Gawker Media files for bankruptcy, to go up for sale

[master_shake_]

awker Media LLC, the online publisher ordered by a U.S. court to pay former professional wrestler Hulk Hogan $140 million over the publication of a sex tape, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Friday and plans to sell itself at auction.
The move will intensify public debate in the United States over the role of big money in media lawsuits. Billionaire investor Peter Thiel, an early backer of Facebook (FB.O) and a co-founder of PayPal (PYPL.O) had bankrolled Hogan's lawsuit.
Media company Ziff Davis LLC already has an agreement to buy Gawker for a little less than $100 million, according to people familiar with the matter. However, a bankruptcy auction will ensue, likely at the end of July. If no other bidders step up with better offers, Ziff Davis will become Gawker's new owner.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-gawkermedia-bankruptcy-idUSKCN0YW1YP

that feel when you get crushed by 24 inch pythons.

 

[sdifox]

Ch 11 restructure to give Hogan the finger.

 

[Elixer]

What, Purch didn't want to buy them? *ducks*

No idea why anyone would want to buy what is left of gawker and all the sites they ran. They were all trash.

 

[Sonikku]

Hogan body slams gawker!

 

[darkswordsman17]

Gawker is allegedly looking to see if they can bring a case against Thiel. Can't wait, as its all but guaranteed these jackasses will make even bigger fools of themselves, and chances are it will turn into a full on shitshow with all the dirty laundry of gawker laid out. Plus if they actually have a legitimate case it could be a good thing.

 

[Fritzo]

Gawker is allegedly looking to see if they can bring a case against Thiel. Can't wait, as its all but guaranteed these jackasses will make even bigger fools of themselves, and chances are it will turn into a full on shitshow with all the dirty laundry of gawker laid out. Plus if they actually have a legitimate case it could be a good thing.

Theil is pretty much the one looking like a comic book villain here. He didn't like some stories Gawker ran about him, so he secretly brought them down. Is this what we want? The super-rich controlling what the media reports?

 

[zerocool84]

What, Purch didn't want to buy them? *ducks*

No idea why anyone would want to buy what is left of gawker and all the sites they ran. They were all trash.

Ehh I like Kotaku. The other sites on there though I don't like.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Theil is pretty much the one looking like a comic book villain here. He didn't like some stories Gawker ran about him, so he secretly brought them down. Is this what we want? The super-rich controlling what the media reports?

You're joking, right? I don't know if you just plain don't know about all the shit Gawker has done or what, but acting like Thiel is a "comic book villain" is just silly. Gawker was told by a judge to take down the Hogan video and said they wouldn't. He only "secretly brought them down" because it took a billionaire to be able to mount a legal case against a media company (weird that you act like Gawker is some innocent little blog or something) and because they were absolutely in the wrong with regards to the Hogan case.

Plus, on top of all the other shit they've pulled, you're going to defend them? If you're worried about chilling affect on journalism, um, maybe don't pull shit like Gawker regularly did and people wouldn't be able to mount legitimate legal cases against you.

Hell did you read about how the head assclowns of Gawker acted during the Hogan trial?

 

[master_shake_]

Theil is pretty much the one looking like a comic book villain here. He didn't like some stories Gawker ran about him, so he secretly brought them down. Is this what we want? The super-rich controlling what the media reports?

as opposed to gawker who ruined a mans entire life right?

 

[Jodell88]

as opposed to gawker who ruined a mans entire life right?

One man alone? The list is quite long.

Also, they helped the guy blackmail the Conde Nast CFO last year. Fuck 'em.

 

[Jodell88]

Ehh I like Kotaku. The other sites on there though I don't like.

I was gonna rag on you but at least it wasn't polygon.

 

[master_shake_]

One man alone? The list is quite long.

Also, they helped the guy blackmail the Conde Nast CFO last year. Fuck 'em.

jesus christ.

wow.

 

[blankslate]

Gawker is a very poor example of a "journalistic" organization to say the least.

But a billionaire putting one out of business via proxy lawsuit is a rather disturbing precedent.


______________

 

[MrPickins]

Gawker is a very poor example of a "journalistic" organization to say the least.

But a billionaire putting one out of business via proxy lawsuit is a rather disturbing precedent.

Don't break the law and you won't go out of business...

 

[bononos]

One man alone? The list is quite long.

Also, they helped the guy blackmail the Conde Nast CFO last year. Fuck 'em.

That CFO was the brother of Tim Geithner, he wasn't just some John soliciting a gay prostitute. Gawker didn't participate in the blackmail, it put a stop to it by publishing the story.

Gawker may be trash but it serves useful purpose by putting the rich and famous on notice.

 

[Exophase]

Gawker is a very poor example of a "journalistic" organization to say the least.

But a billionaire putting one out of business via proxy lawsuit is a rather disturbing precedent.

The way I see it, the annoying precedent is that you need millions of dollars to wage a civil suit against a big media corporation when they violate your rights.

That CFO was the brother of Tim Geithner, he wasn't just some John soliciting a gay prostitute. Gawker didn't participate in the blackmail, it put a stop to it by publishing the story.

Gawker may be trash but it serves useful purpose by putting the rich and famous on notice.

How dare he be the brother of a person of any notoriety. How dare he have money.

