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Gamers are dead? No, Gawker, you are!



Gawker will cease operations after almost 14 years of being active online. Nick Denton, creator of the now-defunct Gawker media has passed the reigns off to Univision who successfully won the bid for it, and its six other sites (including Kotaku.com). Yes, Gawker was indeed sold for $135 million dollars to Univision in a bankruptcy auction (which took place due to Gawkers lawsuit in 2012 from Hulk Hogan, a lawsuit which Gawker lost). And all of this took place because of what Gawker did back in 2012. As Gawker.com posted a 30-minute video of former pro-wrestler Terry G. Bollea, aka Hulk Hogan, having sex with the wife of his now-former best friend.

The sex tape (filmed in 2007 and later provided to Gawker) gained almost 7 million views, and netted Gawker tons of clicks, which then translated into money. So Hogan sued Gawker in 2012, and a Florida jury found the Media Company guilty of liable in March for subjecting Hogan to embarrassment and humiliation. And it was later revealed that Hogan’s case was financially backed by Silicon Valley billionaire and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, who had his own vendetta against Gawker for outing him as gay in 2007. And naturally, the fuse was lit.

Furthermore, it´s been no secret that Gawker was heading down the drain. Especially after their staff showed allegiance to gender groups such as feminism, displayed practices of yellow journalism by publicizing, off the record, quotes, and going heads up with gaming companies over gender diversity in staff hiring such as EA interactive. And if you’re familiar with the Gamergate movement, then you’ll recognize the name of Internet Aristocrat. Now known by the name Mister Metokur, this Youtube personality single-handedly exposed to readers that Gawkers writers had very personal and sexual relationships with their subjects. Living together, donating money, and having sex for positive press were brought into the light, and down shouted on social media.

Zoe “Five Guys” Quinn or the “Quinnspiracy” as the investigation was called, sparked the Gamergate movement and blew open the doors to a world that online media didn’t want exposed. The trade of clicks and press for favors. As the creator of the failed steam game “Depression Quest,” Quinn hosted intimate relationships with over five individuals within the gaming industry. One of which was writer Nathan Grayson of Kotaku.com under the Gawker house.

And when confronted about the situation involving Grayson and Quinn, editor in chief Stephen Totilo simply dismissed the situation stating that he “had a conversation with Nathan, and determined their relationship began AFTER he’d written about Quinns game.”

Nick Denton´s down fall and the death of Gawker.com

After the Univision sale was approved Thursday by a judge, Denton sent a memo to staff addressing both Univision’s acquisition and the plan to shutter Gawker.com permanently.

“Sadly, neither I nor Gawker.com, the buccaneering flagship of the group I built with my colleagues, are coming along for this next stage,” Denton said. “Desirable though the other properties are, we have not been able to find a single media company or investor willing also to take on Gawker.com.”



Later in the memo, Denton said the site had been “mothballed, until the smoke clears and a new owner can be found.””Gawker.com may, like Spy Magazine in its day, have a second act,” he wrote in the memo.

For now, Denton added, the site “will live on in legend.” This is heavy speculation and will probably not move forward. I have very little doubt that Univision will let the site, and domain go, instead of restructuring it into something that will continue to be profitable. So, what about the employees of Gawker and its sister sites then? Well, to them, I say good luck in the breadline. And if they decide to stay in journalism, learn from this lesson instead of practicing the moniker by ex-writer Leigh Alexander: “Fuck ethics get money.” It doesn’t work out when you bite the hands that feed you. It never has.

***Second opinion by Robin Ek***

You know, this OP post originally started off as a rather short piece. However, I soon realized that there were tons of meat to this story (the past, the presence and the future). So I decided to use everything that I´ve collected about Gawker for the last couple of months (maybe even more than that). And what can I say really? I mean. I know that one is not supposed to laugh at other people´s misfortune (nor that I/we should be biased), but it´s really hard for me to avoid smiling from the inside and out on the thought of Gawker´s closure. As Gawker has been publishing thousands and thousands of clickbait and tasteless posts since 2002 (that´s over 14 years worth of low quality journalism…).

And right off the bat, I have never seen, heard, read or experienced anything even close to the case with Gawker past and their inevitable doom (it was bound to happen. It was just a matter of time). And that even though I have been very active in reading blog and news posts since the early 2000s. Nevertheless, I think it´s safe to say that there is no gossip/”news” site that comes even close to Gawker´s low point “journalism” clickbait trash posts (aka “journalism at its worst”).

So I can´t say that I shed any tears when Hulk Hogan won over Gawker in court, nor the fact that Univision bought Gawker, Kotaku, Jezebel, Gizmodo for 135 million USD. As I don´t really feel like anything of value was lost due to the closure of Gawker.com. And while I´m more than aware that Hulk Hogan, Peter Thiel and GamerGate did indeed help to put an end to Gawker. It was actually Gawker themselves that committed suicide simply by being Gawker. As they kept on publishing the same trash that they have been doing since Gawkers birth back in 2002. Well, those days are now over for good. And thank god for that.

