1. Matt his right here but it's worth asking why this "greatest threat to free speech" often isn't getting attention it deserves.
2. As with the Gawker case, I think its a matter not so much of ideology as a fussy distaste for outlets that are seen as smart-alecky, disrespectful, rude, mean, obnoxious, cruel etc.
3. Gawker, Menaker and (to a lesser extent) Splinter are unsympathetic defendants to some people because they were or are seen as mean & obnoxious. And they can be mean and obnoxious. But that should be immaterial to a free speech defense.
4. One lesson from all this is that the civility fetish is in tension with free speech.
5. This tweet admirably acknowledges the emotions at work here: distaste for Chapo leading to a feeling that they're getting what's coming to them even if lawsuit is obnoxious:
