Carson Griffith, a former Gawker editor who was tasked with reviving the website after its shutdown in 2016, now sues The Daily Beast over an article that accused her of being racist and homophobic.
The article by The Daily Beast was published on January 23rd 2019, portraying Griffith as a racist and homophobic person, which ultimately cost her the position at Gawker.
The Daily Beast, in its article, alleges that Griffith remarked about “everything from poor people to black writers to her acquaintance’s penis size” in the office.
It is worth noting that Maxwell Tani, the author of the article admitted the fact that he learned about Griffith’s remarks through a “former colleague and personal friend.”
Griffith, however, claims that Tani only wrote about “partial sections of Slack conversations and e-mail exchanges”.
Tani’s article, for instance, refers to an incident where Griffith “laughed off” about a potential employee’s use of the pronouns, while writing “lol is […..] a girl?”
Griffith, however, states in her lawsuit that she said so, because the candidate had an “unusual name” and that she “wanted clarification on how to address her”.
“Tani never approached Ms. Griffith for comment about any of these statements prior to publication,” read Griffith’s lawsuit in the New York State court.
“It is clear this article, which has destroyed Ms. Griffith’s life, was never fact-checked or thoroughly reported by Mr. Tani or his editor Mr. Shachtman and no one is being held accountable for it,” read the suit.
Noah Shachtman, the editor of the Daily Beast said: “This is a well-sourced story, with multiple sources backed by documentary evidence. Unfortunately, Ms. Griffith’s suit isn’t nearly as solid. We stand by our reporting”.
Griffith, in her lawsuit, stated that she received several hateful messages and tweets after the article came out.
A petition to fire Griffith was circulated by more than 70 employees at Bustle Digital Group, the company that currently owns Gawker.
She said that she was ultimately forced to stop working as a result of the intense backlash against her.
https://twitter.com/CarsonGriffith/status/1233393544263610369
According to an outside law firm hired by Bustle Digital Group to investigate the claims in the Daily Beast Story, Griffith was declared clear of any misconduct, reports The New York Post.
Maya Kosoff and Anna Breslaww, the two individuals accusing Griffith were however not questioned during the investigation. It seems they didn’t turn up, despite being asked to participate in the inquiry twice, as stated by the lawsuit.
