Jeff Bezos sides with Gawker amid legal battle with Peter Thiel
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Version 0 of 1. Jeff Bezos has sided with Gawker amid its ongoing legal battle against Peter Thiel. The Washington Post owner and Amazon CEO offered his take on Tuesday during a Recode's Code Conference, a sponsored digital media event in California. “The best defense against speech that you don't like about yourself as a public figure is to develop a thick skin,” Bezos said. “You can't stop it.” Thiel, the Silicon Valley billionaire and PayPal co-founder, recently revealed that he’d secretly funded Hulk Hogan’s $140 million lawsuit against Gawker, who previously revealed that he is gay back in 2007, in an effort to bankrupt the media company. “What's that saying?” Bezos asked the audience, before quoting Confucius. "'Seek revenge and you should dig two graves — one for yourself.' You have to ask yourself how you want to spend your time." “If you’re doing anything interesting in the world, you’re going to have critics,” Bezos said. “If you can't tolerate critics, don't do anything new or interesting.” eBay founder Pierre Omidyar is also in Gawker's corner, Politico reports. Omidyar recently announced that his company First Look Media would provide legal assistance on Gawker's behalf. “Beautiful speech doesn't need protection,” Bezos added. “It's ugly speech that needs protection." |