Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
Defenders of litigation finance claim noble motives: They are merely equalizing access to a legal system that leaves too many on the wrong side of the courthouse doors. (It’s hard not to hear echoes here of Thiel’s claim that he’s spent millions to after Gawker for “philanthropic” reasons.) According to a post at Burford Capital,…
On Monday, The New York Times published a report that Gawker founder Nick Denton believed it was highly likely that the lawsuit brought against his company by Hulk Hogan was being financed by a secret backer. Then, on Tuesday night, Forbes reported that Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel has been the man secretly bankrolling the Hulkster’s…
At first blush, the secret support that the Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel provided for Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit against Gawker is a salacious yarn about money, power, gossip and revenge. But it is also about something more important: an aggressive bid by the very wealthy to control the American news media at a time when…
Peter Thiel, Nearly a decade ago, after you had opened up to friends and colleagues, a gay writer for Gawker shared an item with the readers of Valleywag, a section for news and gossip about the rich and powerful of Silicon Valley. “Peter Thiel, the smartest VC in the world, is gay,” wrote Owen Thomas….
SAN FRANCISCO — Silicon Valley likes to keep the media on a tight leash. Tech executives expect obedience, if not reverence, from reporters. They dole out information as grudgingly as possible. Sometimes they simply buy a chunk of a publication, a time-honored method of influencing what is deemed fit to write about. Valleywag declined to play…
Funding Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit against Gawker? That’s not cool. Actively going out to find potential plaintiffs who might have cases against Gawker and then giving them the money to bring those cases? Even that’s not cool. You know what’s cool? Reinventing the concept of philanthropy so as to include weapons-grade attacks on America’s free press,…
WASHINGTON — A technology investment company has offered to put up the $10 million for charity that Donald Trump said on Thursday would be needed to hold a debate with Bernie Sanders. [Update at 4:38 p.m.: Shortly after the publication of this report, Trump’s campaign released a statement that he would not be participating in…
So, some years ago, Gawker outed Peter Thiel as gay. To the best of my knowledge, there was no public interest case to be made: Thiel was not funding anti-gay initiatives or some such. They also published Hulk Hogan’s sex tape and did various other scummy things. Thiel, being a billionaire, decided to take them…
Kevin Drum May. 26, 2016 7:03 PM Shaun King says he’s giving up on the Democratic Party. He can’t abide Hillary Clinton’s establishment views and thinks the Democratic Party is fundamentally corrupt and in thrall to moneyed interests. Fair enough. This isn’t my position, but I understand it. But there are times when I wonder…
It’s supposed to matter when Superman dies. This time, it totally doesn’t. DC Comics has killed Kal-El again. Most devoted comic-book readers aren’t surprised by this, since the publisher announced months ago that the latest version of Superman wouldn’t be part of the post-Rebirth universe. And since he’s the first-ever superhero character, this isn’t the…