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Jezebel Moe Jumps To Radar
After fourteen months as a founding editor of Gawker Media's Jezebel, Moe Tkacik is jumping to Radar as a senior writer for RadarOnline.com. She joins, on the online side, Gawker alumni Alex Balk, Neel Shah and Choire Sicha (sorta — Sicha freelances). Ana Marie Cox, founding editor of Gawker Media's Wonkette, is a contributing editor at the print magazine. Jezebel's Jessica Grose went the other way, from Radar to Jezebel, in October. If Tkacik is anything like Balk, you'll want to keep up with her not only online on Radar but also on her new Tumblr (one of them, anyway). [Radar] (Photo via Moe's Myspace)
all politics is local
Manhattan Borough President Locks Up Bilious Creative Underclass Vote
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer came by the Gawker offices last night. Late last night. After Blakeley's Media Meshing party, while various of our peers were back in the office playing beer pong. We don't know why he was there. We weren't there! Though Rex Sorgatz, who does not work for Gawker, was! Comment Guru Kaila was there too, and she shares this Scott Kidder photograph of the odd event along with her own recounting of the details: More »
Listicle
The Five Totally Not Dirty Words You Can't Say in the New York 'Times'
Did you hear? The Reverend Jesse Jackson made reference recently to the testicles of Barack Obama. Only he called them "nuts." Nuts! A funny, elementary school word, isn't it? Totally harmless. But of course you'd have no idea what the hell Jackson said if you only read the Times piece on the story. Because the New York Times apparently won't print the word "nuts." Which is ridiculous. We understand that the Times, like most major publications, has a self-censorship policy that almost always forbids it from using genuine expletives (unless the president says them!), but to elide the harmless word "nuts" actually misleads the reader into thinking Jesse Jackson said something far filthier and more obscene. This is not the first example of the Times censoring such harmless bullshit, either. The most egregious examples, after the jump. More »
self-referential
This license plate was spotted by alumnus Doree Shafrir. She also ate lobster rolls at a restaurant called the Harbor Gawker.
A Fan In Maine?
This license plate was spotted by alumnus Doree Shafrir. She also ate lobster rolls at a restaurant called the Harbor Gawker.
books
In Which Gawker Infiltrates Candace Bushnell's New Novel
Sex and the City author and former Observer columnist Candace Bushnell has a new novel coming out, called One Fifth Avenue. It concerns the various doyennes and bratty socials who live at One Fifth Avenue—the most important Manhattan apartment building of our time. (It has "thick, pre-war walls"!) Gawker.com is mentioned by name throughout the book, as one of its writers makes life hell for its residents: More »
corrections
Times Incorrectly Portrays Bonnie Fuller As Sympathetic Figure
For unclear reasons, the Times felt compelled to hand a huge chunk of its Sunday Business section over to a profile of Bonnie Fuller—the woman most responsible for creating our nation's soul-destroying cast of powerful celebrity magazines—who was recently axed from her multimillion-dollar gig as editorial chief of American Media. A sympathetic profile! The news peg, purportedly: Bonnie Fuller is doing some vague new project on the internet. For women! With specifics to be determined! Color us skeptical. The Fuller that the Times describes does not sound like the woman who was so despised by her assistants that they put snot in her food. What's the major malfunction here? More »
publicity stunts
Yesterday, Daily News columnists Rush & Molloy speculated that maybe, just maybe, the novel from the wife of comedian Denis Leary (above, right) is autobiographical, since it's about a wife whose famous husband is good friends with a hot Australian movie star, sort of like how Leary is friends with hot English actress Elizabeth Hurley (above, left). In the novel, the actor's wife is upset by his "schoolboy crush" on the friend. We wrote that Ann Leary had "sadly channeled her frustrations into a thinly-veiled 'novel.'" But she replies that Gawker is "crazy," and told Choire Sicha of the LA Times that we're just clawing for cheap attention. Well, that last part is true. But at least we can admit it!
