21 Jul 2015

Gawker editors resign over ‘male escort’ post removal

Two editors at gossip website Gawker resign over the removal of a controversial post about a straight and married publishing executive allegedly looking for sex with a male escort.

The two editors stood down after Gawker’s managing partners voted to remove a post from the site, objecting to a move they said violated editorial independence.

Tommy Craggs, executive editor of Gawker Media, and Max Read, editor-in-chief of Gawker.com, received strong support from staff, who said in an online post that they were determined to “protect the editorial independence” of Gawker Media “the influence of business-side concerns”.

These are the stories we used to do. But times have changed. Gawker’s co-founder

The removed post alleged that a senior US publishing executive – a straight man who was married – had sought sex with a male prostitute.

‘Unprecedented breach’

Based in New York, Gawker promotes itself as “the source for daily Manhattan media news and gossip”, focusing on on celebrities and the media industry.

But the post drew huge criticism that it was a form of blackmail, and reportedly prompted one advertiser to withhold its adverts from Gawker in an act of protest.

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In a memo to staff, Mr Read railed against the decision to remove the post, calling it an “absolute surrender of Gawker’s claim to ‘radical transparency'”.

“That non-editorial business executives were given a vote in the decision to remove it is an unacceptable and unprecedented breach of the editorial firewall, and turns Gawker’s claim to be the world’s largest independent media company into, essentially, a joke,” he added.

Nick Denton, Gawker’s founder, also released a memo to staff, saying: “These are the stories we used to do. But times have changed.”

The post appeared on Thursday and was removed after a 4-2 vote by managing partners on Friday.

Mr Craggs had edited and approved the story, and said in his memo to staff that he stood by the post and took issue with Denton’s approach.

‘The line has moved’

“The impulse that led to Thursday’s story is the impulse upon which Nick himself built Gawker’s brand,” he said. “The undoing of it began the moment Nick himself put the once inviolable sanctity of Gawker Media’s editorial to a vote.”

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Mr Denton said on Friday that the post’s removal was “the first time we have removed a significant news story for any reason other than factual error or legal settlement”.

He added: “We are proud of running stories that others shy away from, often to preserve relationships or access. But the line has moved. And Gawker has an influence and audience that demands greater editorial restraint.”

Gawker co-founder Nick Denton

The Gawker resignations follow the hack of adultery website Ashley Madison, which was threatened by the hackers with the release of confidential data from among its 37m users if it did not shut down.

The site’s owners later said it had removed all posts related to the incident and any personally identifiable information about its users.