"Party-vi" (party-vi) 08/18/2016 at 14:18 • Filed to: None

4

68

So Thiel won?

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > Party-vi 08/18/2016 at 14:20

4

#TeamThiel

Ash78, voting early and often > Party-vi 08/18/2016 at 14:20

0

Yeah, but only while the ref wasn't looking. He snuck a big pipe wrench into the fight.

Party-vi > Ash78, voting early and often 08/18/2016 at 14:23

1

No, the person who got the trail held in Terry Bollea’s home town used the pipe wrench. How did Gawker expect this to play out?

Party-vi > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie 08/18/2016 at 14:24

9

#Teamnotarichprickthatwillallowotherrichpeopletoshutupnewsorganizationswhentheyprintlessthanfavorablestories

Leadbull > Ash78, voting early and often 08/18/2016 at 14:24

5

That’s no way to talk about Hogan’s penis.

pauljones > Party-vi 08/18/2016 at 14:24

7

No, Denton lost.

Ash78, voting early and often > Leadbull 08/18/2016 at 14:25

1

Well, he's no Hacksaw Jim Duggan :D

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > Party-vi 08/18/2016 at 14:26

4

“News” organization. Fuck Gawker. Seriously, I don’t consider the rights of a tabloid to be more important than a person’s right to privacy.

Leadbull > Ash78, voting early and often 08/18/2016 at 14:28

0

Nor is he Jake The Snake.

Party-vi > pauljones 08/18/2016 at 14:30

2

I supposed so, with the sale of his independent news organization and his bankruptcy.

For Sweden > Party-vi 08/18/2016 at 14:30

1

He’s a billionaire, so yes, I’d call that winning something

Party-vi > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie 08/18/2016 at 14:31

3

Fuck Gawker yes, but let’s not agree with how Thiel went about doing this just because it feels good.

BigBlock440 > Party-vi 08/18/2016 at 14:33

4

He went about it the same way the ACLU does.

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > Party-vi 08/18/2016 at 14:34

3

How else would you respond to a tabloid repeatedly breaking the law in the name of a scoop if not through a lawsuit?

Party-vi > BigBlock440 08/18/2016 at 14:35

1

The method is the same, but you would be hard pressed to compare the ACLU to a bitter billionaire.

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > Party-vi 08/18/2016 at 14:36

0

Is the issue that you don’t like Peter Thiel or what he did then? I don’t like Peter Thiel either. Still think he’s in the right.

BigBlock440 > Party-vi 08/18/2016 at 14:37

1

So you don’t agree with how the ACLU goes about it either?

SnapUndersteer, Italian Spiderman > Party-vi 08/18/2016 at 14:37

1

I’ll celebrate later with tacos

Party-vi > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie 08/18/2016 at 14:38

2

I’m not really sure how Gawker broke the law. Peter Thiel’s friends, business associates and family knew he was gay. The Terry Bollea sex tape was known, and the only thing Gawker did differently than other outlets was to show the footage online. They’re despicable things to be sure, but they weren’t illegal.

Party-vi > BigBlock440 08/18/2016 at 14:41

4

I do agree with how the ACLU does it, I don’t agree that Peter Thiel can do it. There is a difference between a non-partisan, non-profit organization able to assist those that would not be able to prosecute their cases without assistance, and a single billionaire whose sole purpose was to bankrupt the company that “outed” him almost a decade ago. I wouldn’t have any issue if Terry Bollea had the ACLU go after Gawker.

For Sweden > Party-vi 08/18/2016 at 14:41

1

Gawker lost the case on the merits; attacking the funding is a distraction.

shop-teacher > Party-vi 08/18/2016 at 14:43

0

Pretty much, yeah.

Party-vi > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie 08/18/2016 at 14:43

2

I don’t know Peter Thiel. I do know that it is worrisome that apparently any rich person can fund personal vendettas against an organization to put them out of existence if they are slighted. Good for him for getting done what he wanted to do, but I don’t think it’s right that he was able to do it.

pauljones > Party-vi 08/18/2016 at 14:48

5

Yes, but you’re asking if Thiel won - I’d say, as a whole, no. He may have achieved his objective of making sure that Nick Denton lost, but I don’t see that Thiel himself gains anything from it.

His “victory,” if you can call it that, is hollow at best, and pyrrhic at worst. After all, he invested a shit ton of time and money into something that he gets no profit from. Instead, it’s now known to a great many people that Thiel is unstable enough to launch that massive of a campaign for no practical return on investment.

Not exactly a good trait in a business partner.

So, no, as I see it, Thiel did not win. Denton simply lost. A subtle, but significant distinction to make.

Party-vi > For Sweden 08/18/2016 at 14:49

3

Gawker lost the case because they’re snarky smarmy fucks and AJ Daulerio said celebrity child porn footage online would be newsworthy.

