by Lori Adelman
Yesterday gossip site Gawker single-handedly whipped up a scandal that led to the resignation of a NY congressman.
At 2:33 PM, Maureen O’Connor published a post on Gawker containing flirty emails and a shirtless photo supposedly sent from a
congressman, Rep. Chris Lee, to an unidentified woman in response to a Craigslist dating ad.
By 5:30 PM, Lee had resigned from Congress.
It’s not the first time that Gawker has published anonymous accounts of the sex lives of political figures.
You’ll remember back in October, they published some unnamed guy’s story of a Halloween night spent drinking, flirting, and making out with Christine O’Donnell, then Delaware Republican Senate candidate.
Back then, the post was met with much disdain, prompting a strongly-worded statement from NOW, among others, condemning “sexist, misogynist attacks against women” and calling Gawker’s decision to run the piece “public sexual harassment”.
But yesterday’s post on Congressman Lee is raising ethical alarms for different reasons.
(snip)
...sex, or anything that resembles or hints at it, is still super taboo in our society. And considering that it is unclear if sex even occurred in this scenario, I don’t get why this is news, especially when the “source” won’t even publicly identify themselves to provide context, transparency, or accountability for their claims.
Full story: http://feministing.com/2011/02/10/the-ethics-of-anonymous-gossip/
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