Supporting a free and open media doesn't mean supporting every media outlet. The point everybody seems to be glossing over here, in their haste to paint Thiel as the Antichrist incarnate, is that Gawker was wrong. If they had not actually done wrong, none of this would be an issue. Who is funding the lawsuit is actually irrelevant. They chose to publish the Hogan sex tape, they get to pay the consequences. So Thiel gets his revenge in the process.. OK, fine, there are plenty of other media outlets out there (hello, qz.com).
Of course it's frustrating to see a billionaire flaunt their wealth in a way that most of us never could, but that's the flip-side of the open society coin.