A Simple Guide to the Best of Gawker
Gawker is the New York Times of blog-based news sites. Whereas the Times goes after stories with a solemn and sincere outlook, Gawker attacks stories with a vengeful, righteous and irreverent vigor. Critics - envious reporters and bloggers, straightjacketed in their self-imposed roles of striving to maintain the status quo, routinely slam Gawker and its sister blogs for being 'flippant' and 'controversy mongers'.
This brief timeline of controversies related to Gawker and its sister blogs will show you how Nick Denton has carefully cultivated an image 'snarky irreverence', while all this while, his guys have really set the standard for blogging excellence - asking the 'right questions', exposing uncomfortable truths and going all out on this culture of celebrity.
Gawker is what many journalists and bloggers secretly aim to be. But, they missed the class on 'Dead Poets' Society', that’s all. They might check Gawker obsessively on daily basis, but are afraid to admit in public that the Gawker sites actually do some serious shit.
Gawker may appear as the Johnny Knoxville of news blogging to 'serious' people, but few people know that the Jackass star also produced a great documentary film about Appalachian mountain dancer Jesco White and his notorious family, titled 'The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia'. Appearances distract.
Some already say that Gawker is no more a blog. I totally agree. Gawker is turning into a quite a reporting powerhouse. Yes folks, it is true.
The Gawker Controversy Timeline:
Gawker.com
The "Gawker Stalker" feature (2005- ): Gawker seeks users to post details of celebrity sightings.
Gawker vs. Wyclef Jean (2010): Gawker reports about the shady operations of a pop singer's charity.
Gawker's True Blood Promo site controversy: It pushes the so-called, mostly non-existing boundary between advertising and editorial content, when HBO gets Gawker to host a site on Tru Blood, which looked like a Gawker media site. Later, an editor at Gawker actually owns up and publishes a post titled, "About that Vampire blog thing" .
Gawker vs. 4Chan (2010) - 4Chan users launched an attack on Gawker Media's servers, angry over Gawker's story on how they coordinated the harassment of an 11-year-old girl.
[Note: Later, Gawker did a positive coverage of 4Chan too, when the site's users rallied to cheer up an old World War 2 veteran on his birthday. ]
Gawker vs. Christine O'Donnell (2010): Gawker publishes an anonymous account of a young man from Philadelphia who had a naked sleepover with Delaware GOP senatorial candidate Christine O'Donnell.
I have mentioned how cleverly Gawker disguises its genuine intentions with all that inane and banal celebrity coverage. Hidden behind all that you will also helpful guides like these:
Gizmodo.com
Checkbook Journalism - Part 1 - The Lost iPhone (2010) - Gizmodo vs. Apple: Gizmodo publishes details about the next iPhone, which was found lost in a bar. It paid $5,000 for the iPhone prototype. In retaliation, Apple got the authorities to Gizmodo Editor's Home, confesticate his computer, and for a while, it appeared that the controversy would bankrupt Gawker.
Gizmodo's Comdex 2008 tricks: Gizmodo writers use the TV-B-Gone hoodie, which was on show, to shut off displays in booths and in the middle of major product presentations. The idea: To take it out on the supposed seriousness of reporting from trade shows.
The iPhone 4 Retina Display Controversy: Gizmodo get an expert to debunk Apple's claim about the iPhone 4's display: "The pixel density is so high that the human eye is unable to distinguish individual pixels."
Gizmodo vs. the 'PR-fed world of gadget writing': Joel Johnson, a former Gizmodo editor, writes about the rise and dangers of current state of gadget/technology journalism. He actually accuses Gizmodo readers of ignoring stories about how technology made a difference, and instead reading about "new chromed robot turd to put in your pocket and impress your friends." That's not all, Joel goes on to say, "And you guys just ate it up. Kept buying shitty phones and broken media devices green and dripping with DRM. "
The best part of this story is that Gizmodo, where Joel used to work previously, publishes his opinion piece.
Valleywag.com
Now just a sub-domain on Gawker.com, Valleywag got under the skin of quite many Silicon Valley types. It took on 'Press Releasy' technology news sites, over-hyped Internet startups and of course the egos of self-important Valley personalities. As a result, it was habitually hated by who mattered.
After Nick Denton fired Nick Douglas from Valleywag, for going beyond the "take-people-down" brief, this is what he said in an internal memo:
We don’t report stories to “finally get sued.” We report stories because we think they deserve to be out there.
A sample Valleywag story on startup funding went like this: MerchantCircle gets new funding to continue spam campaign (2007) - MerchantCircle has secured an additional $10 million in series B funding...
Can you spot the difference from other technology blogs?
In contrast, a Techcrunch story on MerchantCircle goes like this: MerchantCircle Adds Mayorships For Small Businesses.
Most tech reporting is so sad, I don't even want to link to Techcrunch for this one. My apologies.
Consumerist.com
Gawker sold Consumerist to Consumer Reports. It made a name for itself by going after anti-consumer companies.
For example, here, Consumerist exposes Dell's shady sales practices, which promptly gets Dell's legal people to send a takedown notice.
Even with its new owners, Consumerist continues its pro-consumer agenda with stories like, "Best Buy caught in Consumerist investigation" or,"Consumerist 'Worst Ad In America' Nominees"
Jezebel.com
A site dedicated to women issues, Jezebel starts with this manifesto of sorts, which attacks what's wrong with women's magazines:
Jezebel vs. Jon Stewart (2010): Jezebel takes on the Daily Show's Jon Stewart , criticizing the show for its 'sexist' hiring policies here and here.
Jezebel exposes Redbook (2007): Jezebel caches the Photoshop trickery of the Redbook women's magazine.
Jalopnik.com
Checkbook Journalism - Part 2 - Jalopnik Puts Up $5000 Bounty For Top Gear USA Pilot (2010): The car blog from Gawker media puts up a $5000 bounty to the first person to provide them with a copy of a Top Gear America pilot episode that was filmed, but never released episode.
Io9.com
This blog on all things sci-fi is probably the best niche blog there is.
In 2009, while almost all were singing high praises of James Cameron's "Avatar", io9.com publishes this story about whether Cameron ripped off the story called "Call Me Joe" by Paul Anderson.
Related readings:
Why Blog Controversy is a Good Thing (Even When it’s About You)
posted by Pramit Singh @ 7:32 PM
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