9 ms·

Gawker’s Moment of Truth

39 points by smallbutterfly 11y ago

vidoc 11y ago
Sometimes I really do miss Valleywag. Such funny reads!
- pen2l 11y ago
  Wait, what? Is valleywag shutting down?
  - minimaxir 11y ago
    The Valleywag reboot started with Sam Biddle, Nitasha Tiku, with Kevin Montgomery joining later. Simultaneously, Biddle was moved to main Gawker after causing an advertiser to drop millions in spending, Tiku move to The Verge (later, BuzzFeed), and Montgomery moved to BuzzFeed. Dan Lyons attempted to restart Valleywag but due to personal reasons it was short lived. Valleywag has been dead since.
    - pen2l 11y ago
      But it's not dead-dead, http://valleywag.gawker.com http://valleywag.gawker.com is still running, still producing new articles as you can see.
      - minimaxir 11y ago
        You may want to check the dates on those "new" articles :P Most of those articles are reposts from elsewhere on Gawker as well.
        pen2l 11y ago
        Ah, you're right, sorry about that. Kind of a weird decision to just let it... die. I mean, valleywag's name branding has considerable value, if they just employ folks who keep on writing articles that valleywag always had, it would work well.
- gkoberger 11y ago
  Nick Douglas was a quality satirist, and under him things were a good balance of smarmy and smart. He was an insider and his writing was from the viewpoint of someone who loved SV but wanted to improve it. Ironically, he was fired for being too insider-y. Biddle fancied himself a tech Jon Stewart, but really he was the crazy guy on the street yelling stuff at people walking by. His distain for everything and everyone tech was palpable. I had hope when Dan Lyons took over (given his brilliant Fake Steve blog), but his choice in low-brow posts were incredibly disappointing. He said he wouldn't stoop to those levels, and then instantly did. I suspect he was pressured into it, and left because of that. At its best, Valleywag is a sorely needed insiders view of our culture. At it's worst, it's absolute garbage. Now I suppose we have things like @StartupLJackson on Twitter, or Silicon Valley on HBO to fill that void. (Not so coincidentally, Dan Lyons is a writer on the show.)
tptacek 11y ago
World's tiniest violin playing for the legal troubles of a site that posted a sex tape without the consent of either of the two people in it. Nothing would rejuvenate my faith in humanity quite so much as a world in which Hulk Hogan ends up owning Gawker.
- Zikes 11y ago
  Not to mention the complete lack of journalistic ethics on Kotaku. They frequently post articles about games they have financial or personal ties to, without disclosure. Edit: I made no mention of movements and have no hidden agenda. My concerns for journalistic ethics are sincere. Kotaku and other games journalist web sites have associated any criticism of these concerns with unrelated harassing activities from typical internet bullies that falsely claim to represent the people that voice those concerns, but are ultimately unrelated. I stand by my statement. The fact remains that there are journalists that have reported on games without disclosing financial or personal ties to the companies or developers representing those games. I invite you to set aside the politics and evaluate the facts.
  - aaronbrethorst 11y ago
    For anyone who missed the reference, he means Gamergate. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamergate_controversy#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamergate_controversy#History
    - FreakyT 11y ago
      I'm guessing that most people understood the parent comment's reference to that faux crusade for "ethics in game journalism", hence the (deserved) downvotes. Edit: When I posted this, the parent comment was only 2 sentences long.
      - rewqfdsa 11y ago
        It's not faux. Don't believe SJW lies. GG is for a world where gaming news is for news about gaming, not a vehicle for censorship.
makeitsuckless 11y ago
As much as a think most of Gawker's publications are thrash, it is one of the few independent publishers that doesn't bow for the powerful and influential. Unfortunately instead of speaking "truth to power", it often just throws shit at power just for the hell of it.
- AceJohnny2 11y ago
  That's often how it turns out, doesn't it? See also UK's Private Eye or France's Charlie Hebdo.
- whatok 11y ago
  Until advertisers pull $.
minimaxir 11y ago
While we're on the subject, perhaps it's time to take another look at Hacker News's ban of gawker.com domains in submissions. While yes, there is a lot of linkbait trash, there are relevant original articles to tech (e.g. http://gawker.com/remember-brands-can-turn-your-dumb-tweets-into-embarra-1710409054 http://gawker.com/remember-brands-can-turn-your-dumb-tweets-...) that get caught by the filter. At the least, I haven't seen any of the former being submitted.
- tptacek 11y ago
  There is an easy fix for that problem: write a short blog post summarizing the (rare) valuable Gawker story, and submit that.
  - minimaxir 11y ago
    Then this violates Hacker News's rule of linking to a news story's original source. Thus the Catch-22.
    - tptacek 11y ago
      No. HN prefers the news story's original source, but does not have a "rule" against posting secondary or tertiary sources. Meanwhile, if the mods rewrite the link back to Gawker (unlikely), mission accomplished. Anyways: the site is better off with the blunt-force ban on Gawker articles. There might be occasional worthwhile things there, but most of the stuff that isn't worthwhile is poison.
- Shivetya 11y ago
  is the list visible for sites not permitted?
  - tptacek 11y ago
    Not a current one.
- MBlume 11y ago
austenallred 11y ago
Last night they published a story about Lebron James' penis accidentally being flashed on TV. Very classy organization. Not linking to it.
- WaltPurvis 11y ago
  > Last night they published a story about Lebron James' penis accidentally being flashed on TV. They and literally a thousand other news organizations, including Newsweek, NBC News, The Guardian... There's no doubt Gawker is a pox, but in terms of uselessness and vulgarity it's not really an outlier.
  - tptacek 11y ago
    Worth remembering: this stuff is an arms race. What we know of Gawker strongly suggests that they'd run this shit no matter what. That NBC will jump on the bandwagon actually makes Gawker's actions less responsible: they driving the whole field into the toilet. Newsweek was never a great publication, but whatever it was, it's not that anymore: it was sold to the Daily Beast, stripped for parts, and then spun back out and acquired by another company.
    - bhayden 11y ago
      It is arguably the readers driving it into the toilet. They only make those posts because they drive clicks.
  - austenallred 11y ago
    Everyone published it, but deadspin scooped it. There's a subtle difference, I think; I can't imagine most people from ABC going to their editor and saying, "I have a story, check it out." Although the former scenario is assuming there's any type of editorial control at any of these orgs, which is probably mostly a relic of times gone by.
benihana 11y ago
>Whatever information we have, whatever insight we have, whatever knowledge we have, our impulse is to share it as quickly as possible, and sometimes with as little thought as possible Sounds like the complete 100% opposite of journalism.
thelastguy 11y ago
Imagine if this was a sex tape of Jennifer Lawerance... The double standard.

