Urbana native Tommy Craggs resigned from his post as the executive editor of Gawker Media today. It’s obviously huge news in the journalism world, but the entirety of the current media culture is affected by what’s gone done.
Gawker published a controversial piece last week and it resulted in certain advertisers being miffed. The business side of Gawker, in an unprecedented move, decided to just delete the story in its entirety. The business and editorial sides are the church and state of media and until now, for the most part, they have been separate at Gawker.
Craggs and fellow editor Max Read are sticking to their guns on journalist integrity and have left Gawker. That’s a really bold and badass move for Craggs.
You can read Craggs’ statement here, but what you should read are the comments from the editorial staff here. Those comments speak to the controversy of the original piece, but also to the blurring of the line between business and editorial content.
Craggs is scheduled to appear on a panel at Pygmalion TECH in September: http://www.thepygmalionfestival.com/tech/
UPDATE: Here’s an outpouring of emotions from fellow Pygmalion TECH panelist and Deadspin writer Albert Burneko. The comments from employees and fellow writers are really neat to read.