[image courtesy Wonkette / Huffington Post]
About six weeks ago, I began working on a post that I never finished, and thus never published. It was about a raft of personnel changes that had occurred in the previous several weeks/months over at Gawker Media, and speculated a bit about what was driving the changes.
In the days after I began working on that post, other news outlets / blogs ran with analyses that covered the story with more depth -- and insidery info -- than I could ever hope to match. So, there was really no point for my post, and it has languished since in "draft" form, serving mainly as a repository of links and such.
But the changes continue to roll in, and Friday 18 January saw a bloody massacre that left much of the bloggosphere in shock and outrage at a new high-profile change over at Wonkette.
And it's now time for me to write.
The HuffPo's Rachel Sklar has a very good, linkified piece detailing the staff changes among the Gawker Media blogs over the last six months here, so there's no need for me to delve into all of that in this space. Suffice it to say, Gawker Media overlord Nick Denton has made sweeping changes at most of his most-well-known blogs, in some cases editorially steering his writers to be more like traditional reporters (cultivate sources, generate original news reporting, etc.), and in all cases demanding that his writers be more interesting and entertaining. This strategy is all in pursuit of higher page view counts, and thus higher advertising revenues.
A recent change at GM's politically-focused blog, Wonkette, had until-then-professional-lobbyist Megan Carpentier [pictured above -- Ed.] join the staff as an Assistant Editor. Carpentier had previously contributed a "how the sausage gets made" column about lobbying and politics to the site under the pseudonym "Anonymous Lobbyist". When Carpentier joined the Wonkette team full-time, she thought it appropriate to "out" her identity and take editorial responsibility for her posts. I applauded this decision, even though it meant -- as she acknowledged -- that she would also be owning up to her past "anonymous" posts, and thus burning lots of professional bridges, should she ever be in a position where returning to lobbying professionally was back on the table.
Megan is an educated, opinionated, professional, modern, and smart-with-a-smart-sense-of-humor woman. And her posts typically reflected all of these qualities. Longtime Wonkette readers welcomed her insidery-and-XX-infused perspectives on politics and politicians. And it was also neither lost on nor trivial to said readers that, 18 months after founding editor Ana Marie Cox left, Carpentier finally brought the "-ette" back to "Wonkette".
On Friday 18 January, recently-returned Wonkette Managing Editor Ken Layne fired Carpentier, along with recently-sorta-promoted-from-Intern Greg Wasserstrom and longtime "picture-taking-person" Liz Glover Gorman [updated; apologies for the inaccuracy to all affected; H/T HOMOFASCIST -- Ed.].
When I first heard the news that Ken Layne would be returning to Wonkette after a brief sabbatical, I was ecstatic. Layne is one of the funniest bloggosphere-type writers I have ever read. His posts were always reliably not only funny, but spit-out-your-coffee-and-snort-it-out-your-nose funny. Probably 10 of the 20 funniest blog posts I have ever read were written by Ken Layne.
Layne was brought back to Wonkette by Denton as part of Denton's over-arching transformation of many of his blogs. I'll agree that there are many areas in which Wonkette could be "better" -- and thus "more page-viewable" -- and I'm sure that Denton has given Layne wide latitude to implement changes he thinks are necessary.
Carpentier finally opened up over the weekend about what went down, and why, on her personal blog. Please go read that post here. I'm not a fan of cutting-and-pasting wholesale from other blogs, but I want to highlight this part of what Megan had to say:We [Megan and her Wonkette colleague Jim Newell -- Ed.] found out Ken Layne was starting about the same time everyone else did on January 2nd and were both really super excited. That wore off a little quickly for me, as it was obvious from the get-go that he was not a fan of my writing. He didn't think I was funny and he didn't like when I was serious or rant-y and it was pretty clear to me by last weekend that what happened was going to happen. I was still in the probationary phase of my contract (3 months and I'd get 2 weeks notice), but I figured that he might let that run down before letting me go. I was wrong.
He very politely called me at 5:30 on Friday (which: standard HR practice, truly) to tell me that it had been my last day writing for Wonkette. He told me that the intention of bringing him back was to move the site towards being what it was under him and Alex [Alex Pareene, Layne's former cohort at Wonkette, now at Gawker -- Ed.] and that my voice and writing didn't fit with that vision -- and he's right, it doesn't. In that editorial environment, I would stick out like a sore thumb, and he said he wanted a more uniform tone. He said that I should finish what I was doing, write a goodbye and call it a day. Getting fired sucks, but he wasn't a dick about it.
* * *
So, to some of the stuff that's been said on the comment boards and others. It didn't feel, nor was it presented, like sexism and I doubt seriously that Ken was jealous of me, given that he comes with like 20 some years of experience and his own following. Ken's assessment of my fit with where he wants to take Wonkette is completely accurate, even if the results of that are personally devastating to me. I have no idea whether Nick Denton was informed of or gave any input to Ken about the decision to fire me, though my (admittedly limited) experience with him suggests to me that he was probably like "Do what you think best" if he was told.