For Sweden > Party-vi 08/18/2016 at 14:50

0

Yeah, that will do it in a jury trial

pauljones > SnapUndersteer, Italian Spiderman 08/18/2016 at 14:52

1

Goddammit, now I want tacos.

Dave the car guy , still here > Party-vi 08/18/2016 at 14:57

0

By proxy.

Gamecat235 > Party-vi 08/18/2016 at 14:59

1

Maybe. I think we should mourn with beer.

(Had situations and fortunes been different, I would recommend celebrating with a beer, pretty much regardless, beer. # I win)

Party-vi > Gamecat235 08/18/2016 at 15:02

2

We’ll just drink beer.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > Party-vi 08/18/2016 at 15:03

0

I’m on that team unless it’s #TeamGawker.

Xyl0c41n3 > Party-vi 08/18/2016 at 15:04

0

Ex-fucking-actly.

Xyl0c41n3 > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie 08/18/2016 at 15:08

2

Gawker may have begun as a tabloid, and it’s tabloid tendencies are ultimately what got it in this mess to begin with, but it was a legitimate media outlet, too. Thiel’s tactics set a scary precedent for media companies everywhere (in this country).

As a journalist myself, this news greatly aggrieves me. Not the closure of Gawker dot com itself, because, like most journalists, I’ve weathered at least one media company bankruptcy before, but because of how Gawker’s demise came about in the first place.

Our media outlets are already becoming increasingly smaller, and increasingly tasked with doing more using fewer human and capital resources, all the while the diversity of ownership of various platforms is shrinking. That's not a good thing. When the free press is owned by an ever-shrinking few, and those few are made timid in their reporting, we ALL suffer.

Xyl0c41n3 > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie 08/18/2016 at 15:09

0

Criminality has never been proven.

Party-vi > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 08/18/2016 at 15:10

1

It is separate from #TeamGawker

pauljones > Gamecat235 08/18/2016 at 15:10

1

Hmm. What kind of beer were you thinking for the occasion?

I have a 2012 Goose Island Bourbon County Stout that I’ve been eyeing for a few days. Problem is the weather isn’t quite right for it. That’s more of a winter time, curl-up-with-the-gf-and-watch-a-movie-while-sharing-beer kind of bottle. In fact, most of my cellared beers are at this point. I have 120 min and ImmortAle from Dogfish, KBS from Founders, Wootstout from Stone, Velvet Merkin from Firestone Walker, and Mean Old Tom from Maine Beer.

Otherwise, I’ve got Stone Citrus Wit, Allagash White, Goose Island Sofie, Bell’s Oracle, Lagunitas Hop Stoopid, Flying Dog Counter Culture Ale, and Ballast Point Grapefruit Sculpin.

Nothing that I’m really feeling for this sort of occasion. I need to go find me some pale ales and goses.

SnapUndersteer, Italian Spiderman > pauljones 08/18/2016 at 15:10

1

I always do

Xyl0c41n3 > For Sweden 08/18/2016 at 15:11

0

Not necessarily. Gawker Media was prohibited from presenting several bits of evidence they viewed as essential. Now, that’s not necessarily out of the ordinary in this country because judges make decisions all the time about the admissibility of evidence, but it is a little eyebrow raising. Too, the fact that the same judge presided over everything, including appeals, is not that great a thing. Our judges are not always as blind as we'd like to believe Lady Justice to be.

notsomethingstructural > For Sweden 08/18/2016 at 15:12

2

I think that’s somewhat debatable given some of the exculpatory things that came out from under seal after the trial that most independent arbiters of these sorts of things thought were beyond the scope of the judge’s authority. Plus instructions given to the jury that were contrary to decisions that were made in federal district court. Then there’s the whole “forced the sale of the company in order for them to post bond in order to appeal those shoddy instructions” thing.

Xyl0c41n3 > pauljones 08/18/2016 at 15:12

1

Tacos at my place later. Be here by 6 and bring your favorite beer, please. Enough to share.

Xyl0c41n3 > SnapUndersteer, Italian Spiderman 08/18/2016 at 15:12

0

Tacos at my place later. Be here by 6 and bring your favorite beer, please. Enough to share.

Xyl0c41n3 > Party-vi 08/18/2016 at 15:14

2

I mentioned as much on Twitter already, but the news of Gawker dot com’s shuttering is immensely saddening to me.

Apologies for going on a starring spree on your comments here, it's just that I pretty much agree with everything you r said. :(

Xyl0c41n3 > Gamecat235 08/18/2016 at 15:14

1

It's taco Thursday at Casa Xyl0. Bring beer. We can all mourn together.

SnapUndersteer, Italian Spiderman > Xyl0c41n3 08/18/2016 at 15:18

1

My beer-bringing game is strong.

Al Pastor and Chorizo minimum for me, please!

