The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

How #StickToSports Became the New #LearnToCode — Deadspin Is Dead

Posted on | November 1, 2019 | Comments Off on How #StickToSports Became the New #LearnToCode — Deadspin Is Dead

 

“There was a time, about ten years ago, when I could write like Grantland Rice. Not necessarily because I believed all that sporty bullshit, but because sportswriting was the only thing I could do that anybody was willing to pay for. And none of the people I wrote about seemed to give a hoot in hell what kind of lunatic gibberish I wrote about them, just as long as it moved. They wanted Action, Color, Speed, Violence.”
— Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail ’72

What would Doctor Gonzo say to the former staff of Deadspin?

Deadspin is dead, for the time being.
The site is now without any editors or writers — after a staff revolt that erupted this week when parent company G/O Media demanded that the sports and culture site confine its coverage to sports.
As of Friday morning, all 20 of Deadspin’s previous editorial employees are no longer working for the company, a G/O Media rep confirmed. The spokesman added, “The company is recruiting new staff.”
The exits started after G/O Media fired interim editor-in-chief Barry Petchesky when he refused to follow the company’s mandate to stick to sports in Deadspin’s editorial coverage. That directive, from G/O editorial director Paul Maidment, appeared to be in response to a Deadspin article (which has since been deleted) complaining about autoplay video ads that the company was running on the site.
Managing editor Samer Kalaf, the last remaining senior edit staffer as of early yesterday, tweeted his resignation Thursday afternoon: “OFFICIAL STATEMENT: I have self-yeeted from Deadspin.” Word came Friday that staff writer Dave McKenna also had resigned.
Former Deadspin editor-in-chief Megan Greenwell wrote in a tweet Friday, “And with that, it’s over. Deadspin no longer employs a single writer or editor. I am gutted but so very proud of this group of people.” Greenwell exited Deadspin in August, which she previously said came “after months of being undermined by G/O Media management.”
In a statement earlier about the staff resignations, G/O Media had said, “We’re sorry that the staff that resigned couldn’t work within this incredibly broad coverage mandate.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders joined the discussion over the chaos at Deadspin, writing in an Oct. 31 tweet, “I stand with the former Deadspin workers who decided not to bow to the greed of private equity vultures like [G/O Media CEO] Jim Spanfeller. This is the kind of greed that is destroying journalism across the country, and together we are going to take them on.”
Deadspin was part of Univision’s sale in April of this year of Gizmodo Media Group to G/O Media, which is backed by private-equity firm Great Hill Partners and Spanfeller. Univision had acquired the assets of the former Gawker Media in a bankruptcy auction in 2016.

You will recall that Nick Denton’s Gawker got bankrupted by an invasion-of-privacy lawsuit from former pro wrestler Hulk Hogan. This result was cheered by #GamerGate because Gawker also owned Kotaku, a videogame blog that promoted “social justice warrior” (SJW) nonsense. Deadspin’s demise was another #GetWokeGoBroke episode:

Deadspin writer Drew Magary on Thursday morning said he was quitting. Writers Dom Cosentino, Luis Paez-Pumar and Dan McQuade also tweeted their farewells Thursday, adding to the seven who had resigned Wednesday.
Management fired back on Thursday, claiming that the staffers’ contention that non-sports were among the most popular posts was not true.
“In September, unsurprisingly, 24 of the top 25 stories on Deadspin were sports-related while non-sports content accounted for less than 1% of the page views on the site,” a spokesman said.
“While amusing, our readers haven’t actually come to Deadspin for stories like ‘Classic Rock, Ranked,’ or ‘You’re Goddamn Right It’s Layering Season,’ or ‘It’s OK to Logoff.’?”

“Kazika the Mad Jap” could not be reached for comment.


 

Category: Journalism, Media Bias, Sports

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