Megan is tres cool to be so professional and "I really didn't fit in any more" and "Ken Layne was not a dick about this" about the whole matter, but, still.
Ken Layne, you made the wrong call here.
Ken, Megan was a much-appreciated and much-respected opinionated voice about politics here. Her sense of humor doesn't exactly jibe with your style. But that was okay for me, and, I know, others. Personally, I like what you and Megan both brought to the table, and I'm sorry to see her let go from Wonkette.
My posting will not bring Megan back. I know that.
And I will not be "boycotting" GM sites. Long-time readers and long-time-suffering-listeners know that I think Idolator is the best music-related blog out there [AHEM, the SECOND-BEST music-related blog...the first bestest music-related blog is here -- Ed.], and my first go-to website. And Wonkette is my second go-to blog.
But I do wish you had not made this call. I believe Wonkette's quality will suffer as a result.
I also wish Megan Carpentier all-the-best. Please, Dear Readers, keep up with her and her future exploits. She will continue to contribute to her collaborative "Oy vey! It's early and the coffee hasn't kicked in yet!" alterna-universe-version-of-The-View "Crappy Hour" posts on GM's Jezebel. And it's a sure bet that the brilliant-and-funny-and-talented Megan will end up with a full-time gig writing for Politico or Express or whatever soon.
Good luck, Megan!
-- Rob
READ MORE:
Megan's "Goodbye, Y'all!" post for Wonkette is here.
Megan's personal public blog, which discusses these events is here.
DC Blogger "Big Head Rob" [not affiliated with DHMBIB -- Ed.] has coverage of this story here.
DCist's coverage of the story is here.
Wonkette commenter "HOMOFASCIST" has started up a blog in support of Megan and in support of a reader boycott of Wonkette here.
Monday, January 21, 2008
In Support Of Megan Carpentier
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
BREAKING: Ask American Celebremag Covers No Questions And They Will STILL Tell You Lies
RELATED: Offer me $10K and I'll photoshop MYSELF to your specifications...
Fact No. 1: faithful readee Gawker Media recently inaugurated a new blog. Jezebel is a blog devoted to snarking about the world of women's fashion and beauty. Think Cosmo with "These 7 seven tricks WILL NOT blow his mind!!! But the truth about Atoosa Rubinstein just might!!!" [Maybe a LITTLE too inside??? -- Ed.] Their motto -- "Celebrity, Sex, Fashion. Without Airbrushing."
Fact No. 2: Faith Hill is a beautiful woman. Two months away from her 40th birthday, this Mother 0f three lovely girls [and Wife of Tim McGraw] should have no shame over a few lines here and there.
Fact No. 3: EVERY magazine cover you see when you buy your cold medicine and band-aids or whatevs at the CVS is so photoshopped it bears no resemblance to anything you or I would relate to "reality".
[uh...insert "break" here perhaps when this gets fixed -- Ed.]
Fact No. 4: Jezebel famously offered a $10 thousand bounty for a major magazine cover pic "before" the requisite photoshop job. [sorry, we can't find the original offer now -- just trust us -- Ed.]
Fact No. 5: Nick Denton is cutting a check for 10-Large as I write this.
Yes, today, someone emailed Jezebel a "before" pic of Faith Hill on the cover of the July Redbook. And here's the before, along with the after [of course -- you can figure out which is which]:
[image courtesy Jossip via Jezebel]
This story blew up the celebribloggosphere on Monday. Take a look at the differences between these two photos. Among other things that are obviously different:
* the "eye bags"
* the "back fat"
* the right arm -- where is it in "the original" photo?
* the thinner left arm
* the freckles and moles on the left arm
* and, uh, why???
* no, seriously -- why???
Longtime-faithful readers know how much I hate gettin' all Jack Shafer and shit up in y'allz grillz and shit, but...
Assuming the "before" photo is real -- a big assumption -- Redbook -- and Faith Hill -- have lots of questions to answer -- the above questions, to be exact...
...But it also -- OMG totes coincidentally -- put [BRAND NEW!!! GAWKER MEDIA blog] Jezebel on the map...
...And we here at DHMBIB would never be so cynical as to suggest that a brand-new blog...
Two notes:
1) Okay, Jezebel, so you're OK! If you offered to pay me $10K for something bloggable, I might photoshop anything you wanted -- I might even "reverse-photoshop" Redbook's July cover, just for you and your $10K payday.
So, a little more disclosure would be a good thing...Just sayin'...
2) "On The Internet, Nobody Knows You're A Dog."
ciaobaby
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
On The Internet, Nobody Knows You're A Dog, btw [21 March 2007 Edition]
This is one of my favorite truisms jokes about the Internet. It first appeared in the 5 July 1993 issue of The New Yorker. [wait -- "the Internet" has been around since 1993??? -- Ed.]
[Thanks to this site for the pic, which helpfully also has a magnified screen grab of the monitor (scroll down).]
And now, thanks to an interesting -- and, alas, long-overdue -- decision announced today by Gawker Managing Editor Choire Sicha, now on the Internet, everyone will know whether "this is Balk, btw" or that is "Rhymes with Memily".