Xyl0c41n3 > SnapUndersteer, Italian Spiderman 08/18/2016 at 15:19

1

Done and done! We’ve got a great local chorizo maker ‘round these parts, too. :)

Gamecat235 > pauljones 08/18/2016 at 15:22

0

That’s quite a collection you have there (I’m really trying not to get into a game of one up manship), clearly ImmortAle is out, because, well... LOL. BCBS is out, and I’m currently holding my nose in GI’s general direction (it’ll pass, I just did not appreciate their customer service), Oracle could actually be appropriate. Namesake and bitterness both taken into account.

I’m leaning toward breaking out a Freemont Brewing Bourbon Barrel Aged Dark Star Imperial Oatmeal Stout (it’s honestly a LOT like Velvet Merkin, but a tad better, and that is a feat that I previously considered impossible).

And I’m failing at the one upsmanship.

A couple of weeks ago I was reorganizing my stash...

All of those boxes are correct, and have beer in them. 4 year verticals of Sucaba, Parabola, Anniversary Ale, and Velvet Merkin. The amount of patience involved to get this far has been one of the more trying things of me life (all were bought new/fresh).

Biased Plies > Party-vi 08/18/2016 at 15:23

0

Sorta, maybe. He didn’t end up owning the company and getting the ability to shut it down himself out of spite. What he wanted happened but not on his terms.

Gawker being shut down is a win for the rest of us though, at least from a societal point of view. We’ll see about the future of Jaloppo...

JGrabowMSt > Party-vi 08/18/2016 at 15:23

0

Thiel didnt win. Reason being, Denton isnt personally destroyed. By selling Gawker, Denton basically took away everything that Thiel wanted. It’s like stealing a childs’ ice cream only to drop it on the ground. No one wins, but sometimes that’s the sacrifice to make in order to ensure the other side doesnt get what they want.

I dont really agree with the situation as a whole, and it sucks knowing this is what it came down to. I know a few people that are within Gawker, and it’s probably going to be a rough transition, but we’ll see.

Ill certainly miss Ashley’s posts. They were a great break from the workplace while I could get them.

pauljones > Gamecat235 08/18/2016 at 15:40

1

Oh, I’ve long since known that my collection is child’s play compared to yours.

Dammit, though. It was a massive victory getting bottles of Velvet Merkin out here two years in a row to start a vertical. I don’t know how you managed to get verticals of Sucaba, Parabola, and Anniversary Ale.

The others listed in the cellared category are all verticals. The problem you have with those verticals is realizing that if you’re ever going to tap into one, you better have a few buddies to share it with. I need to tap that GI vertical this year, though, as I don’t like aging a beer for more than 4-5 years.

Do you have access to beers from Belmont Brewing out there?

pauljones > Xyl0c41n3 08/18/2016 at 15:45

2

Mmm... homemade tacos.

As for the beer... there are lots of good choices, but for probable local availability, I’m thinking Allagash White or Sierra Nevada Otra Vez. Light and citrusy, both should go well with tacos of just about any kind.

Now you’ve got me really, really hungry, especially with the mention of the local source for chorizo!

Gamecat235 > pauljones 08/18/2016 at 15:48

0

Knowing people helped, knowing release schedules and distribution regions helped even more. And for at least two bottles there, being friends with Sixt9Coug made it possible (he’s a bigger beer geek than I am).

Those are some impressive verticals you have, and good job on the Merkin, from what I’ve heard, any of the FSW vintage series bottles are a bitch to get, even moreso than here (where I’ve missed them because I couldn’t leave work early).

Not only do we not get Belmont Brewing, I don’t believe I’ve ever had anything from them.

I’ve been trying to plan a time for the Parabola vertical (along with a bottle of the 2015 Parabajava (which is Parabola with coffee - another Sixt9Coug acquisition). Because there are a few people I want to share it with... but schedules are crazy. I think I might just set a date and leave an open invite for the 4-6 people (not including me and my wife) I want to drink them with, and see who shows.

pauljones > Gamecat235 08/18/2016 at 16:01

0

I had no idea Sixt9Coug was a beer geek. In fact, I haven’t seen much of him around these parts for a long, long time. I hope he’s doing well and kicking ass.

I’m not totally surprised about the Belmont Brewing thing. They’re a tiny little outfit out of Long Beach, CA. You normally can only find their bottles within about a 50 mile radius of the place, but every once in a while a bottle or two of theirs pops up in the most random ass places, including a little place in Annapolis a while back. I’m curious to find out a little more about other places they might pop up and how they got there.

Jonee > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie 08/18/2016 at 16:07

0

What law was broken?

Alex Zapata > Party-vi 08/18/2016 at 18:15

0

Spectacularly so, I’d say.

