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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.
I don't care one bit about some paparazzi revenge porn site going out of business. Yes, it is troublesome that this may have revenge for some semi valid journalism, but the real blight on the WWW are sites like this that exist to do nothing but make money off celebrity mishaps. It will be good for these parasites to get a real job.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
At a high level, sure, money shouldn't give you the ability to completely shut down voices you don't like.
But at the trial, Gawker seemed to both not take the trial seriously (the infamous 4 year old line) and simply treated it like another story they'd post to get clicks. Denton and Daulerio seemed to think they were above the entire fray until the judgment, at which point they turned the entire other way and started trying to rouse sympathy from their readership. They mishandled their own defense to the point of comedy and made the jury entirely unsympathetic. It's hard for me to think they didn't bring this on themselves.
I hope Deadspin and Jalopnik find new homes, there are some good writers for those two sites.
I think you are being really unfair to Mr. Thiel, a true American Hero.
Incidentally, and apropos of nothing... does anyone have a list of other companies Mr. Thiel dislikes? If possible I'd like to cash in ^w^w^w help mete out justice to another despicable corporation.
#DeleteChrome
On the other hand, it is deeply concerning that we may be in a situation where a billionaire can essentially destroy a company by funding lawsuits from other people.
Why is that concerning? If a company does something which a jury finds to be illegal, why does it matter who pays the lawyers?
After this, all media are going to think very carefully before doing any reporting on the very wealthy and be especially wary of reporting on anything Peter Thiel is doing.
If someone does something wrong then journalists are going to report on it. Hopefully what "journalists" will think twice about is reporting on the private sex lives of other people. Our society is not enriched in any way by knowing whether or not some businessman is gay or straight, especially if that person doesn't discuss his own sexuality in public.
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
The dude used his wealth to abuse the already overloaded court system to even up a personal grudge.
Or do you think Thiel would have backed the Hulkmeister's suit out of civic duty if Gawker hadn't outed him as a hypocrite?
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Justice may be blind, but she sure is greedy. Not that I'm a huge gawker fan, but clearly having a billion dollars lets you have your way in the courts. Had they posted a sex tape of some average Joe and/or not somehow pissed off Thiel, Mr. Average Joe would just have to live with it because he wouldn't have the money to fight it in court.
I don't think you understand the argument you think you're making.
Thiel thinks Gawker is a horrible and scummy organization because they invaded his privacy. (Thiel is gay, and Gawker outed him.) So Thiel is paying the legal bills for several plantiffs (most prominently Hogan) who are suing Gawker because Gawker also invaded their privacy. If Thiel destroys Gawker, they won't be able to violate anyone's privacy, whether they're rich like Thiel or poor like "Mr. Average Joe" or some of the plaintiffs Thiel is funding.
The argument I think you're trying to make is that Gawker's conduct should be protected by the First Amendment, and because Hogan's lawyers were being paid by a rich guy (Thiel), Hogan won anyway. The thinking here would be that any chip in the First Amendment weakens it, so the courts can't punish Gawker for posting an illicitly recorded sex tape that doesn't have news value.
But the way you said it the first time makes it sound like you think the problem is Thiel is treating Gawker's victims unfairly by picking and choosing which ones to bankroll. Rather than, you know, Gawker treating its victims unfairly by posting illicitly recorded sex tapes of them.