Why Valleywag’s Nick Douglas got fired: He wanted lawsuit

November 15, 2006 | Matt Marshall | Comments |

nickdouglas.bmpHere’s a link that explains why Nick Douglas got fired. In short, it resulted from the interview Douglas gave to 10 Zen Monkeys, which we pointed to earlier. Therein Douglas says the following:

We haven’t gotten a serious legal threat so far. Well, a couple of minor ones, but we’re still waiting for a good solid cease-and-desist and a good lawsuit. We’re really trying to get News Corp. to sue us.
They tried to stop the publication of some article [ed: originally intended for publication by someone else] calling MySpace a spam factory…. since News Corp went to such lengths to stop the original publisher from publishing the article, we were hoping that if I actually published it on Valleywag, we could finally get sued. (Sighs) It didn’t happen yet. I’m really disappointed about that.

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  • Martin
    Didn't he just say that as a joke? Seems like it to me.
  • Saravanan
    Law suits are not uncommon for gossip sites rite. I am surprised by the reason. Is that real one ? Is the new source is reliable ?
  • F Ho
    "Explain" is the right word. The email is giving an explanation to other employees. It may or may not reflect the real reason.
  • Gawker media doesn't even have a registered business in the US. Nick Denton "outsources" the lawsuit risk potential for his gossip blogs out to his home country, Hungary, to his friend's wine wholesale business's address or so... ;)
  • Mike O'Bryan
    I am very disappointed in Venturebeat's decision to publish this dirt. And that's exactly what it is. Whether he's a witty in-your-face journalist that came come off as a loose canon or just a fresh-out-of-college, doesn't-know-any-better, he does not deserve to have this business set out.

    Stick to the news, folks.
  • Mike, I hear you.

    It is not an easy call. But half the people I know in the valley -- and these are people who run start-ups -- read Valleywag religiously. Bizarre, but true.