Gawker ran independently prior to the Hogan lawsuit, which I think factors into why they were targeted. They didn’t filter and exposed a lot of so called prominent people; they weren’t as biased as some of the major publications.
For me, The Root changed with new editor of Gawker, years ago, I think under Nick Denton, and most of their better writers resigned or quit during that era. it was subtle at first but then became more overt with their agendas especially over the past 2 yrs. lot of the writers complained they weren’t allowed to sanction what could and couldn’t be published; didn’t like the direction of the “new gawker” so i guess they found their token replacements that exist at The Root today