Regular readers of Gawker [DHMBIB raises hand!], Gawker Media's [GM] flagship blog about media and New York -- or any of GM's blogs -- are familiar with GM's signature unsigned "royal 'We' " style of posting in the third-person-plural. Even though most GM sites have multiple editors and contributors, this anonyfiction has allowed each site to present its snarky opinions as if they were those of "the site" instead of the individual contributors. It also has encouraged GM's active commenter community to play a game of speculating who authored any particular post -- a game encouraged along by Gawker Editor Alex Balk's occasional interjections of "[this is Balk, btw]".
But in an out-of-the-blue post this morning, Gawker Managing Editor Choire Sicha announced that henceforth -- or at least until the policy is changed -- Gawker's posts will be bylined.
GM clearly does not have a corporate policy on this. Most of their sites are not bylined, and there is precedent for going the other way. Back in the "1.0" days of Wonkette [GM's politics-and-DC blog], only posts not written by founding editor Ana Marie Cox were bylined -- all others were supposed to be understood to be hers. Even though AMC's signature style -- who can forget the glory days of the "ass-fucking" and "Butterstick" tags??? [not related, you Last-Tango-In-Paris-thinking pervs!!! -- Ed.] -- could not be mistaken, AMC's policy was to let her readers know when someone else was posting on her site.
[Ana Marie Cox is still so revered by regular Wonkette readers that she is still listed as "Wonkette Emerita" on the site, even though her contract with Time (hey! blogging about disclosures!) surely limits her ability to post there...unless she's writing about "ass-fucking" or "Butterstick"...or both -- Ed.]
After AMC left Wonkette barely a year ago, the new editors of "Wonkette 2.0" -- David Lat and Alex Pareene -- announced as their first editorial decision that they were elminating bylines. Since then, all posts on Wonkette -- even those written by "guest editors" -- have gone "un-bylined", thus being attributed instead to "Wonkette". Wonkette's policy remains in place to this day. [N.B.: David Lat left Wonkette last summer. Alex has since been joined by Ken Layne from another part of the GW corporate family for "Wonkette 3.0" -- Ed.]
Contrast that with this interesting editorial judgment over at GM's music blog, Idolator. Several months ago, quite famously, Idolator editors Brian Raftery and Maura Johnston called out the anonymous author of the music blog Gerard vs. Bear for refusing to identify him[?]self. Like Wonkette's editors, Brian and Maura do not byline their posts, but they do identify themselves as editors. Their beef with "Gerard" was that "he" would not even identify himself -- making it impossible for readers to make editorial judgments about potential conflicts-of-interest in his posts -- even though "Gerard" 's [75% -- "75%", because "Gerard" does also post "his" own opinions about music matters] raison-d'etre appeared to be calling out other music bloggers on conflicts-of-interest. [Sadly, such conflicts are notorious in the world of music blogs. This public spat is what led us to make our own disclosures when we started DHMBIB 2.0 back in December 2006 -- Ed.]
So, while Idolator is calling on "Gerard" to identify himself -- without identifying themselves, post-wise, Wonkette has gone one way, and Gawker has now gone the other way. Now, one can make an argument either way about whether posts should be individually bylined for conflicts-of-interest purposes, or whether group-blog opinions -- and, consequently, conflicts-of-interest -- should be attributed to all editors of a site.
All of this is very "inside baseball", as either Brian or Maura [see how difficult this is??? -- Ed.] Idolator would say, and I probably wouldn't be writing about this, except for Sicha's curious pronouncement today, and GM's own conflicted history about this.
So, I wonder -- what prompted Sicha's change-of-heart today?
GM commenter "Chief Wahoo" speculated -- jokingly, I hope and assume -- in the announcing post that this change related to "Gawker" nominating GM boss Nick Denton in their "Worst Bosses" "contest".
But Eat The Press editor Rachel Sklar has a different idea.
Sklar posits that this is all a CYA thing for...wait for it...Sicha himself! As Sklar notes, Sicha used to work for GM, left GM to work for the New York Observer, and has recently returned. Any anonyposts about the NYO are thus automatically questionable. Plus, there's that whole "you're real journalists not just snarkers" thing GM has to deal with. Can you imagine the outcry that would result -- from sites like Gawker -- if CBS [for example] were to read its news with an unidentified "voice" instead of with "Katie Couric"?
What's my opinion about all this? Well, I respect and appreciate bloggers taking personal responsibility for their posts. I can understand why group-blog sites would want all of their posts to be "of the site", but I have greater respect for the notion of standing proud for one's words.
I applaud Sicha's decision -- even though either he or his bloggers were not taking [unsigned] it [unsigned] seriously [unsigned] by the end of the day.
I'm also curious -- will this be the new GM policy for all GM sites??? Or does this only apply to sites that might be, yaknow, conflicted about something???
*****
This post marks the debut of a new "feature" for DHMBIB. Future posts tagged "On The Internet, Nobody Knows You're A Dog" will focus on topics such as "you can't believe everything you see on the Internet" or "one of these things is not like the others", for example.
