It's a little dismaying that the HN community seems to be so universally, 100% supportive of Thiel in this matter. As I wrote in another comment, we should perh

It's a little dismaying that the HN community seems to be so universally, 100% supportive of Thiel in this matter. As I wrote in another comment, we should perhaps be thinking less of the specifics of this case than of the precedent. "The precedent that if you write scandalous gossip about someone, your company can be destroyed? What's wrong with that?" Well, first off, scandalous gossip is a little subjective, and as Denton correctly points out, Gawker's sites aren't all trashy gossip in the first place. But, second and more importantly: no. That's not the precedent. The precedent is a billionaire who doesn't like what's being written about him funding other lawsuits to take down a media company. "But look at the Hogan case. They were found guilty. Thiel had to find a case that could be won, because Gawker really is that bad!" No. I mean, yes, maybe Gawker really is that bad, but Thiel--or anyone following in his footsteps--only has to find cases that are good enough to get to court. He could effectively cripple or destroy Gawker with cases that weren't winnable, as long as they were expensive enough to defend against and just kept coming. All our "philanthropist" needs is enough money. The thing is, maybe the next target isn't going to be a site like Gawker. Maybe it's going to be the Intercept, or the Atavist, or Mother Jones (which has already been threatened with similar suits, IIRC), or Reason. Maybe the philanthropist won't be someone we're all quite so willing to give the benefit of the doubt to. Look: these sort of cases are very often not ones that are over tasteful stories written by people you'd be comfortable sharing an elevator with. I'm not a fan of Gawker-the-site (although I'm a fan of some of Gawker's other properties, which these discussions seem to keep eliding). But I'm still, however reluctantly, on their side in this. The world will survive just fine without Gawker, sure. But what if the press--not just Gawker, but any site that's got Gawker-level resources or less--has to start thinking, "If someone rich enough and vindictive enough to start funding libel lawsuits against me hates what I write, can I defend myself against them even if they're frivolous?" Do you really think there's no chance that won't make journalism a little more timid? A little more risk-averse? Do you really think that's a good thing?