The ten most heinously unpleasant Gawker writers, ranked

Thursday, December 10, 2015 by: Natural News Editor
Tags: Gawker writers, liberal media, sociopathy

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(NaturalNews) Gawker Media is coming under some well-deserved fire this week for an appalling failure of judgment and basic ethical standards. Despite the site's professed commitment to social justice, it cruelly outed a private citizen, becoming party to a gay extortion racket in the process, for no reason other than its own vile amusement. (Story by Carol Young, republished from Breitbart.com)

Much of the ire has been directed at Jordan Sargent, the author of that report. But Sargent is by no means the only reprehensible figure working at Gawker today.

Yesterday, I revealed a non-exhaustive list of the people who have reasonable claim to be upset with Gawker. Today, it's time to look at the writers themselves. Because, you see, it's not just a few rotten apples spoiling it for everyone else.

Reckless, cruel sociopathy is what Gawker does. It's what the site is. And owner Nick Denton has done a remarkable job in the decade or so since it has been alive of assembling some of the most morally repugnant human beings on the planet to work for him.

Here are ten of the very worst.

10. PATRICIA HERNANDEZ

Hernandez is a writer for Gawker's gaming vertical, Kotaku. When she isn't promoting a friend's terrible video games without disclosing their relationship, she's helpfully advising game designers not to defend themselves when they're falsely accused of rape. Word has it she's aiming for a job at Rolling Stone.

9. NATHAN GRAYSON

Remember the time when a Kotaku writer failed to disclose he was banging a subject of his reporting? Shit was jokes. And there are long lists of failures to disclose conflicts and other professional solecisms floating around the gaming industry.

If you dig deeper into Grayson's reporting history, you'll find an entire career dedicated to the promotion of his buddies' projects. #AndN

8. MAX READ

Max Read is Gawker's editor-in-chief. Maybe it's because he has to defend all of Gawker's editorial decisions to the public, but I think he may actually be a psychopath. Whenever there's something morally repugnant to defend, Read always seems to be there on Twitter with a chillingly out-of-touch and dismissive explanation.

given the chance gawker will always report on married c-suite executives of major media companies fucking around on their wives

— max read (@max_read) July 17, 2015

At this year's Super Bowl, Coca-Cola decided to launch "#MakeItHappy," a campaign against online vitriol. They set up an automated Twitter account that would take angry messages and use the text to turn them into smiley-faces. Only a completely childish asshole would ruin something like that, right?

Read rigged the Twitter bot to tweet out speeches from Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf. Coca-Cola ended their campaign shortly afterwards.

Here are some of Max's other hits:

• Encouraging rioters to break the law
• The most passive aggressive response to a columnist in history
• Cracking jokes about Gawker's botched attempt to out James Franco (who is straight) as gay
• His classic headline, "How we got rolled by the dishonest fascists of GamerGate"

Did I mention he might be a psychopath? Here he is ranking historical assassinations and chuckling about Al Qaeda's "embarassing decapitation gaffes."

7. JASON SCHREIER

Killjoy extraordinaire and professional pearl-clutcher Jason Schreier has a problem with fun. Specifically, the kind of fun that involves cartoonish anime boobs.

As the gaming world eagerly awaited the release of George Kamitani's Dragon's Crown in 2013, Schreier accused Kamitani of being a "14-year old boy" perpetuating an "ugly boy's club mentality" that "harmed video game culture." An ally of Schreier then accused the acclaimed games developer of homophobia, for equally spurious reasons.

Schreier also has interesting theories about journalism, and how news outlets should stop striving for objectivity because truth is all, like, relative, man.

Here's a full run-down of Schreier's laughably terrible behaviour.

6. STEPHEN TOTILO

I'm told Stephen Totilo is a nice enough guy. He has a Master's in journalism. We even have friends in common. All of which makes me wonder: Why on earth does he work for Gawker?

As the editor-in-chief of Kotaku, he is ultimately responsible for the work of Hernandez and Schreier. Totilo is the one who issues humiliating revisions to their pieces and apologises when things go wrong — which, as you'd expect, happens quite often at Kotaku.

When the lives of innocent people like Brad Wardell are dragged through the mud by Gawker's innuendo and smut machine, he is the one who takes the heat. It must be agonising.

That doesn't mean Totilo hasn't had failures of his own. Perhaps the most memorable was when a mischievous game developer sent him an email claiming to be a "strong independent black woman" who had been "taught to drive" by the video game Grand Theft Auto IV.

Totilo wasn't notified of the hoax until half a year later, when he finally issued an update to the original story. Narrative over fact-checking and responsible reporting? You betcha.

If you believe Totilo's supporters, he's the most ethical person at Gawker. But that's like being the sanest man in the asylum. Ultimately, you're still behind bars and you should still take your meds.

As editor of Kotaku, Totlio has had the pleasure of approving stories about ass-shaped watermelons.

To learn more about the most heinously unpleasant gawker writers ranked, continue reading at Breitbart.com.