Thiel's multiple cases against Gawker are a death knell for American journalism. To be clear, I don't like Gawker's approach to journalism, and I disagree with

Thiel's multiple cases against Gawker are a death knell for American journalism. To be clear, I don't like Gawker's approach to journalism, and I disagree with their decision to out Thiel and expose Hogan. If Gawker goes under, the world will not be a poorer place. But the PRECEDENT that Thiel is setting is deeply disturbing, and it will hurt US democracy. When any billionaire can sue any publication into bankruptcy anonymously over any story they ever wrote, all publications will eventually belong to another oligarch, because that is the only way they'll survive. And the stories that publications write are a reflection of their owners, which means the oligarchs will exert even more influence on the American mind than they already do. This will cast a chill on independent journalism, and limit the voices that we read. Thiel is right as an individual case, and horrible if you go one layer of abstraction above that.