Playing Dodgeball With Gawker–And Other Cheap Thrills in the Big Blog Era

Remember when all you had to worry about from blogs was excessive snark? If you overdosed on the acid commentary, you could always just pop a few Tums or spend 10 minutes with the fluffy kittens on Cute Overload. (There–all better.)

Now you might want to bring a flak jacket.

Consider what’s been happening at the Gawker Media network of blogs, for instance. In its recent past, while it certainly enjoyed poking at the Establishment (especially the Establishment media), flagship blog Gawker tended to reserve its most surgical, sustained attacks for the little people–self-promoting 20-something media types.

But now? Gawker Media likes bigger targets–much, much bigger ones.

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