Gawker, which makes its living reporting on the banality of celebrities’ lives, says that a YouTube video of a man committing suicide at the end of car chase is ‘news.’
Its definition of news is simple — if people are interested in it, it’s news. Kitten videos? Yes! Christina Aguilera’s vagina? Yes! Suicide accidentally aired on a news network? Yes! More kitten videos? Yes!
Yes, a day as an editor at Gawker must be very difficult.
But there’s actually a rationale not to link to a video showing someone committing suicide. Gawker and its ethics-challenged staff doesn’t seem to care about that rationale, but I thought it might be valuable to review anyway.