Gawker can’t hide its bad behavior behind press freedom | Hacker News Reader

Gawker can’t hide its bad behavior behind press freedom

cjr.org

28 pointsjackgavigan14 comments

Look, I understand that Thiel may have been on a kind of personal vendetta, but I can't really argue that what he has done is wrong. Gawker regularly does what a number of other journalistic outlets do as well, that being: printing these ridiculous and false stories and then some time later printing a correction in fine print at the bottom. There needs to be more accountability for these "journalists" because in some cases they ruin others' lives and act as if they have done no wrong because they "eventually" published a correction...

But this particular case is the opposite: they got in trouble for publishing the truth.

The truth about what? Hogan/Terry's cock or Thiel being gay? Is the Freedom of the Press flag supposed to be wrapped around those?

I'm curious. Can you find one of Gawker's character assassinations that targeted somebody with political convictions that they shared? And FYI that is the radical left but you get half points for conventional leftists too.

The title of this article doesn't seem to accurately represent the contents of the article itself.

Agreed. I generally lean towards freedom of the press but I'd like to see an outfit like this go into more depth on the privacy issue. Does it matter it wasn't his house? Does it matter it was in the other person's house? Does it matter he probably knew there was video recording in progress? Does it matter the other party definitely knew? Does it matter that the other party or the other party's spouse leaked it? Does it matter that only 3% of the "tape" was published? Does it matter that it revealed key events such as the presence of the husband? Does it matter that the really incendiary content was never published (Hulk commenting on his daughter's boyfriend)?

Thiel can't hide its bad behavior behind wealth freedom.

If you can't describe what it is, nobody will ever know.

I don't see how they equate Thiel's participation with Gawker's gutter journalism. Whether Thiel is funding the lawsuit or not is irrelevant; a lawsuit is won/lost not by who's funding it, but by what are the merits of the case[1]. If Gawker had done nothing wrong, they would have won.

[1] The exception being defense, when government is suing. With enough money, you can usually buy your way out of jail from the government's lawyers.

> a lawsuit is won/lost not by who's funding it, but by what are the merits of the case

I think I have a bridge to sell you...

Your statement implies that the quality (and cost) of the legal team does not matter with respect to winning cases, and that's just not true. More importantly, DEFENDING against cases, even if you are not in the wrong, is extremely expensive. It is very possible to use the legal system in the US as a weapon if you have enough resources.

Right. And is that Thiel's fault? No. No it isn't.

The reality is that Gawker abused that particular caveat of the system far more than Thiel ever did.

That is part of the reason why this is so delicious. Beating them to death with their own weapon.

This was good old fashioned Western frontier style justice.

"We're not just going to shoot the Bastard. We're going to cut out their living guts and use them to grease the treads of our tanks!" - The Warrior Song

https://youtu.be/2Xo3fwddONA

No greater indication of tribalism than someone salivating over "Western frontier style justice."

We're a great tribe. The best tribe. You'll never see a tribe like this I tell you. Wait until you'll see what we do next. Every other tribe will be jealous of us. - Trump-naut

I am aware of the downsides of tribalism.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11797803

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11774588

But everybody is in a tribe (they were doing it too mom!). Some people just don't know it yet. There is no getting rid of bias, only modest adjustments for it.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11780770

And play the Warrior Song! It's so great! The Best Song.

You're aware of the downsides of tribalism, but seriously lack self-awareness like most people who complain about tribalism. Especially if you think you've already made adjustments for it.

In response to the article:

It's a news outlet.

They can use/abuse their position to make hay in ways nobody else can.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com