Twitter is abuzz with reactions to a tell-all posted anonymously today by a man claiming to have had a one-night stand with Christine O'Donnell three years ago. 
 
 In one of the most-retweeted reactions, journalist Dave Weigel called the account the "sleaziest... story in memory." 
 
 Blogger Meghan McCain took particular umbrage in a series of posts: 
 
 Wow gawker, just wow. This is the exact reason why women don't want to run for office in this country. Posting that is vile and disgusting. 
 
 I am no fan of O'Donnell but what gawker has done is disgusting and vile and once again not showcasing the real issues in this election. 
 
 anybody that says there isn't a double standard for how the media treats women versus men running for office isn't living in reality. 
 
 Over at The Upshot, Michael Calderone spoke with Gawker editor Remy Stern, who defended the piece as "a great story" that had "nothing to do with her being a woman." 
 
 Check below for more Twitter reactions! ||||| Gawker was convicted Thursday in the court of Twitter opinion. The charges: misogyny and reckless link-baiting. 
 
 "Today, we are all Christine O'Donnell," wrote Salon's Justin Elliott. 
 
 He was one of several journalists and bloggers to criticize Gawker for posting an anonymous account by a Philadelphia man claiming to have gone home with Delaware Senate candidate on Halloween night three years ago, following a night of drinking. 
 
 But editor Remy Stern told The Upshot that Gawker ran the item because it's "a great story" and pushed back against the misogyny charge, arguing that the alleged incident was worth noting because O'Donnell's private actions -- according to the anonymous writer -- run counter to her public persona as an advocate of Christian conservative values. 
 
 "If it was any politician whose private life diverged from his public life in such an interesting way, we'd be interested in that," Stern said. "It had nothing to do with her being a woman." 
 
 Despite the sensational headline -- "I Had a One-Night Stand With Christine O'Donnell" -- the two never actually had sex. However, the anonymous writer describes O'Donnell's anatomy in detail, which led to some of the backlash. 
 
 "Hey Gawker, I hope a one-day SEO term victory is worth the sleaziest piece of s--- story in memory," wrote Slate's Dave Weigel. "Regardless, that vile anonymous dudebro is an awful person and an awful writer to boot," wrote Mediagazer's Megan McCarthy. "Why protect his identity? (Oh, yeah, pageviews.)" And Mother Jones magazine simply responded with a new tag: #GawkerFail. 
 
 Gawker Media sites have been known to pay to get exclusives, such as Gizmodo's scoop on Apple's new iPhone and Deadspin getting a hold of NFL star Brett Favre's voice mail messages to a sideline reporter and (alleged) photographs of his genitalia. Stern said Gawker paid in the "low four figures" for the O'Donnell story, but also did its due diligence in checking the accuracy of the man's claims. 
 
 Stern said that the man approached Gawker about 10 days ago. He had shopped it elsewhere but wanted it to be told correctly, and Gawker allowed him to do it first-person. 
 
 "From an editorial standpoint, it was compelling to hear it from his own words," Stern said, adding that "it's a good story and that's why we did it." 
 
 Gawker Media chief Nick Denton, in a staff memo, described the O'Donnell post as "an example of brilliant packaging," with a good composite image on the front and compelling writing. 
 
 "And this points to a general rule on the Web," Denton said. "Writers are successful to the extent that they can sublimate their egotism and get out of the way of the story." ||||| Christine O’Donnell’s campaign late Thursday night responded to an anonymous Gawker post claiming a drunken encounter with Delaware’s Republican Senate nominee, calling it “sexism and slander.” 
 
 "This story is just another example of the sexism and slander that female candidates are forced to deal with — from Secretary [Hillary] Clinton to Gov. [Sarah] Palin to soon-to-be Gov. [Nikki] Haley. Christine's political opponents have been willing to engage in appalling and baseless attacks — all with the aim of distracting the press from covering the real issues in this race," O’Donnell Communications Director Doug Sachtleben wrote in a post on Facebook. 
 
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 The gossip website Gawker on Thursday posted an anonymous account of a man who said he had had a one-night stand with O’Donnell three years ago on Halloween. 
 
 Gawker reportedly paid the man in the "low four figures" for the account and pictures of O’Donnell dressed up like a ladybug. 
 
 The site has been widely criticized by media outlets for posting the item and was denounced Thursday by the National Organization for Women. 
 
 "NOW repudiates Gawker's decision to run this piece," the organization said in a statement. "It operates as public sexual harassment. And like all sexual harassment, it targets not only O'Donnell but all women contemplating stepping into the public sphere." 
 
 O'Donnell trails Democrat Chris Coons by 21 percentage points, according to a Fairleigh Dickinson University poll released Thursday. 
 
 The Republican's Facebook post attempts to link the post to the Coons camp. 
 
 "Even the National Organization for Women gets it, but Christine’s opponent disturbingly does not," Sachtleben wrote. "Classless Coons goons have proven yet again to have no sense of common decency or common sense with their desperate attacks to get another rubber stamp for the Obama-Pelosi-Reid agenda. Such attacks are truly shameful, but they will not distract us from making our case to Delaware voters — and keeping the focus on Chris Coons’s record of higher taxes, increased spending and, as he has done again here, breaking his promises to the voters."
– Gawker has stirred up a furor by posting an anonymous guy's claim of a having a "one-night stand" (which involved the same bed, but no sex) with a drunk Christine O'Donnell a few years ago. On Twitter and all over blog land, the story about the story has now eclipsed the actual story (as evidenced by this summary). The Huffington Post's roundup of reaction includes Meghan McCain tweeting, "Wow gawker, just wow. This is the exact reason why women don't want to run for office in this country. Posting that is vile and disgusting." At Yahoo's Upshot blog, Michael Calderone talks to Gawker editor Remy Stern, who defends it as a "great story" and rejects the various charges of misogyny being leveled. "If it was any politician whose private life diverged from his public life in such an interesting way, we'd be interested in that. It had nothing to do with her being a woman." Calderone also quotes a tweet from Slate's Dave Weigel: "Hey Gawker, I hope a one-day SEO term victory is worth the sleaziest piece of s--- story in memory." Michelle Malkin, meanwhile, is calling out Gawker's advertisers over the "smear."