Looks like the company that published an anonymous smear piece against Christine O’Donnell has demonstrated its capacity to pull itself back from the brink. A couple weeks ago, a 21-year old man was stabbed to death in Manhattan. Gawker ran a graphic photo of his corpse in its story. But after a huge outcry from friends, family and the internet, the blog giant actually decided to remove the photo.
This raised many questions. When is it okay to publish sensationalistic, graphic photos? And why would Gawker, of all places, respond to user outrage meaningfully? Ryan Kearney has a detailed breakdown of the situation:
That the photo was later taken down — and only after tens of thousands of people, including Jusko’s stepsister, had already seen it — says more about Gawker’s journalistic integrity, or lack thereof, than any statement Denton et al. could whip up. They might be too proud of their perceived mercilessness to admit they made a mistake, but the photo’s retraction is itself an admission — if not of a mistake, then at least that even Gawker, sometimes, can go too far.