Sex, Wrestling and Mussolini: Gawker's Toxic Anti-Journalism Needs To Stop

It is generally agreed in the court of public opinion that Gawker, the trolling narcissistic media outlet, is toxic. Inwardly to their employees, as well as outwardly. They are toxic to brands like Coke. They are toxic to brands whose opinions they don't share, like Chick-fil-a. They write noxious opinion pieces in support of pedophilia. They are even poison to brands like Adobe, and Mercedes-Benz, brands who, just by showing up in the same sentence as Gawker got shit for it, even though they may not have ever been advertising partners. I won't even get into GamerGate as that's Dabitch's beat.
If all that weren't enough to make your stomach churn, let us not forget Gawker's penchant for destroying personal lives in the name of "freedom of speech." First there was a piece entitled "Condé Nast's CFO Tried To Pay 2500 for a night with a gay porn star," that was so unbelievably base and met which such widespread criticism that the site was forced to take it down, but not before the damage was done. And here's an obvious Protip: once it's on the internet it lives forever.
In case you somehow slept through last summer and missed this story, New York Magazine sums it up thusly: " Gawker published a story about a Condé Nast executive (who's married to a woman) allegedly arranging to meet up with a gay escort while on a trip to Chicago. When the escort found out who his client was, he attempted to blackmail him into helping with a housing-discrimination lawsuit he was embroiled in. The Gawker story, complete with text-message screenshots, provided anonymity to the escort but named the executive. In the end, the executive never even met up with the escort, nor did he agree to help with the discrimination lawsuit."
The criticism was that the person in question wasn't a public figure and also that it wasn't a story but an excuse to try and out someone for clicks. Of course, the damage was already done by the time they removed the story but hey, what's one person's rep when you have ad space to sell?
The question is how much longer will brands like Progressive and Red Bull (seen above) will want to swim in this cesspool?
We might soon find out. While the Condé Nast CFO in question wasn't a public figure, Hulk Hogan sure is. And now that the Hogan's 100 million dollar invasion of privacy lawsuit against Gawker over publishing and commenting on a sex tape without his consent is finally under way, we are learning a lot more about Gawker's sociopathic behavior. For instance, the examination of former editor Albert J Daulerio by lawyer Douglas E. Mirell. See this back and forth, as reported by The New York Times.

The former editor, Albert J. Daulerio, a defendant in an invasion-of-privacy lawsuit brought by the retired wrestler Hulk Hogan, was asked by the plaintiff’s lawyer where he drew the line when it came to posting videos of people having sex.
“Can you imagine a situation where a celebrity sex tape would not be newsworthy?” asked the lawyer, Douglas E. Mirell.
“If they were a child,” Mr. Daulerio replied.
“Under what age?” the lawyer pressed.
“Four.”

Let that sink in. Instead of reporting on news, or interviewing people, or writing an actual story, Gawker decided to write a story about Gawker setting up a parody account. On Twitter. And how they tweeted at a Presidential candidate. Every day. Multiple times a day. For three months. Until finally. Three months later. Donald Trump retweeted them. GOTCHA.
Brands. Media buyers. We've already reported on how digital paid media is a fraud, that doesn't do that much for your brand. But if you still want to prop up the house of cards, at least be choosy about where you place your ads. Gawker is the Zika of news outlets. How much longer are you going to spend your money advertising there?