Nick Denton's Gawker Takes On Scientologists, Facebook, Wins

An impressive two-fer for Gawker Media's Nick Denton: He's managed to make enemies of both the Church of Scientology and Facebook in the same day.

Yesterday Denton posted a ten-minute clip of Tom Cruise speaking at a Scientology ceremony, a provocation he knew would draw the ire of the litigious church. The video disappeared briefly, then came back, and now Gawker has told the church's attorneys that it will stay up. And, of course, it is reprinting the correspondence.

But Denton wasn't done! He also managed to provoke Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook by running a post about publishing mogul Steve Brill's daughter Emily: The item presented before and after pictures ("about 100 pounds lighter") of the 25-year-old, along with other material posted on her Facebook profile.

As Portfolio.com's Sam Gustin has reported, Facebook has told Denton, a one-time avid Facebook user, that he's violated the site's Terms Of Service by reposting a member's information. Denton says that's not the case, since he didn't take the images - a "tipster" did. But a followup email from FB PR head Brandee Barker says it doesn't matter:

Hey Nick - thanks for getting back to me and for the clarification. How you obtained Ms. Brill’s profile screenshot or from whom is not of issue. As a Facebook user, you have violated the agreed upon terms per the section listed below. It is important that Facebook enforce its Terms of Use, especially to protect user privacy. Thanks for your consideration.

The upshot: The Brill post is staying up, and Denton tells us he doesn't care if Facebook boots him off the social network: "I was getting bored of Facebook, anyway." (Note to Gawker Media employees: Yes, we know Denton forced you all to join Facebook last spring. We don't know whether this means you're off the hook, though.)

And the real upshot: the Brill post has generated some 12,000 page views so far; the Cruise post has generated 670,000. And Denton tells us that yesterday Gawker logged a total of 1.1 million page views, a new record for the site.