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Someone posted this as a reply to us on twitter. In 2004 a writer named John Lee from Africana.com posted an article on Alternet arguing that Denton's Gawker empire was a racist institution.
Denton has mapped out a route for monetizing the blog world in short order. It is a strategy to provoke outrage and publicity by taking the piss out of celebrities and luminaries of New York and DC. And I don't have any problem with that. It's just that these sites have decided that one way to telegraph their supreme coolness is to continually joke about non-whites as marginalized second-class citizens. It's this casual, damaging disregard that is hard to quantify, and yet, Gawker and Wonkette exemplify the growing phenomenon of white hipsters adopting a casual racism. Is it any wonder so many still feel blogging's a white man's sport?
Reminder, back when Carol Burnett sued The Enquirer they tried the first amendment defense as well. CAROL BURNETT GIVEN $1.6 MILLION IN SUIT AGAINST NATIONAL ENQUIRER
The publication based much of its defense on what Mr. Masterson termed ''the First Amendment issue,'' or the press's Constitutional right to report the news without restraint.
''I speak not only for a client but also for a principle, and that is the freedom of the press - your right to know,'' Mr. Masterson said in his closing argument.
''There are some who may feel that some news is more important than other,'' Mr. Masterson said, apparently alluding to The Enquirer's reputation for reporting on the activities of show business and jet set celebrities. He added that 'according to the Supreme Court, news is news, period,'' and ''it's all entitled to the same protection'' under the First Amendment.
This GQ article has a different glow today: "Gawker Ex-Editor A.J. DeLaurio: The Worldwide Leader in Sextapes"
Before posting the photos and voice mails, Daulerio argued with Gawker's lawyer and chief operating officer, Gaby Darbyshire, over legal exposure. "She's like, 'You're willing to go to jail for this? It's just a dong shot,' " Daulerio recalls. "And I'm like, 'It's fucking Brett Favre's cock shot.' So yeah. If Brett Favre sued or [the pictures] were subpoenaed—I don't think they'd send me to jail for that, but given the choice, sure."
Elkins at Business Insider made a similar list and notes that Gawker lost a big chunk of money due to losing sponsors, however some of this is incorrect:
October 2014: Adobe pulled its Gawker sponsorship after a writer tweeted a joke about bullying in the gaming industry. Gawker ran a series of posts about the GamerGate movement — and one of its writers tweeted that GamerGate “nerds” deserve to be “constantly shamed and degraded into submission” — that reportedly resulted in advertisers including Adobe and Mercedes-Benz tempering their ad dollars. Politico reported that it cost Gawker “seven figures” in lost advertising revenue.
Adobe wasn't a sponsor, we noted this in October 2014;
Take Adobe for instance, even Adage is misrepresenting what happened to them, as they state Adobe ".....gave in to their demands before fully understanding the situation."
Adobe however, has simply stated that they were not in fact a partner with Gawker and asked to have their logo removed from the partner page. That's a story of false advertising, but when only the social media accounts handle PR and there's nobody picking up the phone at brands PR headquarters these days, it's no wonder even the tradepress isn't getting that story right.
We have Adobe's only statement on that embedded in this article here. I alerted Elkins to this on Twitter.
Hi @Adobe said 'We are not an advertiser w/ Gawker' @kathleen_elk not that they "pulled" ads https://t.co/eNTBomJtOD pic.twitter.com/yBLTyh2Q3O
— adland ® (@adland) March 20, 2016
Fair point, the Gawker trolled Coke thing that Gawker defended when called on it was a pretty big deal. And, to quote myself Jezebel is all too often "breathlessly decrying sexist advertising even when it's such a stretch that Mister Fantastic can't make it", in some sort of pointless exercise of virtue signalling their paint-by-numbers "feminism". Like when they hated on the Playtex ads because feminists aren't supposed to care about hygine or something. My mother wrote for Ms magazine in 74-79, she regularly scoffs at the headlines I show her from Jezebel.
Also, lets not forget Gawker brought back bullying and ruined Justine Sacco's life.
The photos of Hulk chosen for articles are interesting. Those who choose unflattering images of Terry Bollea in court are attempting to sway the readers. This is a pretty standard tactic, but it surprises me how many outlets have decided to disregard all objectivity these days. Photo editors are suddenly quite blunt. I'm surprised that Adweek chose this picture for their articles: adweek 1 , adweek 2.
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