I just got through reading one of the most unbelievable memos I’ve ever had the displeasure of examining. Nick Denton sent it out to Gawker staff a short time ago, and it’s classic nastiness right at the top. He implies that Hogan only sued them in the first place because of the “n-word” footage. Here’s the quote:

The storm surrounding the CFO escort story has abated sufficiently for our internal soul-searching to begin. After the passionate public argument of the last week, calm is restored enough to begin a real, civil dialogue. (And with the recent news on Hulk’s real secret, the motivations of our legal antagonist are beginning to emerge.)

(full memo)

I hope Hogan fucking breaks you. Rarely will you ever read a more disingenuous piece. First off, he’s already repeated the name of the CEO several times in his own writing about the incident, so acting like he’s trying to keep that out of things is ridiculous. There’s no sincerity behind one single word that he’s written here. At the end of the day, the sleaze merchant got busted and is now doing and saying anything it takes to keep his corrupt operation afloat. It’s no coincidence the Hogan leak came on the heels of Gawker’s meltdown. They were trying to change the conversation, and sadly, they’ve largely succeeded.

Here’s more:

While journalists have a natural preoccupation with their professional freedom, I remain ashamed that we would ruin the home life of a largely private individual with such a flimsy rationale.

The damage is done to the CFO’s family life, so this does not make amends. But we can use this lesson to re-examine the ethics of internet journalism at Gawker Media and among our peers, and reduce the likelihood of another misjudgment.

After rattling off some achievements, the crooked bastard finished up with this:

All this was achieved in 12 years of bootstrapping and re-investment, without external funding or social dependence. Gawker Media is the only online media company to have achieved sustained profitability without external investment. And now for the second act. As some are already saying: Gawker’s growing up.

Growing up? More like throwing up, you lying piece of shit. Hogan’s lawyers aren’t gonna give up, I can tell you that. You made their job harder when it comes to selecting jurors, but it will still be a court of law. Presumably, they’re at least going to get a fair shot. I like Hulk’s chances, even now. I think most reasonable people can put whatever issues they have with him to the side and look at Gawker’s long record of depravity with an open mind.

Denton can keep spinning all he likes. That the media is helping him pimp his new storyline is sickening (NY Times interview from this weekend). I actually got angry reading this shit, and I’m used to covering these shitbags daily. It takes a lot for me to just become totally revolted. But there’s no need, really. This is a long game, and we’re only at halftime. Gawker can try to run and hide all they like, but we will continue watching. They will slip-up again just as sure as I’m sitting here. Count on it.