![]() Strident defenses of his character from female co-workers were not enough to save Dickinson, who was fired and is now considered toxic to employers and investors. Whereas Sacco had her career ruined by Gawker falsely accusing her of racism over un-PC jokes, Dickinson faced the same sort of public shaming over allegations of sexism, via Gawker’s Valleywag blog. Sacco has since made peace with Gawker, but after last night’s events, perhaps she could be persuaded to have second thoughts.ĭickinson is the male version of Sacco and the self-described “patient zero” of online shaming campaigns. One joke, magnified by Gawker for no good reason, had ruined Sacco’s career. Within the space of a few hours, Sacco was rendered unemployable. But when Gawker’s Sam Biddle decided to publish a risqué joke she made on Twitter, he maliciously catapulted her into global infamy. Sacco wasn’t particularly famous or powerful - she worked in corporate communications. In Jon Ronson’s acclaimed book on Twitter-shaming campaigns, Justine Sacco is the lead example. Geithner and Hulk Hogan are well within their rights to sue. Kevorkian to Gawker’s suicidal tendencies. This couldn’t have come at a worse time for Gawker. The company is currently facing a $100m lawsuit over their release of Hulk Hogan’s sex tape. Again, no public interest justification has been offered besides mentioning Hogan’s celebrity and his penchant for machismo bragging.įor Gawker to remind the world of its reputation for poorly researched, personally-invasive reporting at this moment is utter madness. But, you know what, I’m happy to play Dr. Recognising the magnitude of the disaster, other Gawker writers have started to run for cover.īut it’s too late. Dude tries a shake down of a closet case, then randomly outs him. It's disgraceful, and it shouldn't be referred to as journalism. There's no excuse for the Gawker piece, which I won't link to. Journalists from other publications quickly began piling on. ![]() Gawker’s latest blunder even threatens to turn GamerGate, the hashtag movement who cost the media company seven figures in revenue after an advertiser boycott last year, into unlikely heroes. A list of Gawker’s advertisers created by GamerGate last year is currently going viral on Twitter, even appearing in USA Today. I mean, I know liberals are obsessed with ending life, whether by abortion or euthanasia, but I didn’t realise that extended to their media properties. It’s as though Gawker CEO Nick Denton has a death wish. No reputable journalist can recognise that company as a responsible reporting outlet.įrom now on, it’s archive.today all the way. But after Gawker’s appalling story about David Geithner, there is no more solidarity to be had with them. I have in the past resisted using services like that out of journalistic solidarity. It’s a way of producing a photocopy, if you like, of web content that does not generate new clicks, and therefore ad revenue, when readers visit. Many of my Twitter followers use “archive links” to deny advertising revenue to sites they dislike. And Gawker acted as a willing participant in gay extortion. A man’s reputation was held hostage at blogpoint and an editor went ahead and pulled the trigger, perhaps even knowing the story was shaky.Įvidently, Gawker is the kind of place where they hold up pictures of Sabrina Erdely and say: “Now this is how you do it!” Let that sink in for a second: the conspiracy theorist’s plan was to use Gawker as leverage over Geithner. The “escort” specifically told the blogging network that Geithner promised to take one of the escort’s conspiracy theories to President Obama if he got Gawker to kill the story. They went ahead with the story anyway.Īnd Gawker knew it was a shakedown from the very beginning. Geithner, for his part, denies that any text messages between the “escort” and himself took place: “I don’t know who this individual is. According to at least one source, the male escort used by Gawker is a conspiracy theorist who delights in leading journalist and politicians astray with bogus stories. Worse, it seems the story may not even be true. He’s just an accountant – for one of Gawker’s commercial rivals. So there’s no argument he’s a hypocrite worth exposing. He’s not a public figure or law enforcement official and has never spoken against LGBT rights. Geithner has a wife and kids, and Gawker has offered no public interest justification for outing him. The odious blog network has just added yet another powerful name to the growing list of people who ought to sue them, running a story outing Condé Nast CFO David Geithner as gay, including what purports to be a set of text messages between Geithner and a gay porn star who works as a male escort. ![]() What is it with Gawker? Are they just incompetent, or are they actually trying to get sued into bankruptcy?
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