Bustle Media

Gawker chief Bryan Goldberg offered a public finger wag to the site’s newly-hired editorial director Carson Griffith, telling TheWrap he did not condone earlier tweets from Griffith that were dredged up by Splinter, many of which complained about her maid or used racially insensitive language.

“Nobody at our company, myself included, condoned or stood behind the tweets. Those tweets absolutely do not reflect the company’s values. That’s certainly not the direction Gawker will go,” Goldberg told TheWrap in response to an emailed inquiry. “As I’ve stated before, we are many months away from the re-launch, and we are going to continue to say absolutely nothing about the product until we are ready.”

Racially-charged tweets dating back as far as 2010 include Griffith commenting about the temperature a nail salon, writing, “This nail salon is so hot i might pass out. I hope the asian are as good at throwing water on my face as they are at doing nails.”

Also Read: Gawker Media Sold to Bustle Founder Bryan Goldberg in Bankruptcy Auction

The tweets in question have since been taken down, but Splinter captured a number of screen shots.

Griffith didn’t immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.

The company declined to comment on whether any disciplinary action had been taken against Griffith or whether she would continue to remain as editorial director. Goldberg, the CEO of Bustle Digital Group, purchased Gawker.com at an auction in July 2018. The site had been in limbo for years after a lawsuit brought by Hulk Hogan bankrupted its former parent company Gawker Media. Goldberg paid $1.35 million for the property.

Disagreements with Griffith played a direct role in the departure of Gawker 2.0’s only two staff writers, Maya Kosoff and Anna Breslaw, as first reported in the Daily Beast on Wednesday. Among the complaints were Griffith’s jokes about poor people, speculation about the penis size of a notable businessman, and taking a “dismissive stance towards the recruiting of a writer who identifies as non-binary,” per the Beast.

Also Read: New Gawker Media Owner Bryan Goldberg Eyes 2019 Relaunch

“Any time an employee makes a claim about workplace behavior, we take it seriously and look as deeply into it as we can. We do so through official and legal channels,” Goldberg told TheWrap in response to his former writer’s concerns.

With brutal layoffs taking a bite out of BuzzFeed, HuffPost and Gannett this week, Goldberg’s Bustle empire has increasingly emerged as a successful outlier. Unlike many competitors, the company and its flagship website Bustle.com are in the black and Goldberg himself has developed something of a reputation for buying distressed media properties like Elite Daily and turning them around.

In addition to Gawker, Goldberg picked up Mic.com last November, as well, after the website ran out of money and was forced to lay off their entire editorial staff. The website’s co-founders Jake Horowitz and Chris Altchek are now employees of Bustle Digital Group.

11 Media Winners of 2018, From Hope Hicks to Rachel Maddow (Photos)

2018 was a tumultuous year for members of the media. For many, even most, it was a grim period of layoffs, consolidations and paywalls. But for others, it was a year full of triumphs.
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Sean Hannity: The Fox News host would have appeared on TheWrap's list of media winners simply for hosting the #1-rated cable news show on TV, but it's his unique personal relationship with President Trump, who he is known to call regularly, that made him the only choice for the top spot.
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Bryan Goldberg: In an otherwise ugly year for media, which was marred by layoffs and consolidations, the Bustle kingpin proved a standout success. His acquisitions of Gawker and Mic.com for bargain-basement discounts suggest plans for a burgeoning digital empire.

Also Read: New Gawker Media Owner Bryan Goldberg Eyes 2019 Relaunch
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Los Angeles Times: The iconic LA broadsheet was well on its way to the losers' column under the disastrous leadership of Tronc. The paper, however, was rescued by billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong for a half-billion dollars. Now, in swanky new offices, the paper is expanding.
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Chris Cuomo: The CNN anchor had always been a standout on the network's morning show, "New Day," but he really came into his own after a move to primetime in June of this year. Cuomo is still way behind his rivals at MSNBC and Fox News, but he has injected new life into the hour, which had been moribund under its earlier host Anderson Cooper.
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Hope Hicks: The former White House communications director and Trump whisperer managed to leave the White House scandal-free and with her reputation intact in February. She then landed herself a plush new gig at "new" Fox where she serves as comms chief. Just 30 years old, it's a good bet you'll be hearing more of her in the years to come.

Also Read: Hope Hicks Hired as New Fox’s Chief Communications Officer
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The Washington Examiner: The Trump-leaning D.C. tabloid got a jolt of new energy after poaching New York Post Op-Ed editor Seth Mandel. The paper will also be expanding nationally next year, largely off the carcass of its sister publication The Weekly Standard (which will be shuttered).
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Ronan Farrow: Once an obscure MSNBC journalist, Ronan Farrow has rocketed to fame while reporting some of the biggest stories of the MeToo movement. His pieces for the New Yorker on Harvey Weinstein, Les Moonves and New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman all played a significant role in ending their careers. He nabbed a Pulitzer Prize for his efforts, and — in his spare time — managed to write a bestselling book on foreign policy.
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Shari Redstone: The National Amusements super-boss spent much of 2018 scheming against her rival, former CBS chief Les Moonves, and attempting to force a merger between CBS and Viacom. A MeToo scandal put Moonves away for good and now makes the merger a near certainty.

Also Read: CBS’ Annual Shareholder Meeting Set for December Following Pair of Postponements
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Fox & Friends: President Trump watches the nation's top cable news morning show with near religious devotion. As he has since 2011, he sometimes calls in to offer lengthy monologues about world issues. Segments from the show are regularly repackaged into the president's Twitter feed and can shape news cycles for days. When hosts are upset with him, they have occasionally looked directly into the camera to tell him so.
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Rachel Maddow: America in the Trump era has also created a crop of #resistance heroes, with the brightest star being Rachel Maddow. The MSNBC host expounds nightly on the latest details of the Russia probe and delivers lurid speculation about how the latest scandal will be the one to take the president down. Maddow and her program have been rewarded in the ratings, making her the most significant (non-Fox) anchor in cable news by far.
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Megyn Kelly: Yes, she may have lost her NBC show. But the ratings had been sagging and everyone agreed it was a bad fit anyway. Now the former "Today" star is poised to walk with a roughly $30-million severance package, and if you don't think a tell-all book is coming, you haven't been paying attention.

Also Read: Kathy Griffin Spreads Some Holiday Jeer to Megyn Kelly With Obama Santa Pic (Photo)
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While 2018 was a tough year for many, a few media folks had their best year ever

2018 was a tumultuous year for members of the media. For many, even most, it was a grim period of layoffs, consolidations and paywalls. But for others, it was a year full of triumphs.

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