They find that Gawker’s female writers relished going after people, too, particularly other women: “Christina Hendricks Says These Giant Naked Boobs Aren’t Hers, But Everything Else Is”: 280,000 page views. “Olivia Munn’s Super Dirty Alleged Naked Pics:”: 680,000 page views. They discover that Gawker had paid $ 12,000 for photos of the penis of quarterback Brett Favre and had run the story despite the protestations of the woman he had allegedly been sending them to, running her name when she asked them not to. Gawker ran it, admitting that there was a “possibility” the photos weren’t even of Brett Favre: 4.9 million views.

More from Ryan Holiday

View all quotes →