On Gawker, Nick Denton, and the Geithner Fiasco.

This past weekend, a furor erupted in the blogosphere (remember THAT word?!) when tabloid-shame-cesspool Gawker posted a piece about the CFO of Condé Nast, David Gethner, allegedly hiring a male sex worker for a romantic rendezvous.

The meta-frenzy about the article itself is centered about the morality and ethicality of outing a closeted, not-heterosexual man.  I have mixed feelings about this, but they break down into two general areas:

  1. Outing people is inherently dangerous to their safety and well-being, emotionally and sometimes physically.
  2. Criminal behavior is very often reported on in the news media, so much so that it’s a sort of spectator sport in America.

It would be really hard, but maybe not impossible, to report on one aspect of that story without including most of the tawdry details of this illicit transaction.  This would save the person from being outed, at least maybe for a little while.

Which brings us to a journalistic denouement, of sorts.  Stomachs roiling at the blood on their metaphorical hands, Gawker management, consisting of Nick Denton and several others [ announced ] in what could only be described as the most egotistical and pseudophilosphical way, that they would be piercing the editorial firewall and removing the post.  Using seven “I”s, Nick extols how HE is the last bastion of ethical journalism, after publishing all of that garbage attributed to his name before.  HE has evolved, matured, grown beyond the original mission, like some sort of organic, shit-eating, equity-queefing alien queen.  Only HE has the power to right the ship and do the right thing, to put Gawker back on track.

To say that I’m disgusted by the absolute hubris by which he judges himself the moral compass, the infallible Godhead of Gawker, is an understatement.  What he’s going to get, ladies and gentlemen, is a host of newly-unionized Gawker writers who see this in the context of what it is:  retaliation for unionization, a reminder that HE is the boss of you and that no collective bargaining agreement will strip his absolute power from him.

Enjoy your bed, Nick.  You’ve made it, now sleep in it.