mag wrote on Aug 23, 2016, 22:54:

Saboth wrote on Aug 23, 2016, 21:29:
The Gawker situation was deplorable. I visit a lot of progressive blogs, and it was shocking how many people considered it to be only a nasty gossip blog. True, it did have stories like that, and the readership was really upset at the Hogan and Thiel stories when they were published. However, Hogan getting 140 million was probably one of the worst judgements I've heard of. True, his career was harmed because the spotlight was shone on him, but that wasn't because of the sex tape. He fell out of favor due to his racist rants that became public. That's when he was dropped and no one would touch him with a 10 foot pole. The fact a millionaire or even a group of millionaires can come together to put a news organization out of business with frivolous lawsuits should be frightening to everyone.

Nick Denton, (edit: former) owner of Gawker, is a fantastically wealthy man, and he had no trouble siccing his highly-paid lawyers on anyone smaller than him when they had issues with Gawker. He just finally poked a bigger fish in Thiel.

Agreed. The state of journalism has become deplorable over the last few decades. It's virtually all editorializing and scandal and e-tainment now. It used to be just about the facts. Most of it was quite dry, but it also fell in line with the public's right to know. The public has a right - and a need - to know if a serial killer is on the loose in their hometown. They do not, however, need to know who's schtuping who. Why does the public need to know that? If I had my way, rules would be a hell of a lot tighter for all news organizations. Christ, just look at post 9/11 when the so-called objective media was cheerleading Bushco's drum beat for war. Too many people have had their lives ruined, or even lost, because of irresponsible media. So yes, good riddance to bad rubbish like Gawker.