Gawker Media honcho Nick Denton Thursday told an editor (and careful Gawker readers) that he knows the company’s audience leans left and wants its journalism to reach more conservatives:
Let’s welcome, if not out-and-out racists, then at least the wide array of people with whom a conversation is possible: national greatness conservatives, Burkean Tories and business pragmatists, for instance; Christians and other spiritual people; economic liberals, libertarians and techno-utopians; and black and other social conservatives.
Denton was responding to a note from Gawker’s Jason Parham, who publicly urged Denton and the upper echelons of Gawker Media to embrace diversity “throughout all departments of the company.” In the note, Parham encouraged Gawker Media bosses to “engage the interest around progressive voices” and hire more Latina, queer and black writers.
In his response, Denton agreed with Parham that the company needs to be more diverse and suggested that the company push to incorporate voices that aren’t necessarily progressive and metropolitan.
But liberals are only a fifth of the US voting population. In the absence of commitment sufficient for armed struggle, or separatism, democratic change is the only option. And a successful cause is open to new allies and ideas.
Denton also wants to “look beyond our social stata” when hiring writers for the company, so they don’t all come from “the same small liberal arts schools.”
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