Gawker Is Back... Should We All Be Afraid?

Much to the chagrin of Hulk Hogan and Peter Thiel, Gawker dot com has officially risen from the dead.

Five years after the wrestler and the billionaire successfully sued it out of existence, and two years after its original reboot attempt went down the drain, the second coming of the generation-defining gossip and news site made its debut on Wednesday, sending much of the media-adjacent Twitterati into a tizzy. 

I am very happy for all the talented writers at the new gawker but in the spirit of the old site it is also my duty to tell everyone involved to eat shit
— chris person (@Papapishu) July 28, 2021

After all, the old Gawker notoriously spilled and snarked on members of the New York media class within its orbit. There were Battles of the Blogs and scathing commentary - even we (as in Guest of a Guest, but long before I worked here) had a fraught, frenemy-esque relationship with the site. 

But those were the early days of the blogosphere. Tensions have cooled and the rules of engagement have, ostensibly, evolved. But has Gawker?

Well, even beyond its slightly chaotic yet oddly comforting new layout, it seems it has.

Per the site's newly minted editor in chief (and former staffer of Gawker 1.0), Leah Finnegan, "The current laws of civility mean that no, it can't be exactly what it once was, but we strive to honor the past and embrace the present."

The present seems innocuous enough. Current articles on the homepage include humorous musings on celebrity nose jobs, the Biebers' marriage, and hardboiled eggs, along with my personal favorite, "Timothée Chalamet's Spittle Landed on Me at China Chalet," which proves that he is, in fact, a little asshole. 

So unless you're an editor planning on spitting in someone's face, those of us in the biz seem to be safe from this next iteration of Gawker... for now.