Hehir on Gawker

Liam Hehir writes:

I have been writing columns for almost six years now. Freedom of speech has been a theme of them. I do not think I have come out in favour of censorship once. But that doesn’t mean there are no lines that should not be crossed.

As Nobody Speak built up to a rah-rah finale extolling journalism, something was missing. It was something that the film never really dealt with properly. That is that, when it came down to it, Gawker was undone by its own grossness.

The help Thiel gave Hogan would have come to nothing if Gawker  were not guilty of a shameful abuse of platform.

Gawker had media rabies. While its editor points out the good stories it was involved in, overt cruelty was its signature trait. It was a site built around the profitability of nastiness. 

During the proceedings, another Gawker editor said that his personal line for celebrity sex-tape publication would be if it involved a child. Asked to explain further, he ventured that the line be drawn at  4 years old and younger. That editor now says he was joking, but it’s hard to imagine a sentiment more emblematic of gutter reporting.

I can’t say I mourn Gawker.