You forgot to mention how worthless Jezebel is. Also, Brian Moylan.

Denton says he's disappointed in the commenting community, but that's a bit like being disappointed that the dog you kick day in and day out hasn't yet learned to bring you your slippers. I can't help but think that if Denton had the courage of his stated convictions, he'd cut commenting off clean at all Gawker Media sites, but he's afraid of what will happen to his numbers should he finish destroying the reason his repeat customers keep coming back.
Following links upstream from The Register to Valleywag in '07 is how I discovered Gawker. It was the very smart and snappy commenting system in use at that time, aka Classic Gawker, in combination with the smart and snappy commenters than made me a fan. Unlike most sites, Gawker actively promoted a set of minimal standards in commenting, spelling, capitalization, arguments over name calling and so forth.

Where it all went horribly wrong was with a redesign rollout that should be a text book example on how not to do software projects. Barely functional code that shattered the quality encouragement mechanisms of Classic Gawker, a functional lobotomy of an upgrade. Thirteen months later, Gawker is poised on rolling out the Powwow system, precipitously previewed last night in a display of typical Gawker Media technical acumen, having apparently given up on fixing what the previous redesign broke.

Powwow seems like nothing more than a way to turn commenters into work for free moderators while Denton nurses a vain hope that big names will of their own volition drop in to add clout, contextual weight, and ever important pageviews to Gawker's articles. Denton tries to walk a tight rope between gathering more user info for better monetization without closing the door on the anonymity that is the source of his best tips.