Xyl0c41n3 > Party-vi 08/18/2016 at 19:57

3

IRT to what I was talking about earlier about how shrinking newsrooms owned by the same few people/companies being a bad thing, Mother Jones just published this.

http://m.motherjones.com/media/2016/08/…

It’s essentially a fundraising effort to help support the level of deep, nuanced journalism Mother Jones is known for, but it’s relevant, I think, to the Gawker story. AFAIK, Gawker was a rarity in that it was sustainably profitable. Especially in the age of digital journalism that’s expected to be provided on demand for free, that’s a remarkable thing. (Trust me, as a print journalist, I could tell you quite a few stories about how our flagging ad sales impact the level of work we’re able to do).

Anyway...

Takeaways:

“Journalism often involves parachuting into a subject. We jump in, we learn as much as we can really fast, and we pass that on to our readers. That’s why journalists rely so much on quotes: We’re not usually experts at what we’re covering, so our job is to ask the right questions of the people who are.

There was a point when that kind of long game was a part, to some degree, of every newsroom. Reporters had beats so they could learn about an institution or a community over time. The good ones would accumulate a body of knowledge, and a b.s. detector to cut through the spin.”

And...

“That started to change in the 1990s, when merger mania sucked many independently owned newspapers and TV stations into publicly traded corporations, with the resulting pressures to deliver big returns for shareholders. It kept going in the 2000s, when digital advertising sucked the profits out of news, and it got worse as hedge funds and private equity investors wrung extra “efficiencies” out of already diminished newsrooms.”

And, with particular relevance to Thiel and the lawsuits he’s been bankrolling:

“Stories that truly reveal something about the way power works are not going to happen in this framework . They take time (way more time than can be justified economically) and stability. They take reporters and editors who can trust their jobs will be there, even if money is tight or powerful folks are offended.” (Emphasis original).

iaintafraidofnoghost > Party-vi 08/18/2016 at 21:05

0

#thisisabadviewpoint

iaintafraidofnoghost > Xyl0c41n3 08/18/2016 at 21:10

0

“ free press” hahahahahaha right... that’s what we have now

Xyl0c41n3 > iaintafraidofnoghost 08/18/2016 at 21:16

0

Do you, or have you ever worked in the media industry? Go ahead, I'll wait for your answer.

iaintafraidofnoghost > Xyl0c41n3 08/18/2016 at 21:18

0

Yes, I have. Go ahead, please be more condescending. I’ll wait for you to dish more.

Xyl0c41n3 > iaintafraidofnoghost 08/18/2016 at 21:23

0

If you actually have then you’d know, despite the increasing pressures on press freedoms (such as this Thiel fiasco and its yet-to-be-seen repercussions), we here in the US still enjoy an unprecedented amount of autonomy in the media industry.

But I’m guessing you’re one of those people who believe that any existing criticisms of the industry or issues at all means our hands are completely bound, what with your “hahahahahaha right... that’s what we have now” comment.

iaintafraidofnoghost > Xyl0c41n3 08/18/2016 at 21:43

0

Right... because you’ve seen the things I have...making your opinion the only valid one.

Crafted messages to drive divisiveness amongst the population, wonder where that comes from.

Xyl0c41n3 > iaintafraidofnoghost 08/18/2016 at 21:44

0

Your first graf could be turned around and applied back to you. You realize that, right?

As to your second:

K.

iaintafraidofnoghost > Xyl0c41n3 08/18/2016 at 21:53

0

because this doesn’t happen all the time

I could literally link hundreds, but this is the most recent message. I never dismissed your personal experience of the media as I had no way of knowing you worked in media. It really isn’t the same scenario in the least. You dismissed my opinion knowing my experience. Good job.

Xyl0c41n3 > iaintafraidofnoghost 08/18/2016 at 22:03

0

http://oppositelock.kinja.com/gawker-may-hav…

I spoke of my media experience earlier in this very thread, which you most likely went through on your way to proffer dismissive, sarcastic comments to both me and Party-vi.

I’ve also written extensively about media biases, media suppression, and even Black Lives Matter.

So who exactly is being dismissive of whom?

You also haven’t sufficiently refuted the indisputable fact that, despite valid criticisms, American press freedoms are unparalleled compared to anywhere else in the world. Instead, you keep tilting at the windmills of “crafted messages.” At this point, I’m halfway waiting for you to use the phrase “lamestream media.”

Good job yourself, bucko. You have yourself a good night. I’m done talking to you.

Party-vi > iaintafraidofnoghost 08/19/2016 at 08:21

1

It is a good viewpoint because it is mine and I have one.

iaintafraidofnoghost > Party-vi 08/19/2016 at 09:38

1

This guy has a good viewpoint too

Party-vi > iaintafraidofnoghost 08/19/2016 at 09:40

2

Looks ok to me

iaintafraidofnoghost > Party-vi 08/19/2016 at 09:45

0

Well played with that quote.