And you know what they say right? What goes around comes around. As in terms for “what will happen to the writers of Gawker?” Well, if there´s anything that I´ve learned over the years, then it´s the fact that bad (and evil) people always tend to find a new job elsewhere. So the question should instead be “Which site will die next?”.

“The Gawker boss — who will be out of a job once the site’s new owner, Univision, shuts it down later this month” – pagesix.com

“The combined Gawker-owned sites have ruined so many people’s lives and made the internet such a worse place than it once was. Their modus operandi is to find out as much dirt on people as possible and spread it as far as possible, to cause as much damage as possible, to anyone who isn’t aligned with the ultra-progressive Left-wing worldview. That’s what they do every single time they have the opportunity.” – A really good comment about Gawker and their “journalistic practices” by a Youtube user called “gary wood”.

GamerGate Vs Gawker

Then we got the part that concerns #GamerGate and Gawker. And as you might already know, Gawker has admitted not so long ago that it was #GamerGate that brought them down on their knees. And quite frankly, I find that to be both ironic and hilarious.As Gawker (and Kotaku) has stated in the past that #GamerGate has no power, nor any influences over their existence and well-being. And yet #GamerGate´s anti-bullying campaign ended up costing Gawker over ONE million USD. And not only that, because in the end it would ultimately be Gamers that would slam dunk a Gamer Over screen over Gawker´s face.

And I take deep pride and satisfaction in knowing that was indeed Gamers that slayed Gawker in the end. As my (our) hobby has been under attack by the Media and so-called established “Gaming” sites for years (to hell with all the “Gamers are dead” nonsense!). And you know what? The Internet Aristocrat has been right for years, because everything that he pointed out in his “Quinnspiracy Theory – The Five Guys Saga” video is even more relevant now than it was back in 2014. Nevertheless, the games industry has had a watchdog in the shape of #GamerGate since 2014. And that has (with no doubt) helped to improve that state of the industry as a whole, as GG has kept a close eye on things for over two years time now. And let´s be honest, even if you´re not a GG (#GamerGate) supporter. One cannot deny the fact that GG has indeed achieved quite a few goals over the years of time (like the fact that PC Gamer ended up creating an official ethics policy due to Tyler Wilde´s conflict of interest scandal).

And since it´s now “official” that GG choked out Gawker for good. I believe that it´s time to give GG some much-needed (and well deserved) credit for their hard work and determination to clean up the Games industry and journalism in general. Especially since GG´s two-year anniversary took place just recently (we intend to write about GG´s second birthday in the near future), because during that time (between 2014 August to today´s date) GG has unwrapped one scandal after another (most of these scandals would probably never have seen the day of light without the existents of GG). So well-played GG, well-played indeed.

And before I wrap up this rather long OP piece. I would also like to point out that even though I (we) are far from flawless and perfect, we always try our very best to own up to potential error that we might have done (which we usually follow-up with an apology on the post or video in question). Nevertheless, I promise on my soul that we (TGG) will never EVER become anything like Gawker. In the matter of fact, when I did an interview with Best Mom Eva (which I did not so long ago), there was one particular part of the interview that caught my attention (on the matter of “not becoming like Gawker”):

Robin TGG

Do you think that we´re beginning to see the end of the established gaming media news sites and a renaissance of fan-driven games media? Do you feel that more and more people are starting to get fed up with corrupt, biased journalists that take swings at games and gamers whenever they get a chance to do so?

Mombot

We’re making it happen right now, aren’t we? However, just a decade ago, Kotaku was the young, bright-eyed alternative media outlet that you are. Media with principles—whether in print or video or something else—will earn a faithful consumer base. Other outlets looking to make a quick buck will spring up, get big, sell out, lose readers and eventually die. Then the cycle begins again. Good luck!

In other words, we (TGG) must stay true to our readers and fans and never ever sell out (nor attack games and the Gaming community). Well, I have already nailed a “Don´t become like Gawker” paper on my office wall (I did that so that I would be forever reminded about what happens to companies such as Gawker).

And with that said, what´s your take on this matter? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section down below!

***Disclaimer***

This is a personal opinion of the writer, and it doesn’t necessarily represent the other writers (nor The Gaming Ground´s) opinions.

***Disclosure***

Ken and I (Robin) are (and never was) any fans of Gawker and their “posts”.

Credit:

Robin Ek – Editor and Co-writer

Source:

Gawker.com to end Operations next week

Did I kill Gawker?

Univision

What’s next for Gawker writers?

Jon Schwarz

Engadget

Mark Kern

Nick Denton really needs to rent out his condo (and fast)

Peter Thiel’s War On Gawker: A Timeline

Gamers are dead” articles

Gawker Was Murdered by Gaslight





Kenay Peterson

The Gaming Ground

Twitter: @TheDark_Mage

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Tags: #GamerGate, Gawker, Hulk Hogan, Nick Denton, Univision