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Gawker Files For Bankruptcy After Hulk Hogan Lawsuit (usatoday.com)
Gawker has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The move comes after the media house was ordered to pay up $140M to Hulk Hogan for publishing his sex tape. Gawker, which is known for its irreverent voice, is currently facing multiple lawsuits, backed by billionaire Peter Thiel, one of the people that Gawker has extensively reported on. USA Today reports: In its filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, Gawker is seeking to reorganize under the bankruptcy protection and there's no indication, as of yet, that it will cease publication. Gawker listed estimated assets of $50 million to $100 million and liabilities of $100 million to $500 million. [...] Thiel's funding triggered concerns about the possibility of First Amendment rights being quashed by wealthy individuals' funding of third-party legal claims against media organizations.According to a separate report, Ziff Davis is interested in purchasing Gawker and various properties that it owns. Gawker media also runs Gizmodo, LifeHacker, and Deadspin among other popular publications.
It wasn't just that.
It helped a lot that Gawker had complete morons testifying for their side, which managed to make themselves look completely unsympathetic without any assistance. There's a valuable lesson here: don't be a snarky asshole in court. People might have to hold their tongue when they're on your website and you make the rules, but it's ill advised when you're the one in the vulnerable position.
And there's that the whole mess made Hogan lose a very lucrative contract, and he got awarded damages for that. Obviously it costs less to just embarrass an average joe than if your actions make somebody lose on earning millions.
Peter Thiel, beside being a bazillionaire, is also a high-level Republican donor and works to squelch gay rights while being in the closet himself. That in itself makes it newsworthy. Then there's the American trope that anything a rich man does is newsworthy.