Gawker never tried to extort Thiel, they just published their story. Nor did they have a history on sealing or using these stories as leverage.
Pretty well summaries in the 1st third:
> “Of course I don’t want personal photos published, but I also won’t participate in their well-known practice of blackmail, political favors, political attacks and corruption,” Mr. Bezos wrote of A.M.I., explaining why he had decided to speak out. “I prefer to stand up, roll this log over and see what crawls out.”
They also refused a court order to remove the video:
> Yesterday the Hon. Pamela A.M. Campbell, a circuit court judge in Pinellas County, Fla., issued an order compelling Gawker to remove from the internet a video of Hulk Hogan fucking his friend's ex-wife, as well as a 1,400-word narrative of the video written by former Gawker editor A.J. Daulerio and 466 user-submitted comments. Here is why we are refusing to comply.
That may have been what gained them their enemy, but what actually destroyed them was what they did to Hulk Hogan -- they did what the National Enquirer is currently only threatening to do.
If you are seriously interested, Peter Thiel funded Hulk Hogan's lawsuit surrounding his sex tape and the resulting judgement forced Gawker to declare bankruptcy and end up selling for basically nothing.
Pretty well summaries in the 1st third:
> “Of course I don’t want personal photos published, but I also won’t participate in their well-known practice of blackmail, political favors, political attacks and corruption,” Mr. Bezos wrote of A.M.I., explaining why he had decided to speak out. “I prefer to stand up, roll this log over and see what crawls out.”