 

[Fritzo]

Gawker is a very poor example of a "journalistic" organization to say the least.

But a billionaire putting one out of business via proxy lawsuit is a rather disturbing precedent.


______________

Exactly.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Exactly.

If Gawker had not done what they did then they wouldn't be going out of business. Simple as that.

I have a hard time worrying about media conglomerates that have been doing exactly what you're condemning Thiel for. Because of their financial and legal leverage they've been preventing a lot of people from being able to bring legitimate cases against them.

This is just plain a balance of power in that now large media corporations can't just say/do whatever the fuck they want with no repurcussions. Sure it doesn't help average people but our justice system has already been fucking them over forever so its not like this is somehow worse for them.

Its not like the shady shit that Gawker was doing was beneficial to society in any way. But I'd love to hear how outing people's sexual orientation, sex tapes, and other things like that is "putting celebrities on notice" because none of that should be things that people fucking care about. They're not leaking government problems or serious crimes. Hell most of the time they're reporting literally gossip and rumors. And they've been especially nasty about it.

Hell TMZ was doing more societal good than Gawker was.

 

[darkswordsman17]

The way I see it, the annoying precedent is that you need millions of dollars to wage a civil suit against a big media corporation when they violate your rights.



How dare he be the brother of a person of any notoriety. How dare he have money.

Both of these.

 

[Fritzo]

Gawker publishes a lot of crap from millennial journalists trying to make a name for themselves (much like Huffington Post and Buzzfeed), but they also post a lot of legit breaking news and investigative journalism. One of their best stories this year is a piece about finally explaining Donald Trump's odd hair. It got praise from a lot of main-stream journalists and basically says there is strong evidence that The Presidential Walking Yam used a hair restoration specialist located in Trump Tower to get a permanent weave.

Now Theil is sending a goons to threaten Gawker with defamation of character against the doctor because he doesn't like the story and wants it retracted.

http://gawker.com/now-peter-thiels-lawyer-wants-to-silence-reporting-on-t-1781918385

Also, the yellow haired Oompa-Loompa is now censoring press from covering him because he doesn't like organizations that run stories he doesn't agree with. Trump has banned Buzzfeed, The Huffington Post, Politico, and now The Washington Post.

Where does this stop? Everyone is paranoid about the government controlling the media, but it appears the super-rich are the ones we actually have to worry about.

 

[Kaido]

I hope Gizmodo stays up. They were pretty childish in the past (everything from language to content, especially with all of the Apple-related nonsense), but they actually grew up & have a great site now (which is funny, because now Engadget of all places is posting NSFW posts from time to time regarding adult-related technologies). Lots of great sections, too - Sploid, PaleoFuture, Field Guide, etc.

 

[Fritzo]

I hope Gizmodo stays up. They were pretty childish in the past (everything from language to content, especially with all of the Apple-related nonsense), but they actually grew up & have a great site now (which is funny, because now Engadget of all places is posting NSFW posts from time to time regarding adult-related technologies). Lots of great sections, too - Sploid, PaleoFuture, Field Guide, etc.

They're all staying up- I guess Ziff Davis is looking to buy them. This may be a ploy by Theil to prevent ZD from buying them so they truly do close. The whole blog suite at Gawker has matured over the last 3 years. Gawker is now all political news, i09 is integrated into Gizmodo, Gizmodo has insider tech news, and Jezebel is huge on human rights stories. They're almost like a modern Time magazine now.

Again, they do run some questionable crap (who doesn't?), but for the most part they can be taken as a serious news source these days.

 

[norseamd]

Gawker is a very poor example of a "journalistic" organization to say the least.

But a billionaire putting one out of business via proxy lawsuit is a rather disturbing precedent.


______________

And also the possible precedent of Journalists not being able to report on news or video that has been sent to them. FYI, I hope Gawker DIAF, but the possible precedents resulting from it are very concerning.

 

[Jodell88]

The whole blog suite at Gawker has matured over the last 3 years. Gawker is now all political news, i09 is integrated into Gizmodo, Gizmodo has insider tech news, and Jezebel is huge on human rights stories. They're almost like a modern Time magazine now.

 

[Fritzo]

Whatever dude, but I'll point out that news organizations like NBC News, CBS, and ABC are using Gawker articles for sources and news content now.
These are all recent stories that Gawker has broken that became national news:

- Facebook censoring "Black Lives Matter" news stories and Zuckerberg-sponsored news manipulation to prevent a Trump Presidency.
- Facebook news censoring in general- broken by Gawker after hiring former Facebook journalists
- Mayor Rob Ford's addiction issues
- Josh Dugger's Ashley Madison account, exposing the Dugger's hypocritical empire
- Bill O'Reily's vengeful attempted takedown of his' wife's boyfriend and domestic violence charges
- Dr. Dre spousal abuse
- Hilary Clinton's email server details
- Exposure of the Dark Web - content used by the FBI to take down several operations
- Kevin Johnson sexual abuse while in office
- Much of the Bill Cosby story was started by Gawker articles
- Manti Te’o's fake girlfrend

There's a big list here: http://gawker.com/heres-what-gawker-media-does-1779858799

I love their science and tech coverage as they seem to get stories a few days before they break anywhere else.

Have your own opinion, you're entitled, but the fact is they definitely ARE a source for breaking news and exclusive stories.