Tom Scocca
Gawker
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Discover and connect with journalists and influencers around the world, save time on email research, monitor the news, and more.
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Past articles by Tom:
Gawker Was Murdered by Gaslight
A lie with a billion dollars behind it is stronger than the truth. Peter Thiel has shut down Gawker.com. → Read More
Here's What Gawker Media Does
It was surprising to hear the news last week that right-wing billionaire investor Peter Thiel has been secretly trying to destroy Gawker Media through proxy lawsuits. It was dispiriting, and less surprising, to hear the conversation that followed the revelation. The discussion begins, in most cases, with the premise that Gawker is bad. Even those who are rightly alarmed at Thiel’s unprecedented… → Read More
Thirty Years Ago, the Challenger Crew Plunged Alive and Aware to Their Deaths
On January 28, 1986, America watched on television as the space shuttle Challenger—carrying six astronauts and one schoolteacher—disappeared in a twisting cloud of smoke, nine miles above the launch pad it had just left. To a stunned nation, it appeared that seven lives had instantly been lost. → Read More
To Whom Is Jeb Bush Really Giving Turtles? An Inquiry
In response to earlier coverage of Jeb Bush giving a turtle figurine to a child, Bush campaign communications director Tim Miller writes to Gawker: → Read More
Please Share This Video of Koko the Gorilla Reviewing The Force Awakens
Koko, the gorilla who uses sign language, is capable of discussing almost anything that human beings might want to see Koko discuss. If you enjoyed the video that’s going around the internet in which Koko shares her thoughts on the global climate-change summit, you’ll definitely be wowed by her review of Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens. We couldn’t have put it better ourselves! → Read More
Things I Learned in 2015
Life is an ongoing process of intellectual growth and discovery. Here are the things I added to my personal body of knowledge in 2015. → Read More
Counterpoint: Marco Rubio's Hairline Is Strong and Getting Stronger
Shapeless. Halfhearted. Diffident. Slipping. Unconvincing in the harsh light of the national stage. Observers may say these things about Marco Rubio’s presidential campaign. But no one can say these things about Marco Rubio’s hair. → Read More
A Warm Christmas Is Just One Piece of Our Hot and Rotting Future
The weather doesn’t care how you feel about it. So the question of how you ought to feel about the weather—specifically, about the wave of warmth that covered the eastern United States this past weekend, and that promises to linger through Christmas—is a human question. What does a warm December signify? → Read More
It's Time for You to Run for Office
How can you make a difference in the American political system? Bernie Sanders supporters are having preemptively defeatist arguments about this, about whether Sanders voters should swallow their principles and support Hillary Clinton in the general election, or sit back and let the Republican nominee win, in the hopes of shocking Democrats to move left. → Read More
America Was Already Prepared for an ISIS Attack
Why isn’t ISIS massacring people in the United States every day? Even after the FBI declared the San Bernardino massacre an “act of terrorism” today, the 14 bodies added to the jihadist column on the murder scoreboard still left Islamic radicals trailing right-wing extremists, 48 to 45. → Read More
If Police Are Using Reasonable Force, Why Do They Lie About It?
Twenty-four years ago, I watched a police officer shoot a man. It was right outside a supermarket, the Acme Market on Route 40 in Havre de Grace, Maryland. A ferocious thunderstorm had rolled through, all noise and eerie green light, while we were shopping, and the parking lot was still flooded with rain. → Read More
The Unlikely True International Story of the Man Called Orange Brother
Li Hongjun did not usually take selfies. But out in the orange grove, he was not in his usual state of mind. It was early February, and the lunar New Year was approaching. It’s considered good luck to set out a bowl of oranges during the Chinese holiday, so Li, figuring he could use some luck, decided to buy some for his restaurant, the Jade Tea Farmhouse, located on a dusty road in little-known… → Read More
Political Correctness Keeps Us From Talking Honestly About the Refugees
The proposal to create a federal department of Judeo-Christian values is only a symbolic proposal. It’s useful to remember this. The politician who put it forward, John Kasich, is not considered to have any realistic chance of becoming the next president. He is an unrealistic presidential candidate because he is, at the moment, viewed as being too conventional and moderate to make an interesting… → Read More
Beyond Beyond Beyond Beyond Beyond Batman Is Pretty Pretty Pegasus
My kids were talking at dinner about the fictional characters Butterbean and Sparkleface. → Read More
Which Truly Gets the '70s: City on Fire or "We Didn't Start the Fire"?
Michiko Kakutani, tireless New York Times book critic, has high praise today for City on Fire, the debut novel by Garth Risk Hallberg. It is, Kakutani writes, “an amazing virtual reality machine, whisking us back to New York City in the 1970s”: → Read More
Here's What My Commute Looked Like the Day Business Insider Was Bought for $343,000,000
It’s nice to have a job in an economy where not everyone does, and in a field—journalism—where the economic prospects are uncertain. Many publishers are looking with concern at a world where Facebook and Apple are using their power to steer readers to proprietary platforms, as innovations in ad blocking threaten the whole existing business model, which was already sort of provisional. Then… → Read More
PR Email: Wake Up Early to Hear How to Stop People From Wasting Your Time
Today in public relations: an email providing a “gentle reminder” to RSVP to an unsolicited invitation to go to Midtown at 8:30 a.m. for a publicity event for a book on the subject of “How to Stop Spending Time You Don’t Have with People You Don’t Like Doing Things You Don’t Want to Do.” → Read More
The Moon This Weekend Is Only a "Blood Moon" If You're Being Stupid
Sunday night (in the Western Hemisphere) the shadow of the the Earth will fall on the face of the full moon, darkening it. This is the uncommon, but not too uncommon, phenomenon called a “lunar eclipse.” → Read More
The New iPhone Is Set to Record You, Whether You Ask It To Or Not
The new iPhones, Apple announced yesterday, will be set by default to automatically record a constant stream of sound and video whenever the camera app is in use, without the user pressing the shutter button and even if the camera isn’t set to take video. → Read More
Satisficing Chicken Salad
There are lots of ways to make sophisticated and delicious chicken salad. This is not one of those ways. This is problem-solving: It is morning, and you need to pack a lunch off to school or camp, and the school or camp is peanut-free. Luckily, for these purposes, this is the kind of week where you’re already falling behind, so dinner last night was a store-bought roast chicken. The carcass is… → Read More