"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 it is in a financially weakened state, struggling to maintain its footing on the electronic frontier’s unstable terrain. Mr. Thiel is devoting his almost unlimited means to lawsuits that promise to shutter a news organization he does not like, as Felix Salmon wrote in Fusion this week. Facebook is being inundated with questions about whether Mr. Thiel’s attempt to shut down a media company through the courts would jeopardize his board seat. Mr. Thiel, is an early investor in Facebook and a current board member."
At www.nytimes.com
