Hey you’re not alone, people looked at me like a pariah when I said Trump was going to win. I absolutely think he’s a total shit but I lost faith in humanity when my buddies’ eye leaked into my hand. Keep your positive view, people like you get crushed everything is truly fucked.

Also the hubris of thinking you could nominate the most hated Democrat in the United States and still win an election.

It was also the severity of the defamation. This is the first paragraph of the RS article that introduces Eramo. Without giving any information other than what Eramo’s job is, it manages to paint her as a conniving, deceitful, callous woman. And this is just her introduction. This is before the actual libel: The…

At first glance it may seem that way - but as I think of it, if I had to choose between being falsely accused of doing something unethical and unkind but not criminal vs. having the entire world see my bare ass having sex with someone - I’m not sure the first one really is worse. If you can disprove that false claim…

I felt Rolling Stone really blew it by defending the story for months, when the best damage control was to issue a huge apology in November, void Sabrina Rubin Erderly’s contract, and settle as quickly as possible with all the people and the frat defamed. They pretty much stood by the story until April 2015..

It is a little different than that. Nick Denton et al. at Gawker Media took a “you are not worth our time” approach to the lawsuit until it was way too late. The Home field advantage used by Peter Thiel and Terry Bollea was crucial. In many ways the case was won in the evidentiary hearings, like allowing Terry…

Yeah, but the gang rape didn’t happen. She’s not a victim. She concocted a whole person to win the heart of a real person. The whole narrative was a lie, and it got away from her. She is not a victim, she is a person who deliberately started a fire that harmed everyone involved, including herself.

Exactly. I was sad to see Gawker die but they brought that sword down on their own heads. It’s the hypocrisy that really bugged me. They’re either meant to try and be credible journalist or just a rag like the National Enquirer. They tried playing both sides and it was cringe.

Doesn’t that make sense, though? Gawker invaded an individual’s privacy in an incredibly shocking and callous manner. It makes sense that a jury would award a very large amount of damages.

I don’t think Thiel can really get blame for Gawker’s losing. Remember that it lost the trial and only decided against appealing when it found out that Hogan wouldn’t be forced to give up due to lack of funds. Essentially, all Thiel did was stop Gawker from using its funds to game the legal system.

To be fair, RS and Erdely told the jury that their cutoff for sex tapes is 18, not five.

Something tells me RS didn’t learn their lesson though. The apology letter was too close to simply saying: Sorry, not sorry because ‘fake but accurate’.

I wonder how much the frat will get, considering they were the ones falsely accused. Can they put Jackie on the hook too?

RS and Erdeley publicly: We were wrong and made a big mistake. = $3 million

that’s because everyone and their mother has sex in the privacy of a bedroom - not expecting it to wind up for public consumption...

The Gawker award was excessive and likely would not have stood up on appeal had they not settled, but having a snippet of your sex tape published on the internet seems like a pretty harrowing experience to me. There is a lot that is enraging about how Gawker was destroyed by a vengeful billionaire, but it doesn’t…

Good. Journalist have to do their job and get the facts. you dont just take anyone at their word, you investigate and cover all your bases.

Only if you are trying to hide the fact that the fraternity was only labeled as a “rape house” by people like potterpoet who think that all the members of a fraternity in 2016 should be held responsible for a rape committed in 1984, and that the rape of one white woman is equal in magnitude to the lynching of…

Let’s note the very different takes from Jezebel on two very similar events here. Amy Schumer mocks Trump at a show and gets positive coverage; Dave Chapelle mocks Hillary at a show and gets negative coverage.

The fraternity was only labeled as a “rape house” by people who think that all the members of a fraternity in 2016 should be held responsible for a rape committed in 1984, and that the rape of one white woman is equal in magnitude to the lynching of thousands of African-American men: