Conspiracy: Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, and the Anatomy of Intrigue

by Ryan Holiday

Their suspicions are confirmed when they read a public memo from Denton to his staff in mid-2010 that says, “The staples of old yellow journalism are the staples of the new yellow journalism: sex; crime; and even better, sex crime.” And, as Nick would tell The Atlantic, looking back on some of his sites’ earlier posts, his regrets came not from publishing these types of stories, but from bothering to defend them when criticized. “We should have just said our interest was voyeuristic. ‘We did this story because we thought you would like it. We thought it was funny, so we thought you would think it was funny too.’ And there was a tidal wave of traffic and attention.” Printouts of these stories came to Mr. A and he would brief Thiel on the worst of them. “The more I studied the organization, the harder it was to find good,” Mr. A explained. It was obvious, too, that this process was accelerating, which was not exactly a bad thing if you were sitting on the outside looking for a weakness that could be exploited, or hoping for your enemy to make a fatal mistake. More posts being written, more writers being hired, Gawker’s swagger and sense of untouchability growing. It was almost a matter of fact that this could not continue without eventually causing serious trouble. A Gawker writer once explained why he liked working at Gawker, what drew him there: “Ultimately, I would rather work at a place that’s bold enough to fuck up than one that is too afraid to ever risk it.” This is a...