I really do hope there are more to these rumours than meets the eye. The implications are disasterous if true. This is not something that will go away either. It will hang over Gamespot for a very long time.

You simply cannot have a credible review system whereby reviews are influenced by how much a publisher spends in advertising dollars.

edit:

What we know so far.

1. Jeff Gerstman was fired from Gamespot, he apparently contacted Joystiq.com himslef and confirmed this. Link

2. The Video Review (seen here) and the advertising for Kayne and Lynch have been removed from the site.

Now these two pieces of information do not confirm the story but they certainly paint a very strong picture. And its not a pretty one.

Some one at gamespot needs to clear things up and soon.