More »
Elzabeth Hurley Still Not Enraging Denis Leary's Wife
Yesterday, Daily News columnists Rush & Molloy speculated that maybe, just maybe, the novel from the wife of comedian Denis Leary (above, right) is autobiographical, since it's about a wife whose famous husband is good friends with a hot Australian movie star, sort of like how Leary is friends with hot English actress Elizabeth Hurley (above, left). In the novel, the actor's wife is upset by his "schoolboy crush" on the friend. We wrote that Ann Leary had "sadly channeled her frustrations into a thinly-veiled 'novel.'" But she replies that Gawker is "crazy," and told Choire Sicha of the LA Times that we're just clawing for cheap attention. Well, that last part is true. But at least we can admit it!
More »
Controversies
The Marines Are Interested In Your Racial Opinions
Proving once again that the US Military makes strategic decisions based on the rantings of the lunatic fringe, our post last week about the Marine Corps' "We teach black people to swim" ad prompted an article about the "controversy" in the Marine Corps Times, and a healthy discussion on the paper's online discussion boards. Sentiment among the ex-military commenters there is currently running 30-0 against the ad having a racial component. "In my life time, I’ve learned through life experiences, in order for a person(s) to make a comment such as this. That they are racial in one way or another," says one. He's right, you know. (UPDATE: Former gay porn star/ Marine and current conservative blogger Matt Sanchez adds: "Smearing the military is never a big enough issue for the Gawker, it's a reflex. Maybe if they "subtly" stereotyped gay males as promiscuous this issue would have warranted greater indignation.") [MCT. Watch the ad here.]
print is dead
"Romenesko Without Morals"
In a lengthy and kind of pointless story about ur-media gossip blogger Jim Romenesko, former New York Times editor Howell Raines basically blames the mild-mannered media reporter for the death of newspapers, sort of. Raines thinks Romenesko's nasty habit of reporting lay-offs, buy-outs, and paper closings makes everyone in the media feel so bad that they think print is dying and then it dies. Then "a young New York-based reporter at a major newspaper" says: "'I think Romenesko is what Gawker would look like if it had morals.'" We humbly disagree, young anonymous reporter. Jim (god bless him), with his endless stream of damning links presented with minimal commentary, is the amoral one. We pass moral judgment on all of you! (Also, though it is hard to remember now, there was a time when Jim Romenesko Was Not A Blogger.) [Portfolio]
blogs
Vanity Fair's increasingly lively web producers have put together a handy grid of the world's blogs arranged by newsiness (the y-axis) and scurrilousness (the x-axis). Gawker and sister gossip site Defamer are positioned—thankfully—at the far left of the matrix. The full-size chart has clickable icons which link through to the featured site.
The Blog Matrix
Vanity Fair's increasingly lively web producers have put together a handy grid of the world's blogs arranged by newsiness (the y-axis) and scurrilousness (the x-axis). Gawker and sister gossip site Defamer are positioned—thankfully—at the far left of the matrix. The full-size chart has clickable icons which link through to the featured site.
feuds
Keith Olbermann's Rupert Murdoch Imitation Involves Gawker, Pirates
Looking for a decent excuse to advance his long-simmering feud with Rupert Murdoch and to do a weird Australian/pirate accent, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann seized upon the words of a former News Corp. insider, who claimed in one of our posts this morning that Murdoch fired Jane Friedman from HarperCollins because she canned powerhouse publisher Judith Regan in late 2006, and also because she squashed Regan's OJ Simpson book project. The source also claimed, tangentially and outlandishly, that Fox News chief Roger Ailes will soon be fired as well for his own role in the Simpson book fiasco. Predictably, this amused Olbermann to no end. For the crime of going to bat for the OJ book, Olbermann named Murdoch today's "worst person in the world," an honor previously bestowed to Fox News screamer Bill O'Reilly. He then did a killer Murdoch imitation that will surely put to rest those allegations that he's totally crazy. Clip after the jump. More »
Death By Pageview
"The higher the number of page views, the more accelerated the rate at which, say, the hydrochloric acid will be dispensed. (I believe this is analogous to how Gawker Media currently pays its writers.)" [From the AV Club's belated review of web snuff movie Untraceable.]
