A Gawker story reportedly seeking to out the CFO of Conde Nast, accusing him of hiring a gay porn star for the night, is drawing angry criticism online as many viewers challenge the article as bad journalism.
On Thursday,
Gawker published a story by Jordan Sargent accusing Conde Nast's David Geithner, the brother of former Obama treasury secretary Tim Geithner, of offering up $2,500 to spend two or three hours with a gay porn star during a trip he planned to Chicago last week.
Geithner has denied the entire story, calling the whole thing a "shakedown" in a text message to Gawker and saying he has no idea who the gay porn star and escort is.
The story, which went into detail and included alleged conversations between Geithner and the unidentified porn star, outraged many online, who have accused the website of ruining a man’s life. Geithner is married to a woman and has children.
The porn star admitted in the article that he figured out who Geithner was (even though Geithner never identified himself by his last name in their alleged conversations) and asked him to use his influence and money to help with a housing conflict; Geithner allegedly refused and then ended up canceling their Chicago assignation, although he paid the porn star in full.
Because of that, many online ranted that the porn star was blackmailing Geithner and that Gawker participated in the blackmail. Others pointed out the shoddy journalism of the article. Tweeted journalist Glenn Greenwald:
A man who identified himself as practicing First Amendment law wrote on the Gawker story that he believes Sargent opened himself and Gawker up to a lawsuit. He referred to a Hulk Hogan lawsuit Gawker is facing over publishing a sex tape.
"If Gawker doesn’t fire Jordan in the next 24 hours its CEO could very realistically end up in prison and the company shut down," the man wrote.
A Huffington Post opinion piece blasted Gawker, saying, "Gawker on Thursday evening helped a disgruntled sex worker extort David Geithner . . . jettisoning any semblance of journalistic integrity and likely ruining a man’s life in the process."
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