Gawker.com

Former Republican New York Congressman Chris Lee is now one more among the millions of unemployed Americans. Congressman Chris Lee sent pictures of his unclad upper body in response to a January 14th add on Craigslist that was listed as "woman seeking man." The fault lies squarely on the shoulders of Congressman Chris Lee; a married man and a representative of one of the highest public offices. 

He abdicated his duty to professionalism and ethics.  Lee's privately sent photos were made public after the women who created the post did some investigation. After discovering his true identity she sent the photos and the story to Gawker.com.

Gawker.com posted the story quickly with little or no verification. The reputation of Gawker.com as an internet gossip site lends itself well to quick story publication. What Gawker.com did was certainly not good journalism but in this instance it was the truth. 

Gawker.com beat the rest of the media to the story simply because it was handed to them. If they had investigated the story and verified the sources they may have lost their edge. The very nature of the site is to produce tantalizing content in the fastest method possible. That is what they did and so from a purely business perspective they did no wrong.

What Gawker.com did was in their best interest. They capitalized on their advantage and beat out the competition. It is troubling that such a site such as Gawker.com is the place where the woman from Craigslist decided to share her story. It is unfortunate that Gawker.com posted such a potentially volatile story with such little vetting. But most of all it is regrettable that a Congressman Chris Lee acted as he did.

In the end this is a sad testament to the current state of media and the nature of man. A Congressman failed his constituents and his family. A woman aided the gossip site Gawker.com and in so helped perpetuate it and other such sites. This is a story of human failures on many levels and resulted in many consequences, one being the denigration of good journalism.