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Thursday, July 8, 2010

Gawker Tastelessly Gawks About Suicide of Fox News Employee
  Progressivism piece by Warner Todd Huston

The lurid website Gawker-dot-com recently posted a story about the suicide of a Fox News employee that was entirely empty of any real newsworthiness, but did serve as a platform to throw a dig at Fox News. In fact, it seems the only reason that Gawker posted the story at all is to attack Fox News. Exploiting this poor woman’s death and mental anguish just to get a dig at Fox News is over-the-top even for Gawker, but it is the culture our friends on the left have fostered in America today.

Featuring a giant Fox News logo, the Gawker piece blares in a bold headline that ”Former Fox News Producer Committed Suicide, Investigators Say.” From all the hoopla Gawker gave this story one would think that Fox News was central in the story. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Certainly the suicide of a Fox News employee could be newsworthy. If it had involved a high profile, on-air personality or high executive of Fox, perhaps the news of his suicide might be somewhat newsworthy. But the woman whose death Gawker and its commenters are chortling over is nothing of the kind.

As it happens, though, the employee in question was a low level producer despondent over the death of her mother. She was not a household name, an on-air personality, or a high muckety-muck in the corporation. Her story is tragic, but has precisely nothing to do with Fox News.

Further, the deceased Julianna Rolle, 39, was an employee of Fox News five years ago, not today. So, not only did Gawker exploit her death for a dig at Fox News, the claim that she is producer at Fox News isn’t even relevant. Her work at Fox News was just another entry on her resume.

The original story in the woman’s local newspaper treated the story with the proper respect and perspective. It is a local sotry, after all, not a national story. Its inclusion on Gawker was simply an attempt to tar Fox News as a place that causes employees to kill themselves.

In fact, on that last note, one of the Gawker distempered commenters named “lorrigirl” certainly was tuned in to what Gawker was peddling:

How can you not be depressed working for Fox News? All they do is push the agenda of lies that the world is coming to an end and it will never get better as long as Democrats hold the power?

I personally could not live with the guilt of manufacturing misery for a paycheck.

Yes, “lorrigirl” got what Gawker was trying to sell, for sure. It’s all about the eeeevil Fox News and if Gawker has to exploit the death of this troubled woman, then so be it. Disgusting.

Meanwhile, the author of the post, Hamilton Nolan - obviously stung by the heaps of obloquy being poured on him - defends himself in a comment:

Since some people are trying to make this into something it’s not: This is a media story. A former Fox News producer committed suicide. Had I had a good and available photo of Rolle, I would have run that instead of the Fox News logo. You will notice the vitriol here is coming from some crazy commenters; it is not contained in the text of this post. This is “reporting a media story,” not “exploiting.” ‘Body of Former FNC Producer Found at Bottom of Cliff’ is also how this was reported on TV Newser, where I first saw it. They are not known for their fierce anti-Fox rhetoric. If a former veteran ABC producer commits suicide tomorrow, that would be a story, as well. Everyone calm down. Media staffer suicides are sad news, but news.

Right. Especially when they have something to do with Fox News.

Warner Todd Huston

(Originally posted at BigJournalism.com)

Posted by Warner Todd Huston on 7/8/10 at 12:08 PM
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