Morning Procrastination Open Thread: Was Gawker Too Successful?

I was watching Pat Kiernan on NY1 this morning when the Gawker-Lee story came on. “The story here is how short the story is. Within three hours of the article, Congressman Lee had resigned.” And then he moved on.

Now sure, NY1 is all about quick hit news, especially in the morning. But after another day or so, this story will be dead pretty much everywhere. I’m not sure exactly how you break a story slowly or if there was any way to predict how quickly Lee would act. But I do bet that in hindsight “the powers that be” wish they could have found a way to milk this a little longer.

They should have spoken to the folks over at Deadspin, where every story comes with a week or two of slow reveals and teases. Then again, that’s because they are usually trying to convince their sources to cooperate, until they finally give up. But maybe that’s unintentionally the better model. Like television news before the commercial break: “Are your shoes giving you cancer? News at 11:00!” becomes “Which Congressman is a Big Ol’ Sexy Liar? News on Tuesday!” And you could drop hints like a blind item.

Next time Gawker. Next time.