hey gawker dudes. what the fuck is wrong with you?

I'm sure there are lots of fine people working for gawker media but I read that post and I think to myself: freedom ain't free y'all

there is no other major media company where a person could read a very bad, very racist op-ed column published at the country’s most respected newspaper, then decide to spend 90 minutes writing a piece about that columnist’s butthole, have Tom Scocca edit it perfectly within fifteen minutes and Bobby Finger make a stupidly professional gif within five, and then publish it immediately on a large platform—and, not to be a dickhead, also have that piece be decently good.

nice work if you can get it

what happens in david brooks asshole should stay in david brooks asshole imo

Also like I said upthread anyone whoever got a paycheck from writing or editing has to have some sympathy for the writers because i know goddamn well the things i fucked up and got by with because (thankfully) i wasn't on a big level yet and no one noticed, and that's just fucking luck not me being smarter or more ethical. the grind of having to produce every day will make you make lapses in judgment you would never think you'd make, and not even out of spite. it's just like hey that looks like the big chunk of meat I can throw into the sarlacc pit of the internet today and some days you're just busy or just don't step back and think. the pace of it makes these things impossible to avoid. my beat was much more in the toy dept compared to people's lives but i can't say i didn't make mistakes. but everyone has gutted fact checkers and good old school editors and racheted up the pace to having to deliver daily (or more) pieces, it's like this shit is preordained to happen.

that said, i don't agree w/the defense of it that came after, i like those guys i just think they are full of shit on those points about why it was "news." but when it's pulled because of advertisers coming down that is bullshit even if the story that is the crux of it should have been scuttled before it was published.

upper MS sh@kedown otm
lag00n otm

i never should have left the woods

same

were you in the woods when all of this happened too? a few days ago i was floating down a river drawling "keep on choooooglin....chooglin....CHOOOglin...CHOOOglin, CHOOGLIN, CHOOOGLIN.....*buuuurp*..........................keep on chooglin...", then i emerge and suddenly everything is wrong

ha i caught the beginning of it on my way to the woods and was all why am i going off the line now!

instinctively i realized that the golden era of the internet was truly over. i had a chance to join gandalf and frodo and the rest of the gang on a boat ride west from middle earth, once and for all, in the form of a beer-soaked CCR raft, and instead i went back to the airport.

im going toobin today B-)

anyway, pointless posts on my part because every angle of this has been dissected a million times and now everyone hates each other more than they already did, but yeah, all of this is just sad.

xpost

KEEP ON CHOOGLIN!

CHOOG 4 LYFE

gr8 thread

for me to http://rs717.pbsrc.com/albums/ww173/prestonjjrtr/Smileys/slapen_aan_pc.gif~c200 on

wow incredibly rude tbh

a lot of posters worked very hard on this thread

whats the thread abt anyway

have u seen the movie horrible bosses?

well this thread is about its sequel horrible bosses 2

josh marshall has important thoughts

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/on-that-gawker-story

ive seen the movie iron eagle

actual lol

http://a4.img.talkingpointsmemo.com/image/upload/c_thumb%2Cfl_keep_iptc%2Cg_faces%2Ch_200%2Cw_200/p8kice8zq6szrqrmqxag.jpghttp://a4.img.talkingpointsmemo.com/image/upload/c_thumb%2Cfl_keep_iptc%2Cg_faces%2Ch_200%2Cw_200/p8kice8zq6szrqrmqxag.jpghttp://a4.img.talkingpointsmemo.com/image/upload/c_thumb%2Cfl_keep_iptc%2Cg_faces%2Ch_200%2Cw_200/p8kice8zq6szrqrmqxag.jpghttp://a4.img.talkingpointsmemo.com/image/upload/c_thumb%2Cfl_keep_iptc%2Cg_faces%2Ch_200%2Cw_200/p8kice8zq6szrqrmqxag.jpghttp://a4.img.talkingpointsmemo.com/image/upload/c_thumb%2Cfl_keep_iptc%2Cg_faces%2Ch_200%2Cw_200/p8kice8zq6szrqrmqxag.jpghttp://a4.img.talkingpointsmemo.com/image/upload/c_thumb%2Cfl_keep_iptc%2Cg_faces%2Ch_200%2Cw_200/p8kice8zq6szrqrmqxag.jpg

jordan got the story because he got the tip

It took the internet like 2 seconds to out this tipster as a 911 truther race war guy. The fact that he took this as a legit tip is all sorts of wtf. Whatta dork.

Tbf jord mentioned the guy's truther leanings in the original post (not that i think that makes it better, it was almost like flaunting all the fun quirky reasons this article was sketchy and risky to run)

flaunting all the fun quirky reasons this article was sketchy and risky to run

manic pixie gay porn star gun nut 9/11 truther

http://richjuz.kinja.com/on-outing-not-outing-and-working-for-gawker-1719014904

The story, in my view, wasn’t anti-gay, but it was inhumane.

