Peter Thiel Wins: Gawker Files for Chapter 11 and Must Be Sold

I don't know if any of you has been following this, but some of my favorite sites are hosted by Gawker (Jezebel, io9, Jalopnik, occasionally Gizmodo and Lifehacker, and rarely Kotaku). Things started to go downhill for Gawker in 2012 with the Hulk Hogan matter, and they have been under assault in recent years due to billionaire entrepreneur Peter Thiel funding several lawsuits against them, including one for outing Thiel as gay, and the Hulk Hogan matter in which the site made portions of a sex tape available.

In recent months, Gawker has published several hit pieces on Thiel, which is just kind of icky, considering they are still fighting cases funded by him in court.

The suits have cost them so much money that they are basically no longer able to operate. Jezebel, for one, has posted that the bankruptcy process will not affect their day-to-day operations, but a new parent company might not permit the same relative editorial freedom that sites like Jezebel and io9 (which recently merged with Gizmodo) have enjoyed.

This whole thing is very soap opera-y, but Gawker's leaders have displayed the same discretion they use in their editorial, which is to say, precious little. I can't say I'm sad to see the family of sites change management, but I worry about the content of the sites I enjoy.

I really could care less about the level of editorial discretion displayed, I'm not happy with a billionaire using money, influence, and proxies to manipulate the legal system against a media outlet over a petty grudge. Of course Thiel says he's a libertarian.

There's a lot that's troubling about this. Gawker absolutely deserved to be sued for what they did, but the damages rewarded to Hogan by the jury are ludicrous.