I am torn on this. I have wanted to dance in the ashes of Gawker (and affiliated sites, of course) for quite some time due to their attempted hijacking and destruction of my passion (gaming) to line their pockets.

At the same time, this has created a blueprint for the ultra rich (top 1% of the 1%) to use the legal system to destroy journalist outlets (and theoretically other organizations) over personal vendettas. If you didn't know, a billionaire funded Hogan's, and others', lawsuits against Gawker because he did not personally like the website. What happens when Scientology uses this method to silence critics? Or any number of other potential abusers of this methodology. Anyone with enough capital and a bone to pick could copy Thiel, giving money even more power over speech than it already has.

Gawker was slimey as they come, but I do wish they could've died in a way that doesn't have the potential to chill free speech everywhere.