There is a Gawker story in there, and my version would have been: Look at This Crazy, Conspiracy-Obsessed Porn Star Who’s Trying To Blackmail a High-Powered Media Executive (That I’m Not Going to Name).

Nothing problematic about that.

come on, porn stars are part of the ruling elite

If you’re one who cried, “Homophobia!” immediately, check yourself. If you think Geithner’s life was “ruined” because you perceive him to be gay, you are homophobic. If you think a life in the closet is preferable to a life outside of it, you are homophobic.

jesus fucking christ

I think that Jordan, whom I admire as a writer and adore as a human being, was doing his job. Jordan is bold. He takes risks, he’s not afraid to piss people off. His willingness to publish true stories that people will find morally questionable means he understands his position.

I stand with the union regarding the removal of the post, and I absolutely hate that Max and Tommy have resigned as a result of it, though I get it. This is just the most recent and public strong stand that these two honorable and brilliant men have taken. Though my faith is challenged at the moment, I still believe in Gawker’s ability to do the good, important work that we do when we are at our best.

i don't think i need to throw any more shade at gawker and former-gawker employees than i have but jesus these guys have built quite a self-adulating mythology around what is ultimately gossip-mongering.

say what you will about TMZ i don't think they've convinced themselves that they are honorable, intrepid journalists for running clickbait and occasionally interesting longform pieces about how reddit is racist.

Geithner’s apparent interest in having sex with a man is but one facet that made the story juicy—that he solicited a porn performer, attempted to pay for sex, and subverted monogamous ideals are others. I don’t believe that he should be ashamed of any of these things, but I also know that these are the elements that make for good gossip.

the bizarre moral calculus of "good gossip"

Just war theory of the internet

"i don't judge, i just facilitate others' passing judgement. this somehow makes me a noble servant of the public interest and not a soulless blog monster."

Has HamNo commented on this whole fiasco?

it's actually upsetting that a story posted in summer of 2015 outing a closeted man can be dismissed so easily by normy nerds like sterling clover and rich juzwiak or be turned into a free speech issue by max and the other dude that resigned. this is 100% about perceived taboos, social norms, sexual identity and homophobic media. to deny that is to deny all the work lgbt activists and allies have accomplished in recent years and the irreversible damage stories like this do and makes the denier part of the problem.

I haven't commented much because sarge, whom I hung out with last weekend, is a good friend off the board. But I'm disappointed that Rich chose the admire-them-for-taking-risks angle. The easiest thing in a 2.0 world is to take risks. Social media facilitates impetuosity. Also:

If you think Geithner’s life was “ruined” because you perceive him to be gay, you are homophobic. If you think a life in the closet is preferable to a life outside of it, you are homophobic.

is bullshit. Of course Geithner and wife could've had an open relationship – and that's the point. "Geithner's life" isn't just his own but his wife's and family's.

yah painting this as some sort of heroic bold move in a world where no one takes chances any more gives me serious douche chills.

In a world without chance ...

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lraknh2Drz1qmvdpl.gif

The Gawker dudes itt apparently believe that employers are all 'whatevs!' about the prospect of discovering their employees' dick pics on the net. They also seemed to previously think their employers were all 'eff advertisers and their $$$!'. It's not a great leap to assume that they might also think the world at large is gonna be all 'nbd!' toward people who've been outed. I envy their utopian outlook.

i kinda wonder if there's a generation gap at work there

i imagine it's more like it's difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it

If you think Geithner’s life was “ruined” because you perceive him to be gay, you are homophobic. If you think a life in the closet is preferable to a life outside of it, you are homophobic.

is bullshit. Of course Geithner and wife could've had an open relationship – and that's the point. "Geithner's life" isn't just his own but his wife's and family's.

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, July 21, 2015 12:51 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

if you had quoted like the actual next sentence then rjuz was making the same point, fwiw: "This is, of course, all assuming that Geithner isn’t out as bisexual or queer or whatever the potential label (if he believes in labels) to his wife, or that they don’t have some sort of arrangement. "

like we've heard for awhile that this generation posts everything online and doesn't get why you wouldn't or shouldn't and that in the future nobody will be able to run for president cuz everyone will have a vine of them giving head or whatever out there. gawker's just the first place where nearly the whole staff was that young.

that's why I added "of course"

xpost

Rich was hedging his assertion. Alfred was throwing it back in his face.

"YOU GUYS ACCUSING MY FRIEND OF HOMOPHOBIA ARE THE REAL HOMOPHOBES." so embarrassing.

even if he's out to his wife, i imagine being outed to the world at large as a client of gay porn star escorts might make his life difficult