I can’t say I have ever liked Gawker, and it’s not because I have an issue with websites that prioritize clicks—I write for Bleacher Report, after all. No, I take issue with hypocrisy. I take issue with individuals and organizations that present themselves as bastions of journalistic integrity, yet abdicate that responsibility whenever the opportunity for an extra click rears its head.
The latest example of Gawker’s willingness to suspend basic journalistic—and progressive—principles concerns David Geithner, the CFO of Condé Nast and brother of ex-Obama Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. More specifically, it concerns his sex life.
A Gawker writer by the name of Jordan Sargent has published a piece that, for all intents and purposes, shames Geithner purely for arranging to have homosexual intercourse. That is all it does. He is a privileged white CFO, and he arranged to meet with a male prostitute who, with Gawker’s help, later decided to blackmail him.
If you want more details, you can find an archived version here that will deprive them of the desired clicks.
What purpose does this serve? Geithner isn’t a public figure speaking from both sides of his mouth, and he sure as hell isn’t Ted Haggard or Eliot Spitzer. Does it matter that he is married? I’m sure it matters to his wife and kids, who Gawker apparently disregarded when choosing to publish this impertinent garbage.
Gawker is a sewing circle with a blog. Nothing more. And their self-righteousness in the face of criticism shouldn’t disguise that fact.
It has been months since I followed the Gamergate story closely. However, I recall Gawker editor-in-chief Max Read’s self-fellating piece in response to losing advertisers as a result of a Gamergate campaign. It was wonderful, slow-clap-worthy stuff. Standing atop a tower of soapboxes, this pious gossipmonger railed against the bullies of Gamergate.
He was furious that his website had capitulated to demands for an apology after Gawker writer Sam Biddle sent out a tweet in support of bullying—a life-destroying offence when the roles are reversed. Read apologized to the site’s loyal followers for this self-abasement. It was delivered as though from the pen of Bob Woodward or Carl Bernstein, rather than a glorified sweetie wife.
So, how did this mountainous journalist respond when criticized for publishing a hit piece on a closeted gay man?
https://twitter.com/max_read/status/621855300509925376
What a hero. I wonder who they’ll get to play him in the movie.
