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Gawker has been gone for a year. We’ve never needed it more than now. (WaPo)

R

ryseing

Member
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...or-a-year-weve-never-needed-it-more-than-now/

Now that Gawker’s buried, we might consider what we lost when that mischievous and irresponsible purveyor of gossip was shuttered. Gawker was not simply an influential Web outlet; its proudly independent sensibility and critical autonomy remain rare in today’s corporate media sphere. But to consider Gawker simply a minnow in a sea of whales is to miss its true value. Gawker might have been foolhardy, reckless and ultimately self-destructive, but it was also, above all, courageous. With the hindsight of Donald Trump’s ascendancy to the presidency, we should all recognize that courage in the media is needed now more than ever.
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But to place Gawker only in the context of the Web era is to miss its historical significance. Like PM (New York’s experimental newspaper in the 1940s), or the Berkeley Barb and other alternative press outlets in the 1960s, Gawker began as a crusade to save journalism. Like its alternative predecessors, Gawker challenged the processed wire copy and objective norms of standardized news content with pieces that could be opinionated, sensationalistic, and occasionally bizarre. Readers would be lured in with narcissistic displays, participatory journalism, and styles of address that could range from the nihilistic to the euphoric. There’s a reason it was named “Gawker.”
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To have successfully developed a sensibility that’s simultaneously attractive and annoying may be Gawker’s ultimate legacy. It was a brave but foolhardy attempt to force a new kind of media freedom on an unprepared world. For all its childish snark, Gawker was run by people who understood that authorities — in the media, politics, and culture — too often fail to keep the public’s best interests in mind. Though Gawker is gone, the fact remains that the powerful still don’t have the public’s best interests at heart. But the courage required to point this out — in an amusing, satirical, and pointed manner — is in shorter and shorter supply. For instance, a recent story about the allegedly cultlike and possibly abusive lifestyle of rapper R. Kelly that appeared in BuzzFeed almost never ran, thanks to outlets’ fear of a Thiel-type response. It’s impossible to know how many similarly important stories will never see the light of day for that very reason.
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More at the link. I know Gawker shutting down was a hot topic on this board, so I figured this article could create some good discussion.
 
styl3s

styl3s

Member
BuzzFeed almost never ran, thanks to outlets’ fear of a Thiel-type response. It’s impossible to know how many similarly important stories will never see the light of day for that very reason.
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It's almost impossible to know how many lives would be ruined as well.

Fuck Gawker, good riddance.
 
K

KorrZ

Member
Yes the courage to do things like assist in blackmail by revealing people's sexual orientation against their will. I guess Gawker would do well in the Trump era.
 
I

Illithid Dude

Member
I actually liked Gawker, but even I acknowledge they did a very shitty thing in publishing that video and deserve to suffer the consequences. They crossed a line, plain and simple.
 
Giolon

Giolon

Member
No, Gawker was garbage. It got the fate that it deserved. Unfortunately, Gawker-like articles pervade all the rest of the properties purchased by Univision, particularly on Gizmodo.

Besides, are they trying to make the argument that all the rest of the US news outlets between online and print are afraid of Trump? Fucking please.
 
H

HTupolev

Member
Surface of Me said:
Nah.
Click to expand...
avoqr8L.jpg
 
P

Psychoward

Banned
ryseing said:
Can we have more than drive-bys? Gawker was a foundational part in how we consume news in 2017, and the site's writing styles influenced almost every blogger.

Not defending its scummy practices, but there has been a noticeable void since Gawker was shut down.
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The article saying that outing someone against their will was courageous is pretty fucking shitty.
 
D

Dio Brando

Banned
while it's ridiculous that one (Peter Thiel) can just bank a case into their favor, fuck no. good riddance.

Thiel had every reason to hate them. i dislike that it was in the end just a vindicative thing. just felt like "i'll throw money till you die."
 
N

Nokterian

Member
People saying nah..but think of this when Hulk Hogan won the case and it was done by Pieter Thiel (you know the guy who wants young mens blood to stay young, he thinks he is a vampire but he is just creepy).

