Gawker settlement professional#
Did he want to ruin the media company, or purchase it, or simply malign the company that caused him personal and professional anguish? Thiel maintained that his involvement was philanthropic at heart, and meant to protect people from being bullied by unscrupulous media outlets. Speculation soared over what was viewed by many as Thiel’s revenge against Gawker for outing him. In 2016, Forbes magazine revealed that it was indeed Peter Thiel who was bankrolling Bollea’s case against Gawker. The published video, which Bollea claims was recorded without his knowledge or consent, contained a 2-minute section of a 30+ minute video-ten seconds of which included explicit sex acts. Bollea was represented by famed Los Angeles attorney Charles Harder. Thiel also speculated that Gawker maintained a disdainful attitude toward Big Tech, and may be focusing on punishing industry leaders as a result.įast forward to 2012, when Gawker published a lewd video featuring wrestler Hulk Hogan (AKA Terry Bollea) having sex with Heather Clem-wife of radio personality “Bubba the Love Sponge.” This led to Bollea suing the media outlet for infringement of rights of publicity, invasion of privacy, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. In 2009, an outed Thiel gave an interview in which he called Gawker ‘destructive,’ even as he acknowledged that the site wasn’t focused on ruining him personally. Peter Thiel is in fact gay, which means the truth of the article protected Gawker from a libel suit. In 2007, Gawker, a website known for celebrity scandals and salacious content, published a piece with the headline: “Peter Thiel is totally gay, people.” Was this newsworthy? Did the piece have journalistic integrity? Reasonable people can disagree. In this piece, we’ll take a look at exactly what happened in the case, and how it impacted (or hasn’t impacted) Litigation Finance. Once news emerged that billionaire and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel was funding Hogan’s claim, the case became even more sensational. The suit made national news not just for its salacious nature-but because of the questions it raised regarding privacy versus journalistic freedom. Thiel has said he bankrolled the Hogan lawsuit as a way to end its "incredibly damaging way of getting attention by bullying people even when there was no connection with the public interest," he told The New York Times in May.This week marks the sixth anniversary of Terry Bollea (AKA professional wrestler Hulk Hogan) suing Gawker media for publishing a sex tape of him with a married woman. Denton, an outspoken former Financial Times journalist, also declared personal bankruptcy as a result of the Hogan case. Gawker Media went into bankruptcy protection after the verdict was reached in a Florida court in March. But all-out legal war with Thiel would have cost too much, and hurt too many people, and there was no end in sight." "And we expected to prevail in those other two lawsuits by clients of Charles Harder, the lawyer backed by Peter Thiel. "Yes, we were confident the appeals court would reduce or eliminate the runaway Florida judgment against Gawker, the writer of the Hogan story and myself personally," Denton said. Harlem Festival of Culture canceled due to extreme heatĪll of the stories were true, Denton said, calling that part of the deal "the most unpalatable." Writing on blogging platform Medium, Denton didn't give many details on the settlement, though he said it "allows us all to move on, and focus on activities more productive than endless litigation."Ĭourt documents reportedly revealed the case was settled for $31 million, according to CNBC.Īdditionally, Denton said stories about Hogan, a person who said he invented email, and a feud between two founders of the dating app Tinder are being removed from the web.
Gawker's parent company has already been sold to Spanish-language broadcaster Univision, along with several of its sister websites, including and. Gawker's gossipy coverage of media, culture and politics changed the online news landscape, but it couldn't weather the lawsuit brought by Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, and backed by billionaire PayPal founder Peter Thiel. It had already shut down earlier this year after operating for 14 years.
Nick Denton wrote Wednesday that the site's four-year legal "saga" is over, ending the company's appeal of a $140 million judgment against Denton and the site for publishing a video of Hogan having sex with a friend's wife. , the brash New York website, has reached a settlement in the legal case brought by former wrestler Hulk Hogan, according to the site's founder and CEO.
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