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books
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self-referential
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books
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!
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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!
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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 »
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:
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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:
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bloggery
That New York Times Magazine cover story on the perils of online self-exposure is up online—and itself exposed to a still wider audience of gawkers. Oops, as author Emily Gould might say. There isn't much that hasn't already been discussed on this site or on the newspaper's own discussion board. But there's an adorable new photo. If you can't be bothered to read the text—which has already been blogged, commented and rehashed to the point of absurdity—Daily Intel's statisticians have quantified the narcissism in an easy-to-digest table.
Emily Gould Exposed
That New York Times Magazine cover story on the perils of online self-exposure is up online—and itself exposed to a still wider audience of gawkers. Oops, as author Emily Gould might say. There isn't much that hasn't already been discussed on this site or on the newspaper's own discussion board. But there's an adorable new photo. If you can't be bothered to read the text—which has already been blogged, commented and rehashed to the point of absurdity—Daily Intel's statisticians have quantified the narcissism in an easy-to-digest table.
explanations
Greg Gutfeld: Why?
Not long ago, a media reporter asked your day editor if he seriously doesn't like Greg Gutfeld. Because surely it's an act, all this mocking him! We send attention his way, he responds with an amusing attack on our commenters, we trash him again, everyone goes home to cash their tax refund checks and buy some $10 cigarettes. But the truth is, no, I don't really like Greg Gutfeld. He's not funny. And his two-dimensional controversialist routine is tired. Regardless of how much either of them mean what they say, Colbert does a wittier Bill O'Reilly. Gutfeld is a mediocre Morning Zoo Shock Jock. He seemingly used to be funny—some of his HuffPo posts were truly inspired. But his show is terrible and his "noxious gay-baiting even though he's friends with plenty of homos" routine is, once again, done better by Ann Coulter. So when Greg says, as he did to MediaBistro recently, that Gawker only trashes him because he refused to write for us, well... More »
correspondence
Science Group Asks Us To Correct Accurate Description
We got an email from Jeff Stier, associate director of the American Council on Science and Health and author of yesterday's editorial in the NY Post about the cockroach peril New York will face as a result of Whole Foods' paper bag use. We referred to ACSH in our post yesterday as "the conservative 'science' group ACSH, which is funded by Dow Chemical, Chevron, and a slew of other corporations." Stier says "Gawker owe's ACSH a correction" for that post, although you will notice that our description is accurate, and is not even contradicted by Stier's own description of the group. He also objects to the fact that "reporters often ask about funding only when some if it may come from industry," something I would characterize as "good reporting." His full letter is reprinted after the jump. More »
blog wars
Manly Blogger Calls Us Gay!
A certain right-wing blogger has a question for us, via email: "Are all of the contributors to Gawker homosexuals, because there's a level of superciliousness that must be directly tied to sexual frustration and the inability to bond with other human beings." Whoa! We'll have him know that Gawker employs a veritable handful of heterosexuals. This guy was ostensibly upset that our coverage of Absolut's pro-Mexico ad (which the company has now apologized for) was not quite xenophobic enough. But what led this Republican internet soldier to target us in our vulnerable gay spot? It's probably his own past as a gay porn star—that does have a tendency to color one's perceptions. More »
self-referential
Our New Office Finally Makes Us Feel Safe, Warm
It's been hard, working in a poorly-insulated plate-glass storefront office all this time, on full display for the whole neighborhood. There was that goddamned front door that never completely shut, and what if an irate commenter or story subject barged in? Now we have a new office! It's on Elizabeth Street, and it's on the fourth floor. There will be no more typing in fear. There's even a shower, for those all-nighters when a big sex-tape story breaks. And there's a phone booth, for crying in!More »
it would be a shame if something were to happen to...
Plotting a Gawker Murder
College Humor co-founder Ricky Van Veen today blogged about how Gawker writers are "hurling dozens of harsh items a day at vulnerable people," and said it's only a matter of time until one of them is murdered by a "victim." In case he didn't get his, uh, point across, Van Veen went ahead and described exactly how someone might, hypothetically, kill a Gawker blogger. First, be a thinned-skinned introvert who bottles up his emotions for years, so one can go apeshit about a blog post (crime of passion=manslaughter=reduced sentence!). Identify the author of the post by reading his byline (clever!). Then hunt him down, since you "know where the writer works (a low-security, first-floor storefront). These bloggers aren't guarded national TV pundits with chauffers and security — they're young people making relatively little money and taking public transportation." He also writes, "statistically it’s just a matter of time before one of your targets snaps. It’s simply a numbers game." Creepy and servicey all at once! But if Van Veen thinks "harsh" and "negative" blog posts about microcelebrities are really so dangerous, perhaps some housecleaning is in order closer to home. After the jump, a nasty attack on Star editor and Time Out New York columnist Julia Allison, created in the offices of College Humor sister site Vimeo and published to the world by Vimeo Community Director Blake Whitman. More »
self-referential
A Summary
"I ask Dave if he always knew Nick [Denton] would be a success. 'The last time I was asked this by a newspaper I said I knew Nick was going to be successful because he read The Economist when he was 13. When [that comment] was published Nick phoned me up and took the piss out of me for it, said it made me sound suburban. So this time I'm going to say it's a fucking miracle he ever amounted to anything.'" More »
life in these united states
Former 'Reader's Digest' Lady Tells Us How To Live
Former EIC of Reader's Digest, Family Circle, Consumer Reports, and Child Jacqueline Leo gets all shouty over at the HuffPo, that repository of nutjob rants, informed political discussion, and celebrity musings. We're sort of not sure what she's talking about, but she does call us out: in her list of "7 Debtly Sins" that humorously (we think?) suggests America tax the "sloppy, stupid and sinful" to get out of debt, we are at #4, under "Wrath: Working for Gawker or some other 'I'm young, angry and hateful' Internet site that contributes nothing to the society. Wasting one's talent is economically sinful." (Hey, it's not like anybody else could even handle all this talent. We can't all publish 12-page-long large-text versions of Grisham novels!) It only gets rantier: More »
advisory
So, Mom, should I write for Gawker?
"Well, I had more time to investigate this [name redacted].com. It seems to be a melange of stupid news that no sane person would peruse. Having said that, I can see it may be popular. Most of the comments I read were by people thinking they are too smart by half. So I presume their audience is 19-29 persons who think highly of themselves. You are probably perfect to write for this crowd." [The blogger behind the excellent I Fight Evil asked his mother what she thought of freelancing for Gawker.]
casual encounters
"Want a Girl who reads Gawker - m4w - 29"
Not that anybody here scans Craiglist's "casual encounters" at 10am—but thanks for the tip, College Callgirl! At 3:42 this morning, some lonely soul posted a m4w that he was "looking for a girl who reads Gawker... eh, I figure if we have that in common, we'd probably hit it off in the sack." Well, that's assuming a lot! Our female readers are not slutty, we're sure... "Preferably before the sun comes out," he adds. OK, which one of you posted this? [Craigslist]More »
