Conspiracy: Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, and the Anatomy of Intrigue
Published by Penguin Random House Audio
4.5/5
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Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this audiobook
In the tradition of Janet Malcolm's The Journalist and the Murderer and Robert Greene's The 48 Laws of Power, author Ryan Holiday examines the case that rocked the media world—and the billionaire mastermind behind it
In 2007, a short blogpost on Valleywag, the Silicon Valley-vertical of Gawker Media, outed PayPal founder and billionaire investor Peter Thiel as gay. Thiel's sexuality had been known to close friends and family, but he didn't consider himself a public figure, and believed the information was private.
This post would be the casus belli for a meticulously plotted conspiracy that would end nearly a decade later with a $140 million dollar judgment against Gawker, its bankruptcy and with Nick Denton, Gawker's CEO and founder, out of a job. Only later would the world learn that Gawker's demise was not incidental—it had been masterminded by Thiel.
For years, Thiel had searched endlessly for a solution to what he'd come to call the "Gawker Problem." When an unmarked envelope delivered an illegally recorded sex tape of Hogan with his best friend's wife, Gawker had seen the chance for millions of pageviews and to say the things that others were afraid to say. Thiel saw their publication of the tape as the opportunity he was looking for. He would come to pit Hogan against Gawker in a multi-year proxy war through the Florida legal system, while Gawker remained confidently convinced they would prevail as they had over so many other lawsuit—until it was too late.
The verdict would stun the world and so would Peter's ultimate unmasking as the man who had set it all in motion. Why had he done this? How had no one discovered it? What would this mean—for the First Amendment? For privacy? For culture?
In Holiday's masterful telling of this nearly unbelievable conspiracy, informed by interviews with all the key players, this case transcends the narrative of how one billionaire took down a media empire or the current state of the free press. It's a study in power, strategy, and one of the most wildly ambitious—and successful—secret plots in recent memory.
Some will cheer Gawker's destruction and others will lament it, but after reading these pages—and seeing the access the author was given—no one will deny that there is something ruthless and brilliant about Peter Thiel's shocking attempt to shake up the world.
Editor's Note
The plan to take down Gawker…
Informed by interviews with several key players, Ryan Holiday’s book — about the takedown of gossip site Gawker by Hulk Hogan and the person who bankrolled his case, tech billionaire Peter Thiel — reads more like a historical piece than journalism, and that’s by design. But once you come up for air, you realize the amount of access Holiday had in the saga. The result is nothing short of intriguing.
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Reviews for Conspiracy
120 ratings6 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An almost excellent book that makes valuable strategic and philosophical points using rather ridiculous material. Ryan Holiday is known for his writings on stoicism, so his decision to examine trashy celebrities and gutter gossip-mongers may seem peculiar. But there are valuable lessons to be learned in this mire of contemporary panem et circenses. Holiday's book is fast-paced, and appears to be consciously structured like a screenplay; it would make an excellent film. Some readers may be put off by Holiday's use of quotation and citation of precedent, but I usually find these 'interuptions' valuable. Unfortunately the book's final few chapters, which focus on Peter Thiel's involvement with Donald Trump, seem shoehorned in and mar the rest of the work.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Well written, well researched book on a very interesting story. Could have been more concise, but the author's insights and comparisons were appreciated.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Well-written, thoughtful book. Would give it 5 stars, but the final chapter is basically a biased rant by the author. Otherwise the book is great.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The story behind the Hulk Hogan lawsuit with Gawker. The behind the scenes look at how and why this case took so long to get to court, the tactics used by both sides and the final results.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5There are many things I like and dislike in this book:
It is like a novel based in real circumstances. That makes it very different from any other book I had read.
I could learn how some people act and perhaps even think. It gives me access to a world that is very far from mine.
It is well written. Even when we know the end in real life, the writer can keep the attention and interest in all the steps.
I do not agree with the conclusion in the book, but I like it. It is an interesting and different point of view that is well reasoned.
In the end, I have the feeling that this is the story of some rich, powerful people fighting each other. Perhaps it is good to be aware that world exist but I am not sure if I could learn a lot from that.
I firmly believe that the best way to fight the bad is doing the god. Perhaps that is also true with people, relations, films, books… When I finish the book, I think that I could learn more from the books that explain how to do good things. How great people overcame difficulties and created a better world. For me, this is not definitely one of these books. This is only a book where I learn what I should not do, what kind of people I should be very far from.1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/54 out of 5 story, but 2 out of 5 audio book, given the narrator’s style (every word spoken as if it was the last, and most important word of a sentence).
2 people found this helpful