Gawker going down . . .

Fox

Thu, Aug 18 2016, 2:14 pm

On one hand, it couldn't happen to a more deserving bunch of people.

On the other, I feel uncomfortable that someone with deep pockets can simply shutter a business by bankrupting it through the legal system when the harm caused was somewhat dubious.

Any thoughts?

ora_43

Thu, Aug 18 2016, 3:41 pm

Maybe it's not a bad thing that someone with deep pockets can pursue a site like Gawker. Maybe the bad news is that non-billionaires can't do the same.

I think the possibility of lawsuits is pretty much the only thing keeping the news industry from becoming worse than worthless. The news industry is more and more about "infotainment" (and yeah, I get that Gawker was never more than a tabloid, but even less trashy sites have similar issues) and is being produced more and more by young, inexperienced writers who have to churn out several articles a day. Right now most sites are just regurgitating other sites' news, with sexier headlines - lawsuits are what keep them from taking the next step and printing whatever rumors they see in their Facebook feed, or just plain making things up.

Just my (totally not bitter, really Crying

) opinion.