• Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    They did some pretty shitty things when they were owned by Gawker (they actually showed a photo of a rape once) and a lot of people weren’t even aware they changed ownership when Gawker got sued into oblivion. More recently, they spent way, way too much time on celebrity trash reporting, but their reporting on abortion topics was solid if you were willing to wade through the shit. My hope is for much less shit and more of that reporting.

    • jmcs@discuss.tchncs.de
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      10 months ago

      Oh wow, I didn’t know about the rape article, the worst I knew from that era was the article defending domestic violence against men (which is still online without retraction). Gawker Media really was a toxic cesspool.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Definitely. I’m very glad they’re gone, although it’s bullshit that Peter Thiel funded the lawsuit against him after they outed him. Don’t get me wrong, they totally deserved it for what they did with Hulk Hogan (who is also a piece of shit), but I am guessing Gawker would have survived if Thiel hadn’t hired the best lawyers his fortune could buy. It just shows how uneven the justice system is.

        • thrawn@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          I actually see that case as the other side of that same coin. It’s been a long time but I vaguely recall Gawker featuring other unethical/likely illegal content like that. They were a large company with a legal team though, so they were difficult to challenge.

          That it required someone of that ghoul Thiel’s resources to take them to court demonstrates an unevenness in itself. It’s wildly expensive to sue a large company even if they’re legally in the wrong, granting them a built in protection against claims.