Gawker Media founder Nick Denton slammed tech billionaire Peter Thiel on Thursday for bankrolling lawsuits that could cripple the digital news operation, and challenged him to a formal debate about journalism.
Denton issued his scathing -- and lengthy -- critique in an open letter to Thiel posted on Gawker, the media company’s self-titled news site.
He argued that Thiel was preying on a small, independent media outlet to settle personal scores, rather than performing a benevolent service for the subjects of Gawker’s more questionable stories, as Thiel contended in The New York Times.
“Among the million posts published by Gawker and other properties since the company was founded, there have undoubtedly been occasions we overstepped the line,” Denton wrote. “In offsetting the fawning coverage of tech luminaries and others, sometimes our stories swing too far for my taste toward snark.”
“But this vindictive decade-long campaign is quite out of proportion to the hurt you claim,” he concluded.
The media guru went on to note that lawsuits with Thiel’s financial backing have not just targeted Gawker Media, but gone after individual journalists as well, saddling them with unpayable expenses and other stresses.
“Peter, this is twisted,” Denton wrote. “Even were you to succeed in bankrupting Gawker Media, the writers you dislike, and me, just think what it will mean.”
He warned that Thiel's actions were likely to heighten public fears about the “unaccountable power of the billionaire class."
"Now you show yourself as a thin-skinned billionaire who, despite all the success and public recognition that a person could dream of, seethes over criticism and plots behind the scenes to tie up his opponents in litigation he can afford better than they."
Denton also invited Thiel to an “open and public debate” with him about the nature of journalism, either in person -- “under the auspices of the Committee to Protect Journalists,” a nonprofit to which Thiel has donated -- or on a "neutral" online platform.
“The best regulation for speech, in a free society, is more speech.”
- Nick Denton, Gawker Media
Thiel, a co-founder of PayPal and a Facebook board member, was exposed on Wednesday as the financial sponsor of a lawsuit brought celebrity wrestler Hulk Hogan and suits by a number of other story subjects against the New York-based company.
Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, won a $140-million penalty against Gawker Media in March for violating his privacy with its publication of a sex video he made with the wife of a friend. Denton has expressed confidence the decision will be overturned on appeal.
Thiel’s crusade against Gawker Media began in 2007 when its now-defunct, Silicon Valley-centered blog Valleywag mentioned that the investor was gay. Thiel claims the post outed him, telling the New York Times on Wednesday that the incident and other stories about friends “ruined people’s lives for no reason.”
Thiel estimated that his investment in lawsuits against Gawker has cost him $10 million thus far.
The case has pitted concerns about privacy rights against First Amendment advocates, with Gawker claiming the tape was newsworthy and its publication was protected under freedom of the press.
But if forced to pay up, it's unclear whether the edgy digital media company, whose sites also include Gizmodo, Jezebel, Deadspin, Kotaku, Jalopnik and Lifehacker, would survive in its current form.
The New York Post reported on Thursday that Denton is seeking a buyer for Gawker Media. He had already sold a minority stake in the company in January, which brought in new cash for its legal costs.
Denton’s missive is the latest public twist in an escalating fracas over Thiel’s involvement that has captivated the media industry this week.
Denton first aired his suspicion to the New York Times on Tuesday that Bollea’s suit was backed by a wealthy billionaire, speculating that the person came from Silicon Valley. Bollea’s lawyers waived a claim that would have allowed Gawker to use its insurance to help cover legal costs and damages, Denton noted, an unusual move for a plaintiff.
Sources came forward shortly thereafter confirming Denton’s hunch and naming Thiel as the culprit.
Admitting his role as benefactor, Thiel argued in his Wednesday interview with the Times that the suit will not have a chilling effect on the press.
“I refuse to believe that journalism means massive privacy violations,” he said. “I think much more highly of journalists than that. It’s precisely because I respect journalists that I do not believe they are endangered by fighting back against Gawker.”
Thiel’s detractors fear his activism-driven funding of litigation provides a model for other vain billionaires to silence media outlets whose coverage they dislike.
Thiel is an outspoken libertarian with more than a few eccentric pet projects and fringe political views. He argued in 2009 that women receiving the right to vote undermined democracy.
The tech investor is a pledged delegate for presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
