Salon Piles On Gawker: Mary Elizabeth Williams, Hamilton Nolan Debate Proper Criticism

In case you missed it, Salon, the online news magazine, and Gawker, the place for all things snark, have been tussling the past two days. While it looks somewhat quiet on the western front now, it has been only a couple of hours.
The fight reignited when Mary Elizabeth Williams wrote a column Wednesday titled "I was slimed by Gawker." In the piece, Williams takes issue with the fact that Gawker called her a "hack" and said other unpleasant things about her. Gawker used a photo of her that ran with a Salon column announcing her cancer diagnosis.
In the worst year of my life, Gawker made me a regular target — and it was devastating http://t.co/YIEjDxoYRC via @embeedub
— Salon.com (@Salon) July 22, 2015
Williams didn’t target any specific writer at Gawker, but rather suggested the pieces were emblematic of Gawker's culture. Gawker outed a media executive last week on the word of an escort and potential blackmailer. When senior management stepped in and removed the post, Gawker editors quit on journalistic principle. Someone might argue that Williams’ piece provided an interesting insight into what it feels like to become a Gawker media spectacle.
Gawker fired back Thursday with the piece "Writing and What Comes With It." In it, Hamilton Nolan outs himself as the writer who criticized Williams and defends his pieces. Nolan suggests that contemporary media discussions act as a "Hegelian dialectic," where writers are offering points and counterpoints to other writers. Nolan stands by his criticism and says the photo Gawker used was "perfectly lovely."
Writing and what comes with it: http://t.co/OQsz9oW0JQ
— Hamilton Nolan (@hamiltonnolan) July 23, 2015
Williams has taken to her Twitter feed to defend herself over the past two days.
It really does strike me as hilarious now that Gawker ripped me for basically not being edgy enough for their taste while I had cancer.
— Mary Beth Williams (@embeedub) July 23, 2015
Pro tip to snarky young white male media writers: You are not my target demo.
— Mary Beth Williams (@embeedub) July 23, 2015
Oh God, Gawker, keep doubling on how you took the moral high road by gunning for me during my cancer treatment. You are garbage.
— Mary Beth Williams (@embeedub) July 23, 2015
The irony of Gawker complaining that I picked on them at their "very lowest point" while they went after me during Stage 4 cancer? SO RICH.
— Mary Beth Williams (@embeedub) July 23, 2015
I give no f---- if you say the pic you used to slime me was "lovely." You pulled it from my story announcing I HAD CANCER, Gawker.
— Mary Beth Williams (@embeedub) July 23, 2015
I remember when the Gawker writer tweeted that my story about how my kids were facing possible last xmas with their mom was a "joke."
— Mary Beth Williams (@embeedub) July 23, 2015
I'm going to keep myself out there because there are worse things than taking risks & being vulnerable. There's being numb & mean.
— Mary Beth Williams (@embeedub) July 23, 2015
And Thursday night, Salon writer Arthur Chu joined in on social media and with his own column, "Where the Absolute Right to Snark Turns Sour." Chu points out that Gawker did some positive and some negative things, but argues that Gawker has become "the man" and uses its power for bad. He hits on the latest Gawker problems, as well as its takedown of senate candidate Christine O’Donnell and, expectedly, Gawker’s take on Williams. Chu has since been defending himself online.
I want there basic norms of decency. I want those norms to favor & protect most marginalized & vulnerable. I want them to be firmly enforced
— Arthur Chu (@arthur_affect) July 24, 2015
It seems that in that basic code I am opposed by both Gawker and by the GG/Reddit/channer crowd. So, well, f--- all of them
— Arthur Chu (@arthur_affect) July 24, 2015
The nastiness from the HamNo piece is pretty much the same kind you get from gaters mocking women in games. "That's not a REAL thinkpiece"
— Arthur Chu (@arthur_affect) July 24, 2015
Same misogynistic undertones -- too fluffy, too sappy, no conflict, doesn't really SAY anything. Where's the gameplay, where's the challenge
— Arthur Chu (@arthur_affect) July 24, 2015
Ugh whatever. One day on Twitter and I already hate the human race again. See you after the weekend
— Arthur Chu (@arthur_affect) July 24, 2015
And Williams has also kept up the fight.
Ready for another work day. pic.twitter.com/GkQSCYYcL9
— Mary Beth Williams (@embeedub) July 24, 2015
Gawker doesn't seem to have responded, but Chu said on his Twitter feed he expects they might. Williams, on the other hand, appears to be battling Twitter trolls.
Even the days that are suckier are days that I'm here. W my kids & my life & my health. Sorry, trolls. pic.twitter.com/p9T4uXqLIh
— Mary Beth Williams (@embeedub) July 24, 2015
Luckily, we don't have to pick sides in this debate. We're just here to report the news.
© Copyright IBTimes 2024. All rights reserved.