vidoc 11y ago

Sometimes I really do miss Valleywag. Such funny reads!

pen2l 11y ago
Wait, what? Is valleywag shutting down?
- minimaxir 11y ago
  The Valleywag reboot started with Sam Biddle, Nitasha Tiku, with Kevin Montgomery joining later. Simultaneously, Biddle was moved to main Gawker after causing an advertiser to drop millions in spending, Tiku move to The Verge (later, BuzzFeed), and Montgomery moved to BuzzFeed. Dan Lyons attempted to restart Valleywag but due to personal reasons it was short lived. Valleywag has been dead since.
  - pen2l 11y ago
    But it's not dead-dead, http://valleywag.gawker.com http://valleywag.gawker.com is still running, still producing new articles as you can see.
    - minimaxir 11y ago
      You may want to check the dates on those "new" articles :P Most of those articles are reposts from elsewhere on Gawker as well.
      - pen2l 11y ago
        Ah, you're right, sorry about that. Kind of a weird decision to just let it... die. I mean, valleywag's name branding has considerable value, if they just employ folks who keep on writing articles that valleywag always had, it would work well.
gkoberger 11y ago
Nick Douglas was a quality satirist, and under him things were a good balance of smarmy and smart. He was an insider and his writing was from the viewpoint of someone who loved SV but wanted to improve it. Ironically, he was fired for being too insider-y. Biddle fancied himself a tech Jon Stewart, but really he was the crazy guy on the street yelling stuff at people walking by. His distain for everything and everyone tech was palpable. I had hope when Dan Lyons took over (given his brilliant Fake Steve blog), but his choice in low-brow posts were incredibly disappointing. He said he wouldn't stoop to those levels, and then instantly did. I suspect he was pressured into it, and left because of that. At its best, Valleywag is a sorely needed insiders view of our culture. At it's worst, it's absolute garbage. Now I suppose we have things like @StartupLJackson on Twitter, or Silicon Valley on HBO to fill that void. (Not so coincidentally, Dan Lyons is a writer on the show.)

World's tiniest violin playing for the legal troubles of a site that posted a sex tape without the consent of either of the two people in it. Nothing would rejuvenate my faith in humanity quite so much as a world in which Hulk Hogan ends up owning Gawker.

