Group backs tech news site Techdirt with $250,000

techdirt_logovertical_250x250 A group is financially backing TechDirt, a tech news site being sued for libel by the same lawyer who helped take down Gawker, to the tune of $250,000, writes David McCabe of Axios.

McCabe writes, “The parent company for Techdirt is facing a libel suit filed by a man who claims he invented email, who is represented by the same lawyer who led the case that resulted in Gawker Media’s bankruptcy. The same person settled with Gawker in 2016. Techdirt’s founder, Mike Masnick, has said that the lawsuit has ‘already taken a massive toll on us and our ability to function and report.’ To help the Techdirt weather the lawsuit, the group of philanthropies, companies and private individuals is funding a year of coverage on the site devoted to free speech issues.

“Techdirt said in a statement that the case has highlighted ways in which there might be a lack of understanding among members of the public about free speech protections, sparking the new effort. Jesse Blumenthal, who leads tech initiatives at the Charles Koch Institute, said that ‘the way in which Techdirt has responded to this is by doubling down on their coverage of free speech issues, and I think that really has institutional and scalable effects.'”

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Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.