This result can be unprecedented towards other outlets, this will attack journalists, it can shut them down and bring more censorship also for freedom of information will be stifled, very dangerous path this is going even if it is one website down you may never knew what can be a next target, maybe The New York Times? Washington Post? Or even news channels like CNN,MSNBC etc i can go on but we wary this can lead in a dangerous path towards censorship.
 
E

ElectricBlanketFire

Member
Nokterian said:
People saying nah..but think of this when Hulk Hogan won the case and it was done by Pieter Thiel (you know the guy who wants young mens blood to stay young, he thinks he is a vampire but he is just creepy).

This result can be unprecedented towards other outlets, this will attack journalists, it can shut them down and bring more censorship also for freedom of information will be stifled, very dangerous path this is going even if it is one website down you may never knew what can be a next target, maybe The New York Times? Washington Post? Or even news channels like CNN,MSNBC etc i can go on but we wary this can lead in a dangerous path towards censorship.
Click to expand...

No. Don't use shitty, unethical tactics and you'll be fine.
 
D

D4Danger

Unconfirmed Member
Nokterian said:
People saying nah..but think of this when Hulk Hogan won the case and it was done by Pieter Thiel (you know the guy who wants young mens blood to stay young, he thinks he is a vampire but he is just creepy).

This result can be unprecedented towards other outlets, this will attack journalists, it can shut them down and bring more censorship also for freedom of information will be stifled, very dangerous path this is going even if it is one website down you may never knew what can be a next target, maybe The New York Times? Washington Post? Or even news channels like CNN,MSNBC etc i can go on but we wary this can lead in a dangerous path towards censorship.
Click to expand...

And yet that hasn't happened. Makes you think.
 
1

120v

Member
gawker was always my broad news "go to" when dicking around with my phone or tablet. i never really followed the controversies

i'm not dying without it or anything but its been quite an adjustment. Mediaite took its place for me but it gets updated at a snails pace sometimes
 
K

Kyne

Member
TIL Gawker was gone.

I thought it was just another branch of Kotaku/Gizmodo/etc. Those sites are still around. What the hell was Gawker?
 
V

Volimar

Member
ryseing said:
Can we have more than drive-bys? Gawker was a foundational part in how we consume news in 2017, and the site's writing styles influenced almost every blogger.

Not defending its scummy practices, but there has been a noticeable void since Gawker was shut down.
Click to expand...

There's still plenty of garbage out there.
 
S

ShironRedshift

Member
Courage? Yeah, that's definitely one word for abetting in blackmail just for the sake of a scoop and helping that blackmailer to out a man's sexuality instead of having even a single thread if journalistic ethics or integrity and telling the blackmailer to get tossed. Nothing of value was lost from that ethicless tabloid being shut down.

If that kind of trash is just thr price we have to pay for "true journalism" I'm quite fine without it because fuck that. Fortunately, it's not.
 
Dude Abides

Dude Abides

Banned
ryseing said:
Can we have more than drive-bys? Gawker was a foundational part in how we consume news in 2017, and the site's writing styles influenced almost every blogger.

Not defending its scummy practices, but there has been a noticeable void since Gawker was shut down.
Click to expand...

But they published embarrassing information about a shitbag who pretended to fight people when millenials were children so they were very very bad indeed.
 
M

Madness

Member
With the hindsight of Donald Trump’s ascendancy to the presidency, we should all recognize that courage in the media is needed now more than ever.
Click to expand...

Outing people against their will, posting nude or sex tapes about individuals and then bragging about not taking them down is not 'courage'... Gawker was trash, and is now in the trash heap of trash journalism. My reaction was similar to the succintly worded 'nah' above.

We have courage in the media. It is the reporters and journalists doing great work day in and day out in the face of 'fake news'. This presidency is not forever.
 
E

Einchy

semen stains the mountaintops
ryseing said:
Can we have more than drive-bys? Gawker was a foundational part in how we consume news in 2017, and the site's writing styles influenced almost every blogger.

Not defending its scummy practices, but there has been a noticeable void since Gawker was shut down.
Click to expand...
That sounds like the best argument for it to be gone.
 
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