One of the best media websites out there, Deadspin, is being destroyed by its corporate bosses, G/O Media.

Several contentious months came to a head this week when, on Monday, a memo from G/O Media editorial director Paul Maidment to Deadspin employees was leaked telling them to, “write only about sports and that which is relevant to sports in some way.”

Although Deadspin is mainly a sports website, offering blogs that often offer a humorous take on sports, its employees have done some wonderful work outside of the sports world.

One day following the news of the leaked memo, on Oct. 29, Deadspin deputy editor Barry Petchesky tweeted, “Hi! I’ve just been fired from Deadspin for not sticking to sports.”

The home page of Deadspin following the news of Petchesky’s firing displayed all the non-sports stories that have been published on the site over the years.

This feels like to beginning of the end for a website that has been a welcome change of pace in the sports media world, providing a wonderful mix of sports, politics and pop culture. The sanitization of Deadspin into a garden-variety sports blog website will have a devastating effect on the media landscape.

At its worst, Deadspin was a time-killer full of funny and strange stories.

But at its best, it was an invaluable publication that broke the news of Brett Favre’s sexual misconduct in 2010 directed at Jenn Sterger, unearthed the hoax of Manti Te’o’s dead girlfriend and helped expose the Sinclair Broadcast Group as a propaganda machine.

If this is indeed the end of Deadspin as we know it, I would like to remember it for some of its best non-sports content.

For example, when Deadspin broke the Te’o news, they were complemented on Twitter by Donald Trump, then just an insufferable citizen. Deadspin’s official account responded to Trump, telling him, “Go f*ck yourself.” They did not include the asterisk.

Every year around the holidays, Deadspin patrols a year’s worth of data on emergency room visits to compile an annual list called “What Did We Get Stuck In Our Rectums Last Year?”

There is also a series by Drew Magary, “Why Your Children’s Television Program Sucks,” in which he, as a frustrated dad forced to watch subpar children’s television shows, reviews various programs.

Perhaps most importantly is the fortitude of Laura Wagner when facing harassment by Barstool Sports founder and unbelievable jackass Dave Portnoy and his maniacal fans.

I hope Deadspin can weather this storm.

Adam Tumino is a junior journalism major. He can be reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected]