The truth will make you free, the more horrible the better. And the more humiliating the truth, the richer you get — certainly if you’re Nick Denton, founder of the gossip-mongering website Gawker.
But that was Phase One.
Denton recently pulled an item about a married media executive’s allegedly seeking the services of a gay porn star, after about a half-million people saw it. He and other moguls in the nastier corners of the Internet are noting that though hits on such stories may reach stratospheric levels, advertisers don’t want to get within smelling distance of the reportage.