[luckylion]

> He funded a lawsuit by wrestler Hulk Hogan that destroyed the media company Gawker—a company that had, among other things, published unflattering reports about Thiel.

Gawker-apologism to frame Thiel as the monster destroying the truth-seeking independent journalists? What a truth-seeker the author is!

[tverbeure]

You’re using that standard tactic of attacking a minor detail to discredit a much larger point.

[manoDev]

Doesn’t read like a defense of Gawker to me, rather a demonstration of power. Thiel didn’t sue the company directly over what got published about him, but instead funded a different lawsuit with the intent of destroying the company.

[amanaplanacanal]

That's what you got out of the article?

[atmavatar]

I see no apologia in that quote. Thiel's successful vendetta against Gawker has no bearing on whether it had any journalistic integrity or independence.

It can both be true that Gawker's individual bankruptcy was no big loss but that the way in which an ultra-wealthy person was able to crush a news outlet for reporting things he didn't like set a dangerous precedent for all journalism outlets.

Of course, the whole thing seems rather quaint now that nearly all media is owned by a handful of billionaires who are actively and increasingly controlling what gets released to the public.

[hackyhacky]

> Gawker-apologism

Gawker had a lot of issues; they were not exactly the AP. But whether they are allowed to exist as a business should not be up the whim of one billionaire with a fragile ego.

[ExoticPearTree]

Gawker went after Thiel, Thiel went afer them.