That's an excuse, not reality.
I mean, sure, LITERALLY that's true, but that ignores basic premises of propaganda, human psychology, and persuasion. The first word in "GamerGate" is, in fact, "Gamer". Ask any psychology expert how human beings associate things, that means ANYTHING associated with GamerGate will, in fact, be associated with gamers on the whole. To deny this is to turn a blind eye to the true dangers of the media's propaganda.
And sadly, the propaganda works, I can show PLENTY of examples of people calling, not GamerGate, but, in fact, gamers, misogynists and woman haters.