That's not the ignorance that interests me here. There have been gag rules and confidentiality clauses in settlements forever. Secrecy in lawsuits isn't super unusual. You have any idea how many deals are made before a lawsuit is even filed? it's all secret... The EFF, ACLU, ADL, and other organizations fund legal defense and law suits and even use it as a fund raiser sometimes and we don't comb through the donation rosters and suggest a perversion of justice based on the sources of donations. There are legal defense funds for various things quite regularly. There are victim funds that are put together by communities when certain crimes happen, those funds are presented as just life help for the victims but some of that money goes to lawyers sometimes. It's just not that unusual for people to get help paying for their lawyers. And it has nothing to do with the crime.
Since Thiel revealed his involvement, that has been the story which makes me think maybe he was right to conceal it. his name and money had nothing to do with this crime.
The fact is some people want other people to fail, they want their companies to fail, it may be rational or it may be irrational or it may be revenge based but society allows that. You can short a stock if you want, if you have enough money you can even affect the price of the stock. Gawker placed itself in a situation where it had substantial financial risk, Thiel simply exploited it. Don't make powerful enemies, don't break laws, this is avoidable stuff. It wasn't a frivolous lawsuit that some billionaire manipulated in to a company killer. Nobody's taken out tmz or drudge or many of the others....
It's also ironic, I'd argue that any deal to pay for lawyers is a private matter. The very existence of that privacy is a concept gawker doesn't seem to comprehend and that's what caused their problem in the first place.
> Since Thiel revealed his involvement, that has been the story which makes me think maybe he was right to conceal it. his name and money had nothing to do with this crime.
Same here. I'd have also continued to make it secret. I expect the media to carry out a series of character assassinations on Peter Thiel on baseless grounds, and then self referentially refer to their campaigns of the past as evidence for campaigns of the present. "Oh Thiel? That guy who was constantly being sued by [media ally] before, he's being sued again [different media ally] to nobody's [the media] surprise. Ha ha, what a bunch these crazy Silicon Valley tycoons are, I bet Joe Public is tired [opinion forming] of their petty games".
The main threat to Thiel is probably the opportunity cost of fending off the media all the time. The only solution I can think of is a diversion.
I am pretty sure that if Thiel funds private investigators into Denton's crew and the Devil himself, he'll find plenty of distraction material for the media to devour their own. After all, Nick Denton has likely already unleashed the hounds and this would merely be returning the favour.
It is dirty but that is how this is played I'm afraid. It gets worse from here!
Since Thiel revealed his involvement, that has been the story which makes me think maybe he was right to conceal it. his name and money had nothing to do with this crime.
The fact is some people want other people to fail, they want their companies to fail, it may be rational or it may be irrational or it may be revenge based but society allows that. You can short a stock if you want, if you have enough money you can even affect the price of the stock. Gawker placed itself in a situation where it had substantial financial risk, Thiel simply exploited it. Don't make powerful enemies, don't break laws, this is avoidable stuff. It wasn't a frivolous lawsuit that some billionaire manipulated in to a company killer. Nobody's taken out tmz or drudge or many of the others....
It's also ironic, I'd argue that any deal to pay for lawyers is a private matter. The very existence of that privacy is a concept gawker doesn't seem to comprehend and that's what caused their problem in the first place.