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Peter Thiel, Tech Billionaire, Reveals Secret War with Gawker

nytimes.com

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

#161

Post by kelukelugames »

simula67 wrote: post #153
pkinsky wrote: post #4

>He added: “It’s not for me to decide what happens to Gawker. If America rallies around Gawker and decides we want more people to be outed and more sex tapes to be posted without consent, then they will find a way to save Gawker, and I can’t stop it.” An important reminder of exactly what conduct, on Gawker's part, people are defending. They have no moral high ground, noble principles, or higher purpose. They're scum…

Also don't forget that the incident involved publishing his racist rants which destroyed his career.

Wait, who and what is this?

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

#162

Post by rpgmaker »

pkinsky wrote: post #4

>He added: “It’s not for me to decide what happens to Gawker. If America rallies around Gawker and decides we want more people to be outed and more sex tapes to be posted without consent, then they will find a way to save Gawker, and I can’t stop it.” An important reminder of exactly what conduct, on Gawker's part, people are defending. They have no moral high ground, noble principles, or higher purpose. They're scum…

If the news is about some asshole VC you know people here will find acceptable the most abhorrent shit. It's not ok for billionaires to sue to death the publications they don't like.

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

#163

Post by andkon »

ElComradio wrote: post #158
andkon wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A rich person acted out his retributive fantasies by paying a law team for years to trawl through everything Gawker put out in search of litigable offenses. That's unethical on the part of the lawyers, probably, and on the part of Thiel, certainly. He never had a chance to win any personal verdict, so he went nuclear. There's no way that won't have a chilling effect on other media companies who consider whether or no…

You make him sound like someone who is filing frivolous lawsuits. The Hogan case involves an outrageous invasion of privacy of extremely dubious newsworthiness, nothing at all like, say, outing a lesbian congresswoman who supports traditional marriage legislation. He's not going through looking for possible gotchas; these cases are pretty clear cut.

He didn't file a frivolous lawsuit. He decided to not file a frivolous lawsuit, and instead to fund every viable lawsuit he could purely so he could bankrupt a media company that had covered him very unfavourably in the past. He'll probably keep doing it, if more such cases pop up.

He isn't on Hulk Hogan's side. He's on his side, and he won. Making this about the particulars of Hogan's case is deliberately eliding the fact that Thiel didn't give a shit about Hogan's case other than that it could bankrupt Gawker.

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

#164

Post by rpgmaker »

owenversteeg wrote: post #61

I absolutely despise Gawker. The stories they run and the stuff they do would normally mean that I would love for them to be run into the ground. At the same time, they are the only independent online media outlet left in the world. Every other company that once prided itself on being "independent" from the large media network owned by ancient billionaires has now received at least hundreds of millions of dollars in…

HN is filled with people that immediately side with scumbag VCs.

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

#165

Post by bogomipz »

andkon wrote: post #155
darawk wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly what is unethical about his conduct here? I really don't understand what problem anyone has with this.

A rich person acted out his retributive fantasies by paying a law team for years to trawl through everything Gawker put out in search of litigable offenses. That's unethical on the part of the lawyers, probably, and on the part of Thiel, certainly. He never had a chance to win any personal verdict, so he went nuclear. There's no way that won't have a chilling effect on other media companies who consider whether or no…

Trade "rich person" for "powerful media outlet" and Gawker is the bully. And it's been cheap for Gawker over the years with their 40 million in revenue to throw any hapless victims to the wolves if they thought that it would sell advertising. And guess what it was cheap for them. How many people didn't have the money or resources to take Gawker on?

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

#166

Post by ElComradio »

andkon wrote: post #163
ElComradio wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You make him sound like someone who is filing frivolous lawsuits. The Hogan case involves an outrageous invasion of privacy of extremely dubious newsworthiness, nothing at all like, say, outing a lesbian congresswoman who supports traditional marriage legislation. He's not going through looking for possible gotchas; these cases are pretty clear cut.

He didn't file a frivolous lawsuit. He decided to not file a frivolous lawsuit, and instead to fund every viable lawsuit he could purely so he could bankrupt a media company that had covered him very unfavourably in the past. He'll probably keep doing it, if more such cases pop up. He isn't on Hulk Hogan's side. He's on his side, and he won. Making this about the particulars of Hogan's case is deliberately eliding th…

If in fact there are other viable cases, in the absence of Thiel the injustice would then be that Gawker can behave badly indefinitely because most of the victims will not pay the necessary amount to litigate.

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

#167

Post by will_brown »

FireBeyond wrote: post #107
darawk wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly what is unethical about his conduct here? I really don't understand what problem anyone has with this.

I wonder whether Hogan/Bollea was advised by "his" counsel about the ramifications of dropping one of the pieces of litigation - a piece that would have increased the ability for Bollea to collect that damage award. As it happens the particular tort that was dropped was the only one that would allow Gawker to use their insurance to cover the liability of the verdict awarded. Thiel's goal is to destroy Gawker. A Gawke…

>...there are perfectly valid ethical questions about Thiel's involvement and motivations in this whole debacle.

Your post basically reads like a law school ethics question/answer. You did a great job issue spotting. Law being one of the most highly regulated industries there are rules on point, so I can answer some of your questions.

Here is how the Florida Rule of Professional Conduct reads "Rule 4-5.4(d): Exercise of Independent Professional Judgment. A lawyer shall not permit a person who recommends, employs, or pays the lawyer to render legal services for another to direct or regulate the lawyer's professional judgment in rendering such legal services."

In other words, under the rules Bollea is the Client. As such has full decision making power with the attorney-client relationship. Not only would funny business result in the disbarment of the lawyer, there are also a lot of practicalities to law that prevent the undue influence on the lawyer.

For example if Bollea wants to settle its not like Thiel could direct the firm to trial for a chance at a bigger judgment over Bollea's wishes, there would be record and it would be grounds for a malpractice claim and disbarment. Lawyer's can't even withhold settlement offers from clients, without there being a record, and again grounds for malpractice and disbarment. Your issue about dropping the claim against the interest of Bollea's ability to collect is interesting, but again if it can be shown Bollea suffered damage (lost ability to collect full judgment through insurance) because the lawyers breached their duty to the client that is grounds for malpractice.

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

#168

Post by wildmusings »

cwisecarver wrote: post #34

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…

The specific facts of this case are pretty damning for Gawker. They were openly contemptuous of a court order to take down the video. They deserve this.

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

#169

Post by disillusioned »

kelukelugames wrote: post #161
simula67 wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also don't forget that the incident involved publishing his racist rants which destroyed his career.

Wait, who and what is this?

The sex tape itself was widely published on the internet, but most publications responded to Hogan's lawyer's C&Ds. Gawker did not, but more importantly, they separately published the fact that an audio tape exists in which Hogan made blatantly racist remarks about the person dating his daughter, which caused sponsors and others to pull away from him. (Though they didn't publish the tape itself, as others did, perhaps ironically.)

This is what's considered to have caused the damage to his career, rather than the fact that he likes sleeping with his friend's wife.

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

#170

Post by testrun »

greatnorthz wrote: post #80
android521 wrote: post #65

Why did Peter Thiel supports Trump? It is unimaginable.

Trump has support in a lot of places that you wouldn't expect, few will admit supporting him in public because they get responses like it is 'unimaginable'. Thiel has the money/power so there's nothing for him to fear.

and he really does not care
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