Dear 'LAT' Man, We Still Hate You. Love, Gawker
When we saw a link on Romenesko alerting us that "LAT's [Joel] Stein believes hate is Gawker's way of showing love," we admit, our interest was piqued—since the last time we checked, we still thought he was kind of a douchebag for that column about how he didn't want to hear from readers. Anyway, we followed Romenesko's link and came upon a transcript of a little chat Joel did last week on the LA Times website. Someone asked him, "why does gawker hate you?" We eagerly awaited his cutting analysis, or perhaps an epistolary on why, in fact, we find him to be douchey. Instead, we got this:
I just talked to the Gawker woman and she was really nice. I think hate is their way of showing love. I think Gawker was abused as a child. Perhaps sexually.
Interestingly, a brief survey of the "Gawker women" yielded exactly zero who had spoken to Stein—like, ever. In fact, Balk, the most likely candidate to be identified as the "Gawker woman" by the general public, also denied having spoken to Stein; Emily and Doree have requested to henceforth be referred to as "the Gawker woman" in all correspondence and conversation.
