Thiel and Hogan didn’t just take down Gawker, they dealt free speech a worrying blow. I’ve been told that we’ve already lost thousands of dollars and could lose thousands, if not millions more, Read wrote last night for Gawker. A pro-Trump billionaire bankrupting a media empire with relative ease sent a chilling message to journalists. People will notice the irony of Gawker’s far-left authoritarians, whose work is hurting their careers, yelling about fascism and bullying. It was often snarky and mean-spirited it should never have outed Thiel and it shouldn’t have published Hogan’s sex tape. Hogan got $31m from the site but still wasn’t satisfied he went after Cox Radio as well. Thiel spent millions secretly bankrolling Hogan’s case – apparently the wrestler himself had no idea who was funding him – and Gawker was driven to bankruptcy. The billionaire Facebook board member Peter Thiel quickly seized on the case as an opportunity to settle his own grudge with Gawker, which had outed him as gay in 2007 and criticised his business dealings. The settlement will most likely revive a long-simmering debate about press freedom that Gawker's demise has stoked.In 2015, Hogan sued the gossip website Gawker for posting a video of the wrestler having sex with a friend’s estranged wife. In a statement issued on Wednesday, Thiel said: "It is a great day for Terry Bollea and a great day for everyone's right to privacy." He said he was financing cases against Gawker because it published articles that "ruined people's lives for no reason." Thiel was outed as gay by Valleywag, one of Gawker's now-defunct blogs, nearly a decade ago. In May, Thiel, a founder of PayPal and one of the first investors in Facebook, acknowledged in an interview with The New York Times that he was providing financial support for Bollea's lawsuit. "All-out legal war with Thiel would have cost too much and hurt too many people, and there was no end in sight," Denton added. "After four years of litigation funded by a billionaire with a grudge going back even further, a settlement has been reached," Nick Denton, the founder of Gawker, said in a blog post Wednesday. Gawker Media put itself up for sale at auction, which Univision won in August with a bid of $135 million. But the significant financial pressure from the judgment - and the revelation later that Peter Thiel, a billionaire Silicon Valley entrepreneur, was financing the lawsuit and others against the company - forced Gawker to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Known for its wry, conversational tone and willingness to push the boundaries of internet journalism, Gawker had remained defiant throughout the legal process and had expressed confidence that it would overturn the verdict on appeal. Gawker will forgo its appeal of that judgment. Less than eight months ago, a Florida jury awarded the wrestler, whose real name is Terry Bollea, $140 million in damages in an invasion of privacy suit over 's publication of a video that showed Bollea having sex with a friend's wife. #Gawker loses millions professionalGawker Media, which filed for bankruptcy after losing a lawsuit brought by the former professional wrestler Hulk Hogan, settled the case on Wednesday, bringing to a close a multiyear dispute that led to the demise of the company as an independent news organization.Ĭourt documents indicate the settlement is for $31 million. In March, Hogan was awarded 140 million in damages stemming from a Gawker news article published in 2012, which included a clip of Hulk Hogan having sex, along with commentary. AFP PHOTO / SAUL LOEBSAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images SAUL LOEB/Staff Show More Show Less (Eve Edelheit/The Tampa Bay Times via AP, File) Eve Edelheit/MBI Show More Show Less 3 of3 Peter Thiel, PayPal founder-turned-venture-capitalist, discusses his support for US Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, October 31, 2016. is going to shut down as its parent company is sold to Univision, a reporter for the 14-year-old site said Thursday, Aug. 2 blog post said that the Â?“saga is over.Â?” Denton filed for personal bankruptcy because of the $140 million verdict won by the former professional wrestler in a Florida court over a sex tape.(Scott Keeler/The Tampa Bay Times via AP, Pool) Scott Keeler/POOL Show More Show Less 2 of3 FILE - In this Friday, March 18, 2016, file photo, Gawker founder Nick Denton walks out of the courthouse in St. A jury has awarded the former professional wrestler 115 million in compensatory damages and 25 million in punitive damages. Gawker founder Nick Denton in a Wednesday, Nov. The shell of Gawker has settled with Hulk Hogan for $31 million, ending a years-long fight that led to the media companyÂ?’s bankruptcy, the shutdown of and the sale of GawkerÂ?’s other sites to Spanish-language broadcaster Univision. 1 of3 FILE - In this file photo, Hulk Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, appears in court in St.
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