William Arkin announced that he is leaving Gawker Media.  This comes as a part of the turmoil facing Gawker Media following their now retracted article on David Geithner, the brother of former Obama treasury secretary Timothy Geithner. In his letter Arkin criticizes Gawker for making the world a worse place and marks the Geithner story's retraction as signifying the end of a long internal fight at the company which is being decided in favor of a "kinder" Gawker Media. A new kinder Gawker Media that refocuses on Celebrity and "Public Figures" and doesn't want Arkin's writing on the internals of the American National Security state.

Arkin is a veteran of the United States government intelligence apparatus and clashed with the Reagan administration over disclosing information relating to the world's extant nuclear weapons and their locations. Arkin is the first member of Gawker Media's editorial staff to report taking a buyout after Nick Denton revealed his plans for a "kinder" Gawker Media. Gawker Media is presently facing a lawsuit from Terry 'Hulk Hogan' Bolea which existentially threatens the venture's finances.