the more you know
Attacking Ex-Lovers Via Gawker Benefits Everyone But You
Lorbergate continues, and no one seems to have wised up. Yesterday we posted a couple of times about Alexandria Symonds, a student writer for the Colubmia Spectator who received a pleasant bitchslap of an email from Amanada Lorber (she of the MTV reality gem The Paper) after writing a few nasty things about the brash, ambitious high school newspaper editor. Then Symonds' friends allegedly threatened revenge on Daily Intel writer Molly Jane Rosen, who originally posted Lorber's withering email. So, all well and good. People were upset, young confidences shaken. All in a Gawker's work. But these kids, seemingly unaware of some fundamental internet fact, kept sending us emails. Emails in which they bitched and moaned and (sigh, correctly) called us nosy and mean. More »
May Traffic
Thanks to Bill O'Reilly, whose studio temper provided so much amusement last month, and the Craigslist advertiser who called to ask we remove pictures of him waving cash at online female admirers. Those two stories—plus other more worthy coverage of the Democratic primaries, the turmoil at the Wall Street Journal and blogging narcissism—helped Gawker.com to one of its strongest months in May. At 17.3m pageviews, traffic was up 115% on December; and the site's audience was at 3.0m unique visitors up 150% since the end of last year. After the jump, the charts.
audio gawker
Mary Rambin Reads Gawker! Out Loud!
Yesterday I posted an item about the sad Sex and the City ballad of handbag designer (and bestie of cewebrity Julia Allison) Mary Rambin. You see, the fetching young lady was viciously not allowed into the film's premiere and abandoned by her two friends, Julia and socialite Meghan Asha. Mary, as it turns out, bothered to read the claptrap and has decided to post a rebuttal. Well, OK, not so much a rebuttal as a Vimeo video in which she reads (sort of) the whole post aloud while Jules throws compliments at her from off-camera. I'm not really sure if she's being sarcastic or being a good sport and playing along or what, but I love it! This should happen more often. It's like books on tape. Except instead of being read by Jim Dale, the posts are read by drunk (hopefully! "glaze"!) New York City It girls. So the first installment of Audio Gawker, Mary Rambin Shot Down at 'Sex and the City' Premiere produced by Julia Allison and read by Mary Rambin, awaits you after the jump. Also, Tinsley Mortimer! If you're reading this, please please please do one. I could die happy. More »
bloglash
Times editors are apparently tired of people saying mean things about Emily Gould and about their own decision to publish her meditation on blogging, because they've shut down the comments section attached to Gould's magazine piece. Some 727 responses flooded in before the shutdown, even though the article won't be physically published until the Sunday issue. Many called the former Gawker editor narcissistic, self-indulgent and a bad writer and said her story was a waste of space; there were supporters, including people who praised Gould for having moved on from vicious, inconsequential Gawker and for pushing them to reexamine their own online personas. Whatever was said, the decision to shut down comments is bizarre, because just yesterday Times Magazine editor Gerry Marzorati told FishbowlNY the story was worthy of his cover precisely because of the discussion it would spark:
More »
Comments Closed On Emily Gould's Times Piece
Times editors are apparently tired of people saying mean things about Emily Gould and about their own decision to publish her meditation on blogging, because they've shut down the comments section attached to Gould's magazine piece. Some 727 responses flooded in before the shutdown, even though the article won't be physically published until the Sunday issue. Many called the former Gawker editor narcissistic, self-indulgent and a bad writer and said her story was a waste of space; there were supporters, including people who praised Gould for having moved on from vicious, inconsequential Gawker and for pushing them to reexamine their own online personas. Whatever was said, the decision to shut down comments is bizarre, because just yesterday Times Magazine editor Gerry Marzorati told FishbowlNY the story was worthy of his cover precisely because of the discussion it would spark:
More »
