Waiting For A Better Gizmodo

By Aaron Ting

I used to be an addicted reader of Gizmodo. At its best, I found it to be a quirky gadget blog with solid news coverage and thoughtful commentary about the culture of technology. I kept coming back because they have some truly gifted writers; Brian Lam’s narrative-style review of the iPad was an exceptionally wonderful piece of gadget reading. But lately, I’ve found Gizmodo’s content to be utterly unreadable - and I’m NOT referring to the unnecessarily ugly layout adopted by the Gawker network as a whole.

...but to be fair, the new layout is a disaster.

1)      Problem 1: The Gospel of Jesus Diaz
It's rare that I bother to learn the names of tech writers, but occasionally, the quality of a post hits you hard enough that you want to learn who wrote it. When the quality is superb, you find yourself learning the names of writers like Walt Mossberg, David Pogue, and Josh Topolsky. But then there’s the other end of the spectrum – the end that turns your stomach sour and makes you wonder how this person could possibly call himself a professional writer. Consistently, I find these upsets are the ramblings of Gizmodo editor Jesus Diaz.

To be clear, I don’t hate everything he writes – for example, his recent coverage of the new Lego sets for 2011 was great. But sometimes Mr. Diaz embarks on these senseless rants worshiping Steve Jobs, the co-founder and CEO of Apple. Now I know what you’re thinking – it can’t be that bad. To you skeptics, I offer an impromptu post he wrote comparing Steve Jobs to Mahatma Gandhi. Or an adoring love letter wishing the Apple CEO a happy birthday.

This is a journalist who melodramatically covers and speculates on Jobs’ day-to-day health based on prank letters from anonymous tipsters – this just months after Diaz himself soapboxed on why Steve Jobs’ health shouldn't be any of our business. At one point, Diaz broke the story that Steve Jobs would be leaving Apple “very soon” based on his insightful reading of Apple’s secret nuances at a press event. Like an episode of Lie to Me, Diaz ranted on and on about all the subtle indicators that Steve Jobs yearned to leave Apple immediately and would probably do so...This was written back in 2008. This isn't journalism or even good blogging; it’s careless conjecture from a disturbingly-obsessed fan.

More recently, he wrote an editorial on why Steve Jobs would utterly irreplaceable if he ever left Apple. Why? Oh, because Jobs loves Apple. Yeah. This wasn't grounded in some business theory or even thoughtful argument, but a profound emotional conviction that no one else could love Apple as much as its co-creator. By that logic, the mothers of adopted children are filthy liars for claiming they could love their children as much as the biological mothers. And since when did love become the metric for a good CEO? I’m sure Tony Hayward loves BP, but he’s still a terrible leader.

All of this Jobs-worship would be fine if Jesus Diaz was even mildly accepting of other viewpoints, but a casual glance at Gizmodo’s comments sections will reveal countless instances in which Diaz has permanently banned dissenting readers from commenting anywhere on Gizmodo. Seriously, look around and you'll see Diaz leave the words “You are banned” all over Gizmodo's comment streams. Like a narcissistic dictator defending his reign, Diaz picks fights with his dissenters and actively punishes their free speech the moment someone gets through to his fragile ego.

I don't want Jesus Diaz fired, but he needs to change his attitude. His writing just isn't good enough to warrant that kind of arrogance - especially if he's going to be defensive about it.

Problem 2: Distasteful Content

It’s become my experience lately that for every interesting article on Gizmodo, there's an incredibly thoughtless one.

• An article on how to successfully cheat on your significant other. 
• A review of the Fleshlight sex toy. 
• A post on the National Enquirer’s claim that Steve Jobs has ‘weeks to live’ based on an analysis of Steve Job’s shrinking butt. 

Gizmodo has become such a cesspool of distasteful headlines and rumor-mongering that it's increasingly difficult to be reading Gizmodo in public without feeling embarrassed - especially with their new layout that invites stupidly-large photos. It’s beneath the good writers at Gizmodo, and they can do better.

Problem 3: Checkbook journalism

Yes, I’m talking about the iPhone 4 ‘scandal’. Recap: Gizmodo bought an iPhone 4 prototype from someone who found it in a bar. Sure, it was great to see a secretive company like Apple get their comeuppance, and in principle, I don’t think it’s wrong to report on leaked information. But it is wrong [and illegal] to knowingly purchase something you’re certain is either missing or stolen. I’m not surprised by this ethical carelessness; what I am surprised by is the callous arrogance displayed by a company that illegally paid their way to a news scoop. Just check out the self-righteous video they place at the end of every article on the site – they take immense pride in the iPhone 4 reveal.

In fact, they’re so proud that they won’t own up to their legal indiscretion; they respond to criticism with the defensive attitude of “We’re not ‘journalists,’ so we don’t have those kinds of editorial obligations.” But then, as soon they get investigated in the criminal case, their attitude shifts to “We’re journalists, dammit! We should be allowed to report the news no matter what – FIRST AMENDMENT BITCHZ!” It's hypocritical and, again, it's beneath them.

Bottom line...

Gizmodo should be better than the mess it is right now. It's not just the dysfunctional layout. It's the increasingly thoughtless content. And if their reply to disappointed readers is for us to simply go elsewhere for our news...Don't worry. We are.

Thanks for reading.