Hulk Hogan vs Gawker trial: yelling "racist" at the top of your lungs is not a defense.

Ryan Holiday, a man who literally wrote the book on media manipulation, writes in The Observer that "the Gawker Media Empire is rotten with a deep and cancerous sociopathy…and always has been."
Yes, it always has been. We've said that Gawker is toxic to brands who partner with them, until they went from toxic to radioactive. Most recently Kidsleepy wrote that Sex, Wrestling and Mussolini: Gawker's Toxic Anti-Journalism Needs To Stop. Gawker trolls brands like Coca Cola and when called on it get defensive. But Gawker bullies both brands as well as non celebrities, and believe in their "editorial integrity" so much they'll resign over the "right" to invade anyones privacy.
This is not the place you want your brand to be seen. Since we brought the Gawker plague up in 2014 I've had "off the record" conversations with agencies who are now demanding from their media buyers a surgeon like precision in getting seen on the web, but not anywhere on sites that are even like Gawker. Nobody in advertising wants to admit that they are often buying web media by the barrel, and using Google adsense is basically shotgunning banners on to piracy sites that Google have no intention of policing. They just police and ban sites like this one due to PETA's risqué advertising. Priorities. Banner ads and CPM birthed this clickbait media as 'reporters' got paid more if their story went viral.
As Ryan Holiday writes:

"Let them and all the sites like them collapse under the weight of their own toxicity. Let one of the worst eras in the history of media come to a close. And whatever the outcome is, when these types of writers ask to be let into the fold, ask for jobs or ask for a second chance, reply as Sherman did to a banished, dishonest reporter who asked when he would be allowed back into camp, “as a representative of the press which…makes so slight a difference between the truth and falsehood, my answer is: Never.”

so well in the microwave mentality world of online media.
The problem is, this is a courtroom, not Twitter or a Disqus thread. In the real world where politicians from every country are beefing up laws regarding cyber bullying, harassment and revenge-porn, the magic shield of "we're journalists" isn't a carte blanche to do whatever one pleases. Especially when there's no license to be a journalist, and often "reporters" working at blogs never studied journalism at all. Lynn Walsh, an Emmy award-winning journalist and SPJ committee member recognizes that the internet has put publishing in the hands of everyone, and concludes that this makes "ethical and accurate reporting is more important than ever". Because as we know, a few tweets can send a lie around the world before truth even got their boots on. We should be able to turn to our media for facts and accuracy, not descriptions of celebrity penises. When advertising seeks to place a brand in front of eyeballs, they are supporting the publication where they are seen, something the viewer is acutely aware of now that ad blockers are widely used. To have your brand seen on media that is like Gawker, is risking the fallout of their sociopathy tarnishing your brand. And if Gawker decides they dislike you, they might call your brand a racist. It's their go-to counter attack.