'Before you decide to go to war on the Internet, first consider the fate of Max Read...'

Following-up up on "Nick Denton's Gawker Removes Gay-Shaming Post About Condé Nast CFO."

GamerGate's not my bailiwick, although it's interesting as hell.

So don't miss this excellent entry from the indubitable Robert Stacy McCain, at the Other McCain, "Congratulations, ‘Dishonest Fascists’ — #GamerGate Destroys Max Read":

“Never underestimate your enemy,” is a maxim of military strategy. Before you decide to go to war on the Internet, first consider the fate of Max Read, who was riding high as editor of Gawker until he decided that insulting #GamerGate was a smart move. He chose poorly.

Custer at Little Bighorn, the French at Dien Bien Phu — military history offers many parallels to Max Read’s fateful miscalculation, but perhaps the best would be Gen. John Sedgwick. On May 9, 1864, Sedgwick was directing the placement of Union artillery near Spotsylvania, Virginia. Annoyed that his men were ducking to avoid fire from Confederate sharpshooters a thousand yards away, he said: “Why are you dodging like this? They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance.” A moment later, Sedgwick was killed by a bullet from one of the Confederates whose marksmanship he had disparaged. Hubris, meet nemesis.

The resignation Monday of Max Read as editor-in-chief of Gawker, along with his executive editor Tommy Craggs, will not likely be interpreted by major media as a vindication of #GamerGate, because most of the media share the same shallow prejudice that led Read to declare his disdain for #GamerGate as “a small, contemptible crusade . . . of dedicated anti-feminist internet trolls.” Well, he who laughs last, et cetera...

Keep reading.

Plus, a pretty good inside scoop at the New York Observer, "Is Gawker Destroying Itself From the Inside? Let’s Hope So."

And from Gabriel Sherman, at New York Magazine, "Nick Denton had been at odds with Executive Editor Tommy Craggs over company's long-term direction, with Denton telling Craggs that Gawker was 'too mean'." (Via Mediagazer.)

BONUS: From Ed Driscoll, at Instapundit, "THE DAY GAWKER TORE ITSELF APART, from Lloyd Grove of the Daily Beast, who also formerly worked for Condé Nast, whose CFO’s life was upended by Gawker last week..."