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posted by martyb on Saturday May 28 2016, @02:59AM   Printer-friendly
from the best-justice-money-can-buy dept.

Two Soylentils wrote in with an update on Hulk Hogan's lawsuit against Gawker. After these stories were submitted, it appears to have been confirmed by The New York Times that Thiel paid $10 million to fund the lawsuit.

Peter Thiel Funded Hulk Hogan's Lawsuit Against Gawker

Peter Thiel, the billionaire Silicon Valley venture capitalist and libertarian who we have reported on several times, reportedly bankrolled former wrestler Hulk Hogan's (real name: Terry Bollea) lawsuit against Gawker. After Gawker published a sex tape featuring Bollea, Bollea sued and was eventually awarded $140 million by a jury. That decision is being appealed.

Thiel has had several run-ins with Gawker's reporting on his political and financial decisions, but the most prominent incident was in 2007, when the website's then-running gossip vertical Valleywag outed Thiel's sexual orientation in a post titled, "Peter Thiel is totally gay, people."

Thiel, who is now open about being gay, later called Valleywag "the Silicon Valley equivalent of Al Qaeda."

Although the exact details of the arrangement between Thiel and Bollea are unknown, if Thiel negotiated for a share of the lawsuit's proceeds, he may get to stick it to Gawker while earning millions of dollars.

[Continues...]

Hulk Hogan's Sex Tape and a Tech Billionaire's Revenge on Gawker

El Reg reports

Hogan's legal team specifically dropped a part of his lawsuit that would have seen Gawker's insurance company pick up the tab. On top of which, Hogan reportedly turned down a $10M settlement offer from Gawker to stop the case going to court.

Increasingly, it looked as though, [rather than compensating Hogan,] the lawsuit's main focus was to ruin Gawker--which does not have $140M in assets and would have to declare bankruptcy if the judgment stands.

Previous: Hulk Hogan Awarded $115 Million in Privacy Suit Against Gawker Media


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  • (Score: 2) by GungnirSniper on Saturday May 28 2016, @02:58PM

    by GungnirSniper (1671) on Saturday May 28 2016, @02:58PM (#351983) Journal

    I thought the involuntary outing of any LGBTQ person was on the moral level of a hate crime? Why did Gawker get a pass on betraying Thiel's personal life to get a few clicks? And why are we surprised a billionaire would fight back?

    Starting Score:    1  point
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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by kurenai.tsubasa on Sunday May 29 2016, @02:38AM

    by kurenai.tsubasa (5227) on Sunday May 29 2016, @02:38AM (#352118) Journal

    I consider it as such at least due to the destruction it can cause. Gawker is caught in an SJW paradox. Thomas took judgement of how to best handle the information that Thiel is homosexual into his own hands. As an SJW, Thomas thought he could serve the greater good by announcing Thiel's sexual orientation.

    This is the inherent contradiction of the SJWs. They are beholden to their social justice values, but they are ignorant as to the consequences of their actions on individuals.

  • (Score: 1) by boxfetish on Sunday May 29 2016, @03:00AM

    by boxfetish (4831) on Sunday May 29 2016, @03:00AM (#352123)

    I am not (necessarily) defending Gawker here, but I believe the rationale is that Peter Thiel actively works against LGBTQ rights/causes and is, himself, gay. That is newsworthy as many LGBTQ persons who might otherwise tend to admire him or view him as a role model (blech!) would want to know this.

    • (Score: 2) by jmorris on Monday May 30 2016, @04:00AM

      by jmorris (4844) on Monday May 30 2016, @04:00AM (#352482)

      Translation: The uppity faggot doesn't know his place. Got it.

      Amazing how gays don't know enough to know what they want, women must be told what they want by their betters, blacks who aren't part of the race grievance industry aren't 'authentically black' and so on. One would almost think they are helpless pawns in the political machinations of progressives... but that can't be true, right?