Gawker Ends

By: Connor Lenahan

With Nick Denton penning the final post, Gawker officially shutters today. The related blogs under the Gawker Media Banner – Gizmodo, Jezebel, Deadspin, Kotaku, Jalopnik, and Lifehacker – will all live on but the namesake of the group is no more. This move comes in wake of Univision’s acquisition of the group of blogs related to bankruptcy filings from the Hulk Hogan-Peter Thiel lawsuit against the site.

There are more places on the internet to get comprehensive histories on the 14 year history of Gawker. There are plenty more places to read criticism of their journalistic practices, or perceived lack thereof. I am not an expert in either. But I do know the following.

I have logged onto Gawker nearly every day since I was in High School, liking the website’s easy to digest stories and wide reaching content base. It got me caught up on the world quickly. More often than not I would have a decent sense on breaking news from the site by glancing headlines. Yes, this is available from most news sites, but Gawker also had some of the stupidest content available on the internet. Stupid it may be, but entertaining as well.

I don’t want to come off as defending ever move the website has ever made. Much to the contrary, I disagreed with a lot of their takes and reporting and found plenty of things cheap. But like with all things, I respected their ability to say it.

We all are creatures of confirmation bias. I’m as guilty as anyone. But to become a better informed person you have to be willing to listen to another side of the argument. Gawker regularly allowed that.

Plus I’m not really happy that we live with the precedent set that a billionaire can bankrupt a news outlet.

Thank you for the fun, Gawker. I’m sad we don’t have you any more.