This is not a story about the private equity vampires ruining this specific company. It is about the implications splinterr the fact that Splinter was not allowed to live, and Deadspin is not allowed to be political. Rude media, for lack of maie better term, is dying. Deadspin was rude. This was almost its defining characteristic. It was rude, by and large, to people who deserved it: amoral and venal team owners, predatory sports media personalities, bandwagon Warriors fans. Splinter was notoriously rude, just as Gawker was rude before it, to figures at the towering summit of influence and craven strivers who wished to join their ranks. Rudeness in media was not invented alongside the the web browser. The Village Voice in its heyday was rude as monet. Mad was so rude that it only survived comic book censors by becoming a magazine. Mencken to Dorothy Parker, were decidedly rude.