A bunch of people gave a shit around dorito's pope era, when the journalists started feeling the heat they decided to hook behind 'any criticism must sexist and gamergate' a convenient distraction for them. That shit's going to come back round on them and these bought youtuber people eventually.
Didn't the Dorito Pope thing happen pre-2013 before GG actually took off?
Yes and the criticism caused a bunch of site's policies to change, even as people started to harangue them over the most minor shit (in the GAF thread at least). GG have crowned themselves the arbiters of good conduct in the interim. The conversation with them is broken beyond repair though, so whatever...
As an example: When Filip Miucin's plagiarism came to light I saw a bunch of people on Reddit claim that IGN or the industry at large would cover for him.

The reason the press doesn't and won't have GG dictate anything to them is the closely intertwined culture war element of it that supporters want to deny or downplay for some mysterious reason.