If there is one feature that unites the imperial downfalls of history, it is the moment of hubris. They had already locked themselves in a losing battle - but their Quinctilius Varus had yet to enter the field. Gawker, with its long history of unethical reporting, was particularly vulnerable to this strategy and lost its first sponsor just days after Gamergate began its campaign. Gamers used the attacks to their advantage, sending a deluge of complaints to companies that advertised with their antagonizers. Progressive journalists in the games and tech press reacted with instant hostility and released a string of articles branding gamers as reactionary, sexist “hyper-consumers.” As Slate‘s David Auerbach argued at the time, games journalists had essentially declared war on their own audience. The emergence of a culturally libertarian, anti-censorship, anti-narrative hashtag like Gamergate was unexpected, to say the least. Twitter in 2014 was the land of #YesAllWomen and #CancelColbert, a haven of politically correct outrage. One supporter of the hashtag described Kotaku as “yellow journalism and tabloid gossip brewed into a foul, brain-killing mess.” ( Kotaku, for those of you who don’t know, is Gawker’s video games vertical.) The near-ruination of game developer Brad Wardell by Kotaku’s poor reporting, a steady stream of outrage-mongering on the topics of race and gender, and perceived conflicts of interest on the part of Kotaku writers meant many gamers had gone sour on the site by the start of Gamergate. The name of Gamergate’s hub on Reddit – “/r/KotakuInAction” – is revealing.

They had a laundry list of complaints against the gaming press, and they had Gawker in their sights from the beginning. When #GamerGate emerged, it was a bolt from the blue, and some predicted it would be over in a week.īut gamers were determined. Gamers had no track record as campaigners or great organisers, nor as social media activists. Nor did anyone predict the damage it would do to Gawker Media. When a few thousand gamers started to draw attention to poor standards in video games journalism last September, no one predicted it would grow into a year-long movement that spanned the globe. The Geithner story, where Gawker had to fight the entire media establishment by itself, doesn’t fit this pattern at all. In the major historical examples – the Boers, the Vietcong, the Germanic tribesmen – great powers were humiliated at the very height of their glory by poorly-equipped, underdog opponents who should have been walkovers. The Geithner story has proved to be disastrous for the company, triggering a string of editorial resignations in addition to the storm of external condemnation.īut the story doesn’t strike me as a case of imperial myth-shattering. Its reputation is on the rocks, as the company plans to relaunch itself later today. From the Romans at the Battle of Teutoburg to the British Empire in the Boer war, the destruction of these myths is all the more painful due to the triumphs that preceded them. Throughout history, great empires, states, political movements and institutions have all fallen victim to the myth of invincibility. Meanwhile, their long history of violating celebrities’ privacy is swiftly catching up to them in the form of Hulk Hogan’s $100m lawsuit, filed against Gawker for the release of a sex tape involving the wrestler. Their botched attempt to out Conde Naste executive David Geithner as gay caused outrage across the media and political landscape. Gawker Media, which relied so heavily on the practice to grant itself the veneer of righteousness, has now become one of the most derided publications on earth. The world has changed rapidly. Public shaming is no longer cool John Ronson resoundingly won the argument against it with his new book, despite vain attempts of activists to (you guessed it!) publicly shame him. Attempts to portray Ronson as hostile to the”historically powerless” fell flat, as commentators eagerly embraced a mainstream author willing to speak out against the new mob mentality. Former Gawkerite Adam Weinstein portrays this period as a kind of golden age for the blogging network.

They were the shamers-in-chief of the internet: all the more frightening because the sins they punished were so ubiquitous and mundane. Gawker mercilessly destroyed the careers of its targets, many of whom, such as Justine Sacco and Pax Dickinson, were guilty of nothing more than off-colour jokes on social media.

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