This is an interesting argument but I'm not sure I completely buy it. For a similar example, the Gizmodo/iPhone 4 fiasco definitely led to increased awareness a

This is an interesting argument but I'm not sure I completely buy it. For a similar example, the Gizmodo/iPhone 4 fiasco definitely led to increased awareness and pageviews for the site. However subsequently their reputation took a hit and they no longer had a good relationship with Apple which hurt their ability to cover future product releases. I don't have any data to really back this up but I imagine in the long term it reduced readership for the site. Funnyjunk is way less known than Gizmodo (I had never heard of it until this recent story), so maybe the increased traffic will have a positive effect in the long term. However I don't think that's a smart or sustainable way to build an audience for any website.