Zikes 11y ago
Not to mention the complete lack of journalistic ethics on Kotaku. They frequently post articles about games they have financial or personal ties to, without disclosure. Edit: I made no mention of movements and have no hidden agenda. My concerns for journalistic ethics are sincere. Kotaku and other games journalist web sites have associated any criticism of these concerns with unrelated harassing activities from typical internet bullies that falsely claim to represent the people that voice those concerns, but are ultimately unrelated. I stand by my statement. The fact remains that there are journalists that have reported on games without disclosing financial or personal ties to the companies or developers representing those games. I invite you to set aside the politics and evaluate the facts.
- aaronbrethorst 11y ago
  For anyone who missed the reference, he means Gamergate. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamergate_controversy#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamergate_controversy#History
  - FreakyT 11y ago
    I'm guessing that most people understood the parent comment's reference to that faux crusade for "ethics in game journalism", hence the (deserved) downvotes. Edit: When I posted this, the parent comment was only 2 sentences long.
    - rewqfdsa 11y ago
      It's not faux. Don't believe SJW lies. GG is for a world where gaming news is for news about gaming, not a vehicle for censorship.

makeitsuckless 11y ago

As much as a think most of Gawker's publications are thrash, it is one of the few independent publishers that doesn't bow for the powerful and influential. Unfortunately instead of speaking "truth to power", it often just throws shit at power just for the hell of it.

AceJohnny2 11y ago
That's often how it turns out, doesn't it? See also UK's Private Eye or France's Charlie Hebdo.
whatok 11y ago
Until advertisers pull $.

minimaxir 11y ago

While we're on the subject, perhaps it's time to take another look at Hacker News's ban of gawker.com domains in submissions. While yes, there is a lot of linkbait trash, there are relevant original articles to tech (e.g. http://gawker.com/remember-brands-can-turn-your-dumb-tweets-into-embarra-1710409054 http://gawker.com/remember-brands-can-turn-your-dumb-tweets-...) that get caught by the filter. At the least, I haven't seen any of the former being submitted.

tptacek 11y ago
There is an easy fix for that problem: write a short blog post summarizing the (rare) valuable Gawker story, and submit that.
- minimaxir 11y ago
  Then this violates Hacker News's rule of linking to a news story's original source. Thus the Catch-22.
  - tptacek 11y ago
    No. HN prefers the news story's original source, but does not have a "rule" against posting secondary or tertiary sources. Meanwhile, if the mods rewrite the link back to Gawker (unlikely), mission accomplished. Anyways: the site is better off with the blunt-force ban on Gawker articles. There might be occasional worthwhile things there, but most of the stuff that isn't worthwhile is poison.
Shivetya 11y ago
is the list visible for sites not permitted?
- tptacek 11y ago
  Not a current one.
MBlume 11y ago

austenallred 11y ago

Last night they published a story about Lebron James' penis accidentally being flashed on TV. Very classy organization. Not linking to it.

WaltPurvis 11y ago
> Last night they published a story about Lebron James' penis accidentally being flashed on TV. They and literally a thousand other news organizations, including Newsweek, NBC News, The Guardian... There's no doubt Gawker is a pox, but in terms of uselessness and vulgarity it's not really an outlier.
- tptacek 11y ago
  Worth remembering: this stuff is an arms race. What we know of Gawker strongly suggests that they'd run this shit no matter what. That NBC will jump on the bandwagon actually makes Gawker's actions less responsible: they driving the whole field into the toilet. Newsweek was never a great publication, but whatever it was, it's not that anymore: it was sold to the Daily Beast, stripped for parts, and then spun back out and acquired by another company.
  - bhayden 11y ago
    It is arguably the readers driving it into the toilet. They only make those posts because they drive clicks.
- austenallred 11y ago
  Everyone published it, but deadspin scooped it. There's a subtle difference, I think; I can't imagine most people from ABC going to their editor and saying, "I have a story, check it out." Although the former scenario is assuming there's any type of editorial control at any of these orgs, which is probably mostly a relic of times gone by.

benihana 11y ago

>Whatever information we have, whatever insight we have, whatever knowledge we have, our impulse is to share it as quickly as possible, and sometimes with as little thought as possible Sounds like the complete 100% opposite of journalism.

thelastguy 11y ago

Imagine if this was a sex tape of Jennifer Lawerance... The double standard.