Gawker, one of the Internet’s leading news sites is facing harsh criticism after revealing that a Condé Nast exec allegedly tried to pay for a night with a gay porn star.
Gawker is under siege with hundreds of users accusing the news site of “guerrilla outing techniques” and some calling into question Gawker’s progressive stance on Journalism.
The story, which has now been pulled, outs the married father of three and Chief Financial Officer of Condé Nast, David Geithener, who allegedly tried to pay for 2 to 3 hours with a gay porn star, who wished to remain anonymous, during a visit to Chicago. The unnamed disgruntled sex worker forwarded pictures and text messages claiming to be from Geithener’s phone to a Gawker journo after Geithener seemingly cancelled their meeting.
Kara Swisher, who runs Re/Code slammed the site to her 1 million followers saying,
“An appalling act of gay shaming disguised as a story — thought we were way past this crap #ughnick”
An appalling act of gay shaming disguised as a story — thought we were way past this crap #ughnick: http://t.co/qkTvS6dOxz
— Kara Swisher (@karaswisher) July 17, 2015
Huffington Post’s national editor, Katie Nelson took a swing at Gawker, stating that what they had published was “gay shaming” and not journalism.
Gawker founder Nick Denton has now announced that the article has been removed and said that publishing it “is a decision I regret.”
David Geithener denies knowing the gay porn star.
