Are you seriously making the case that the writers who quit Deadspin over issues of editorial freedom — not, to be clear, the freedom to publish salacious gossip, but to publish articles that weren't strictly sports-related, no matter how provably popular and critically acclaimed they were — were "just bad people" because they refused to sit down, shut up and get in line?
Gawker certainly crossed a line they shouldn't have, and maybe that line was so egregious that they deserved to die and have their remains put through the shitshow that they've been through the last few years. But that's entirely orthogonal as to whether sites related to Gawker ever did good journalism. They did. They had some terrific writers — particularly at io9 under Charlie Jane Anders and Annalee Newitz (both now award-winning science fiction authors), but around the network you'd find Brian Lam, Jason Chen, Stephen Totilo, Gina Trapani, Erica Sadun, Sam Biddle, and yes, love him or hate him, Gawker founder Nick Denton himself was a pretty damn good writer. They published some terrific articles. And the world of online publications is a little dimmer with them effectively gone.
Gawker certainly crossed a line they shouldn't have, and maybe that line was so egregious that they deserved to die and have their remains put through the shitshow that they've been through the last few years. But that's entirely orthogonal as to whether sites related to Gawker ever did good journalism. They did. They had some terrific writers — particularly at io9 under Charlie Jane Anders and Annalee Newitz (both now award-winning science fiction authors), but around the network you'd find Brian Lam, Jason Chen, Stephen Totilo, Gina Trapani, Erica Sadun, Sam Biddle, and yes, love him or hate him, Gawker founder Nick Denton himself was a pretty damn good writer. They published some terrific articles. And the world of online publications is a little dimmer with them effectively gone.