Meet Our New Watchdog

Yesterday, Gawker revealed that Buck "Hoyt" Kent, 64, was becoming its second Ombudsman. Kent won a Webby in 2003 for his coverage of that weird smell at the A/C/E station on 34th Street, and until recently was the rape-and-murder cartographer for Gothamist. He was one of the first bloggers to question the stories about Tom Cruise buying an apartment in the Dakota, stories that we still maintain are true. Or true-ish. He spoke with Chick's Clothes Occasionally reporter Jake Woodward.

CCO: The Gawker Ombudsman is a notoriously thankless job. Did anyone say you were crazy to take it?

Buck "Hoyt" Kent: Yes, of course. Even random people I see on the street are telling me I'm out of my fucking mind, that they're impossible to work with over there. But it's also an opportunity to have a positive influence on one of the twenty most occasionally-updated gossip blogs in the United States.

CCO: One thing your predecessor, Byron "Dan" Worthington III, left untouched—quite intentionally—was the Stalker Map. Will you take the same approach?

B."H."K.: No. I don't think anything on the blog is off-limits and I would explicitly include the Stalker Map. It wouldn't be appropriate to argue with editorial positions of the Stalkers and Stalkettes—let's face it, everyone knows that Kevin Costner has bulked up lately—but if sightings are based on suppositions that are not factual, or if Anderson Cooper is spotted making out with an Olsen Twin, it's fair game.

CCO: Gawker Managing Editor Choire Sicha said he hired you partially because your pre-closing coverage of Tom Cruise's [as of yet unpurchased!] Dakota apartment. In retrospect, why do you think so few other blogs showed skepticism?

B."H."K.: All I can say is that, at the time, we were focused on what I was doing. And I was certainly aware that I was often alone and wondered where the Gawker was getting its information. But why they made the decisions they made and went down the roads they went down, I don't know.

CCO: Oh, come on. Surely you have a theory.

B."H."K.: I can't read their minds. But I think it's fair to ask whether they were skeptical enough and whether there's a tradition of just posting any old crap because they need to have something up quickly. And from what I've read—I mean, sweet Christ, have you seen the crap they print? David Hasselhoff autobiography excerpts? Really?—I'm pretty sure that they don't give a damn. And that's gonna change. There will be some discipline.

CCO: Until recently, Choire Sicha was by and large hands-off about editors and their copious, drink-besotted typos. Now, it appears all bets are off. How do you think this will affect blogging.

B."H."K.: I think it's a serious problem and Gawker should install a giant chalkboard in its office on which offending editors should be made to write their misspelled words one hundred times. And then be kneecapped.

CCO: With Nick Denton occasionally checking into the blog and always wanting to change things, particularly things that actually work, there's a good chance that how the editors write will change. Do you think the role of an ombudsman will need to include the publisher and the business side of the newspaper?

B."H."K.: To the degree that there will be impacts in the office, that could become a source of interest [to me]. I certainly think the public editor has to look broadly at how the editors manage to thrive in a world where the owner is constantly sending cryptic, subject-line-only e-mails and always wanting the posts to be shorter. Always shorter.

CCO: So you will pay attention to Nick Denton's leadership?

B."H."K.: Yes. Whether I write about it or not depends on a whole lot of things.

CCO: What does that mean?

B."H."K.: It means I'm not saying. Read between the goddamn lines. You're the fucking reporter, I shouldn't have to spell things out for you. Jesus, you fucking people annoy me.

Buck "Hoyt" Kent's tenure as Ombudsman begins next week, or whenever he gets around to turning something in, and fuck you twice for asking.