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Hatoful Dandy said:
Someone on youtube brought up an interesting point in that Daulerio's testimony comes off even worse in the court transcripts since the stenographer only types out the exact words and not mention the tone in which words are spoken in.
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I remember that being in the episode of LordKaT Live where they brought this up. According to a Mr. Dugan, they call it "the cold record" because of the lack of tone
 
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AngeloTheWizard said:
I remember that being in the episode of LordKaT Live where they brought this up. According to a Mr. Dugan, they call it "the cold record" because of the lack of tone
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This is part of why appeals courts in America don't generally second guess the jury on factual findings, even when they might have found differently based on what they're looking at in transcripts, which is how they usually experience the trial. The basic standard is that if the record contains material that supports the factfinder's ultimate conclusions (whether that is jury or judge), the facts will stand.

Even when there is video or audio the transcripts were based on, it's generally considered that the jury was actually in the room and watched the witness, including their general demeanor and facial expressions and other subtle social cues that an appeals court can't guess at. This is sort of the core of the concept of a "jury of your peers." While in ancient times that literally used to mean a jury of people who were personally familiar with you in your village and probably personally familiar with the facts in your case and, obviously, this is now completely different and those people would be exactly the people who wouldn't be on your jury, it still does mean that a jury is comprised of people of your society who are capable of looking at you in the eyes and judging your testimony.

In this case, though, I think the general principle stands. Not only the words of this defendant damn him. His shitty body language and evasive eyes just add to the actual terrible things he was saying under cross examination. The plaintiff's lawyers brilliantly got him to do something that has been the undoing of many a defendant: telling the truth.

The truth is this guy is an awful fucking human being.

However, there's specifics to that, too.

Here's this video again.


I post that specifically because, in addition to his shitty demeanor and coming across as a complete douchebag, he also agrees to the fact that he didn't care whether his journalism was more a "morbid and sensational prying into people's lives" rather than a real news story. This is where the "cold record" part comes into play (it's around 1:30), because that's literally the language from the court's instructions to the jury about the legal issues in the case.

It's also a great example of how shitty a job Gawker's lawyers did because even a flat out sociopath, as Daulerio seems to be, wouldn't directly agree with a question that practically amounted to "so are you guilty?" Whoever did the witness prep on that should be taken out and shot, or assigned to defend child molesters for the rest of his life.
 
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Is annoying how many opinion pieces have surfaced lamenting the death of gawker. Most come from young reporters that get started in shitty blogs, but I cannot imagine why somebody in the NYT thinks being a Gawker apologist and celebrating tabloid culture is good at all.
 
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MiloWuCollusion said:
Is annoying how many opinion pieces have surfaced lamenting the death of gawker. Most come from young reporters that get started in shitty blogs, but I cannot imagine why somebody in the NYT thinks being a Gawker apologist and celebrating tabloid culture is good at all.
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This case could be used as precedent so it's no wonder they're crying about being held to a standard now.
 
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I really appreciate everyone in this thread linking all these sources, not only does it make for a really enjoyable read but it also allows me to destroy the arguments of people who think this really is just a big mean billionaire bully getting his way.
 
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Rou said:
This case could be used as precedent so it's no wonder they're crying about being held to a standard now.
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I think it's more of the journalistic hive-mind at work, at the highest levels, these people all know or have worked with each other, and very few want to be kicked out of that community so they aren't likely to criticize each other.
 
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https://www.engadget.com/2016/11/02/gawker-settles-with-hulk-hogan-for-a-reported-31-million/

Read someone's poor understanding of Thiel versus Denton of Gawker.

The comments section sums it up, and this is about the ninth article Engadget wrote about Hogan's defense in less than a month. SonomaPete (Denton's Defense) in the comments section may share an IP address with one of the Engadget staff. I don't know what the hell this has to do with tech but these nerds need to calm down, lol.

Wouldn't be the first time they "low-key" defended GAWKER.

Autistic hugbox-soapbox in a nutshell: Gawker is the victim, Denton was just bullied, Thiel should leave politics though that has fuck all to do with our blog's core subject, etc...
 
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NumberingYourState said:
https://www.engadget.com/2016/11/02/gawker-settles-with-hulk-hogan-for-a-reported-31-million/

Read someone's poor understanding of Thiel versus Denton of Gawker.

