Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Peter Thiel, Tech Billionaire, Reveals Secret War with Gawker

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 335 posts

Re: Peter Thiel, Tech Billionaire, Reveals Secret War with Gawker

#31

Post by dopamean »

darawk wrote: post #24
madeofpalk wrote: post #16

Josh Marshall, from John Gruber: It all comes down to a simple point. You may not like Gawker. They’ve published stories I would have been ashamed to publish. But if the extremely wealthy, under a veil secrecy, can destroy publications they want to silence, that’s a far bigger threat to freedom of the press than most of the things we commonly worry about on that front. If this is the new weapon in the arsenal of the…

This is a poorly thought out argument. He isn't doing anything under-handed or illegal to destroy Gawker. He isn't fabricating evidence against them or paying off cops. He's simply financing a non-spurious lawsuit, which the courts have decided was legitimate. This is exactly what I want the billionaires in our society doing. He may be acting in his own self-interest, but it also happened to align with the public int…

> but it also happened to align with the public interest.

That is debatable and also the problem. What if it didn't align with the public interest? Is it ok then?

Re: Peter Thiel, Tech Billionaire, Reveals Secret War with Gawker

#32

Post by capkutay »

darawk wrote: post #24
madeofpalk wrote: post #16

Josh Marshall, from John Gruber: It all comes down to a simple point. You may not like Gawker. They’ve published stories I would have been ashamed to publish. But if the extremely wealthy, under a veil secrecy, can destroy publications they want to silence, that’s a far bigger threat to freedom of the press than most of the things we commonly worry about on that front. If this is the new weapon in the arsenal of the…

This is a poorly thought out argument. He isn't doing anything under-handed or illegal to destroy Gawker. He isn't fabricating evidence against them or paying off cops. He's simply financing a non-spurious lawsuit, which the courts have decided was legitimate. This is exactly what I want the billionaires in our society doing. He may be acting in his own self-interest, but it also happened to align with the public int…

Basically any influence by 'extremely wealthy' is automatically viewed as an attack on 'freedom'. It's a straw-man political argument.

Re: Peter Thiel, Tech Billionaire, Reveals Secret War with Gawker

#33

Post by int_19h »

zardgiv wrote: post #3
johansch wrote: post #2

This is commendable. Gawker is scum.

His stated goal, "deterrence," is the exact thing people talk about when they worry about a chilling effect. The fact that people are applauding because it's someone they disagree with whose ox is getting gored is really disappointing for a community that espouses such strong freedom of speech principles.

There's a difference between freedom of speech, and freedom to violate privacy of others.

I don't have any problem with deterrence - or "chilling effect", if you prefer to word it that way - on the latter.

It's unfortunate that it requires a millionaire to fund the court case to get us there; but the only cause for concern here is that someone else might see their privacy similarly violated, and not have a rich sponsor to pay the legal bills for personal reasons.

Re: Peter Thiel, Tech Billionaire, Reveals Secret War with Gawker

#34

Post by cwisecarver »

This is what I sent to my wife about this story earlier today. I think it's true for the public too.

"I guess people can do whatever they want with their money. For me the bottom line is that Hogan is a public figure and the definition of “newsworthy” isn’t up to anyone other than media to decide on. Sure, it’s tacky as fuck to report on him fucking his best friends wife and it isn’t any of anyone’s business but the market can decide if gawker should be in business or not. It shouldn’t be able to decide what they are or are not allowed to report so long as they’re true."

It's creepy that the billionaires can fund lawsuits against the media because they wrote something that the billionaire didn't like but that's a free market. I don't think anyone that reads Jezebel or gawker or valleywag is going to stop reading it because Nick Denton publishing something about an ex-pro wrestler fucking a dj's wife. That's their market.

The people decided this verdict was just. I think it's ridiculous but then again Trump is probably running against Clinton for the leader of the free world so you get what you get.

Re: Peter Thiel, Tech Billionaire, Reveals Secret War with Gawker

#35

Post by zardgiv »

pkinsky wrote: post #29
zardgiv wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I must admit, it is funny seeing the inversion on this from the usual free speech absolutists :)

I do enjoy watching people quote one of Gawker's favorite lines back at them.

Like I said above, it seems that for a lot of people, the freedom of speech rhetoric just comes down to whose ox is getting gored.

Re: Peter Thiel, Tech Billionaire, Reveals Secret War with Gawker

#36

Post by eudox »

madeofpalk wrote: post #17
pkinsky wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All I see are slippery slope arguments claiming that, next time, Thiel might go after someone who didn't unarguably deserve it.

Why do you think the wealthy should be able to stop the free press from publishing things they don't like?

"The free press" is rather a grandiose title for a rag like Gawker.

If Gawker counts as part of "the free press" -- the people Americans trust with the privilege of mediating their access to much information -- then yes, "the press" deserves whatever it gets.

Re: Peter Thiel, Tech Billionaire, Reveals Secret War with Gawker

#37

Post by darawk »

dopamean wrote: post #31
darawk wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a poorly thought out argument. He isn't doing anything under-handed or illegal to destroy Gawker. He isn't fabricating evidence against them or paying off cops. He's simply financing a non-spurious lawsuit, which the courts have decided was legitimate. This is exactly what I want the billionaires in our society doing. He may be acting in his own self-interest, but it also happened to align with the public int…

> but it also happened to align with the public interest. That is debatable and also the problem. What if it didn't align with the public interest? Is it ok then?

Yes. It is always ok to finance a lawsuit. The premise of our legal system is that optimal adversaries debating in front of an impartial judge produce the best possible outcome.

If Hogan wasn't able to finance the lawsuit on his own, that would be the perversion of justice. But if our court system operates as it should, and there is no indication to my knowledge that it has not in this case, then billionaires funding legal teams should only enhance the level of justice available to all.

If the above is not true, then that is a problem with the court system, not a problem with people funding each other's lawsuits.

Re: Peter Thiel, Tech Billionaire, Reveals Secret War with Gawker

#39

Post by forgotpwtomain »

cissou wrote: post #22
nefitty wrote: post #14

Thiel claims to despise "massive privacy violations" on the part of groups like Gawker, yet he was one of the co-founders of Palantir. These people are just narcissists who want revenge for someone splashing mud on their boots. They're not fighting for our privacy, or for the common good. Sorry buddy, you are worth more than 99.999% of us. That makes you a significant figure and thus newsworthy. Your sexual orientati…

I might be interpreting your words, but are you suggesting that being extremely wealthy is reason enough to give up on privacy?

> but are you suggesting that being extremely wealthy is reason enough to give up on privacy?

Well not in the strawman form of 'give up on privacy' - but yes, if the information may be of public interest (I definitely don't think that sex-tapes are fyi) - than the legal standards are different.

Re: Peter Thiel, Tech Billionaire, Reveals Secret War with Gawker

#40

Post by siddboots »

zardgiv wrote: post #3
johansch wrote: post #2

This is commendable. Gawker is scum.

His stated goal, "deterrence," is the exact thing people talk about when they worry about a chilling effect. The fact that people are applauding because it's someone they disagree with whose ox is getting gored is really disappointing for a community that espouses such strong freedom of speech principles.

If the intended deterrent is simply the cost defending or settling, then you are right, it is no different to a SLAPP suit.

However, our legal system holds that even where we have freedom of expression, we still have a responsibility to not invade people's privacy, and not cause them emotional harm. A court found that Gawker didn't act according to those responsibilities, so they owed damages. That's exactly the kind of deterrence that our civil law is designed to provide.

Post reply on HN