[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.