The comments section sums it up, and this is about the ninth article Engadget wrote about Hogan's defense in less than a month. SonomaPete (Denton's Defense) in the comments section may share an IP address with one of the Engadget staff. I don't know what the hell this has to do with tech but these nerds need to calm down, lol.

Wouldn't be the first time they "low-key" defended GAWKER.

Autistic hugbox-soapbox in a nutshell: Gawker is the victim, Denton was just bullied, Thiel should leave politics though that has fuck all to do with our blog's core subject, etc...
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It's also bullshit. The costs of the appeal would have been a fraction of the costs of litigating the main case in court. You have maybe one or two sets of briefs versus each other, copies of the transcripts and anything from the court below they were arguing about, and it's no big deal. Maybe $100k tops. Denton is just a giant pussy.
 
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Engadget is Community Watch material, though a linear example.

I'm gonna call out this guy named "Jon Fingas", he's switched the comments on and off repeatedly on some of his opinionated pieces regarding Thiel and Denton. There's another one, a Danger Hair named Jessica Conditt who reported that Peter Thiel shouldn't "be the face of free speech". Some Asian bimbo by the name of Nicole Lee (who soapboxes social justice 24/7 on a tech blog) wrote this masterpiece about Thiel but didn't even criticize Gawker one bit.

If this shit doesn't surprise you this is coming from a blog about TV's, phones, tablets and medical science breakthroughs...
 
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I also find it amusing that Gawker's defenders are basically saying "Motive matters!" when trying to paint Thiel as a monster and conveniently ignoring people who question Denton's motives for ruining others' privacy for a buck by saying "Motives don't matter! This is the First Amendment!"
 
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AnOminous said:
It's also bullshit. The costs of the appeal would have been a fraction of the costs of litigating the main case in court. You have maybe one or two sets of briefs versus each other, copies of the transcripts and anything from the court below they were arguing about, and it's no big deal. Maybe $100k tops. Denton is just a giant pussy.
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The cash from the sale was locked away without a payout. It was a massive asset and taxable. They had to settle now to not take that tax hit on top of the judgement. The settlement nulled the judgements against Denton and Daulerio personally. This was entirely financially motivated, and was the only possible outcome. The fact that they settled for $31m is just a sign of how desperate they were to end this. Hogan's team were playing hardball to keep turning the screws.

Even Denton had to have been losing sleep over this, and he has no conscience at all.
 
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Rou said:
They also forget that it wasn't Thiel that ruined them, it was Denton's own stupid fault for pissing off a jury of his peers.
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Don't forget the judge. The judge openly detested them and it was an amazing tactical decision to choose not to try to disqualify her, or to try for a change of venue, seeing as they were in a court in the backyard of a local and much-beloved celebrity.

It didn't help that they then treated the jury like they treat the commenters on their site as if they were a bunch of dumb rubes. The jury was PISSED and for good reason.

That snarky Internet bullshit doesn't play well to an audience of 12 people who have been taken away from their jobs and lives to listen to boring shit for weeks on end to decide whether posting pictures of Hulk Hogan's johnson is a huge, important free speech issue, or just a bunch of Internet trolls shitting up the world.

kcbbq said:
The cash from the sale was locked away without a payout. It was a massive asset and taxable. They had to settle now to not take that tax hit on top of the judgement. The settlement nulled the judgements against Denton and Daulerio personally. This was entirely financially motivated, and was the only possible outcome. The fact that they settled for $31m is just a sign of how desperate they were to end this. Hogan's team were playing hardball to keep turning the screws.
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Which they should have. There's no better time to put the squeeze on than when you have their balls in a vise.

Even Denton had to have been losing sleep over this, and he has no conscience at all.
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He certainly wasn't losing any sleep from pangs of conscience, more pangs of fear and desperation.
 
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Riiiiiiise, Gawker thread, riiiiiiiiiise....

AJ Daulerio, Gawker's former editor-in-chief and a co-defendant by name on the Hulk Hogan thing, tells Esquire a whole bunch that isn't nice.

The Daily Mail did their summarizing of the interview here.

Short version: he's gone from being a $400,000 editor-in-chief to a guy whose (almost non-existent) assets are frozen and is blaming Nick Denton for not basically being his fucking parent and making him go to rehab (because he was apparently regularly coked up while working that job). Oh, yes, and he suddenly has "recovered memories" of molestation as a child.

Couldn't happen to a nicer fellow. It's also lovely to see them eat each other now, although Denton's response to the interview so far was just to wish Daulerio well.
 
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