50-series GPUs, SteelSeries’ Arctis Gamebuds, Gigabyte’s M27UP monitor, and Microsoft/Bethesda’s Fallout 4 Anniversary Edition.
Stevivor has reached out to MSI, SteelSeries, Microsoft, Bethesda, Lenovo, and ASUS for comment on the content, though none of our attempts at contact have been returned as of the time of writing.
As part of the report, Media Watch detailed Press Start’s Code of Ethics page, which has seemingly been removed and redirected to the Press Start’s “Podcast” page yesterday, and Press Start’s home page today. Other changes to the website following Media Watch’s report — as reported by Media Watch itself — include the addition of a number of disclosure statements that hadn’t appeared previously.
Finally, Press Start’s “Team” page has been amended to include a disclosure statement under Grixti’s profile, reading, “From time to time, this author may host events or create sponsored content outside on his personal pages outside of the scope of his editorial work.”
How “outside the scope of his editorial work” fits in the scenario above — in which Grixti’s used nearly identical copy in a personal review and a Press Start review of the Lenovo Legion Go S — was not explained. It’s similarly unclear how financials work in these sponsored posts — is Grixti personally receiving payment, or is Press Start (or both)?
On the matter, both Southern Cross Austereo and ASUS did return a request for comment from Media Watch itself, while Grixti himself declined.
“We know maintaining the trust of our readers is essential, and we’re strengthening our editorial and commercial processes to make sure these standards are clear and upheld,” Southern Cross Austereo said.
“ASUS partnered with Shannon Grixti for the launch of the ROG Xbox Ally in October 2025, where he served as the event’s Master of Ceremonies (MC),” ASUS stated. “We wish to clarify that this collaboration was structured without any affiliate link arrangements or commission-based incentives. ASUS is committed to transparency, and all associated content was fully disclosed in accordance with Australian Consumer Law (ACL).”
As Besser summarises, “[Shannon Grixti is] perfectly within his rights to go and make money from the booming gaming sector, but good luck to him if he also expects his readers to trust him.”
We take disclosure very seriously here at Stevivor, detailing things like the receipt of a ROG Xbox Ally X from ASUS and Microsoft in our review, potential conflicts of interest (and their resolutions) as in the ase of our LEGO Party review, how we’ve obtained review code, and — of late — when we are flown or even eat and drink at preview events.
It needs to be pointed out that in those situations, no money or payments were offered, nor accepted, as part of said review or preview coverage — nor will we ever entertain that possibility. To do so would be to write for the brand, and not for our readers.
This is also combined with a disclosure and interests page that details our travels, alongside current sponsorship and commercial arrangements such as Amazon affiliate links that are included in our game info boxes (and, for the past four months at the very least, have not earned a single commission because no one clicks on them).
In the (increasingly rare) event that we publish a sponsored post, that is disclosed using the flag of “Sponsored Content” authorship, alongside a disclosure statement of who has provided Stevivor with payment. That includes, of course, previous sponsored posts paid by Bethesda, a brand owner detailed in this article.
Our goal with said disclosure is to let a reader know that we can be trusted, and that our reviews are written our readers in mind.
Said disclosure is also extremely important as it shows our bottom line is impacted in very different ways that receiving a cash payment — Stevivor simply wouldn’t continue to exist if it had to cover the costs involved with purchasing every game we review or write about. Getting a promotional copy from a publisher means the money we receive from ads you see littered around this page goes into server costs and commissioning writers to create the content you read. Similarly, receiving hardware like a Meta Quest 3 from Meta itself saves Stevivor from needing to purchase a virtual reality headset, and also ensures we can review more Meta Quest 3 titles like the upcoming Star Trek Infection moving forward.
While disclosure is useful in building and retaining trust, it’s also the law.
Lawyer Shauna Ng says that “influencers must clearly disclose paid promotions to comply with Australian Consumer Law and avoid misleading consumers,” adding that “both businesses and influencers can be held accountable for false or misleading representations” under the law.
In our experience, any items sent by publishers are generally accompanied with a reminder to disclose the nature of the situation, using suggested hashtags like “#gifted”. Payment for content like sponsored posts need to be detailed as such, using statements of hashtags of “#ad” or “#paidad”.
More information can be found on the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s website.
This article may contain affiliate links, meaning we could earn a small commission if you click-through and make a purchase. Stevivor is an independent outlet and our journalism is in no way influenced by any advertiser or commercial initiative.
