In December, a bankruptcy judge approved a $31 million settlement between Gawker Media and Hulk Hogan, ending the trial and ordeal that redefined how many of us look at privacy and journalism in the digital age.
The latest
The one person we hadn’t heard too much from was the person most responsible for the entire ordeal (assuming you don’t consider it to be Hogan or the person who filmed him having sex in the first place).
Former Gawker and Deadspin editor A.J. Daulerio.
Left to fend for himself when Gawker and Denton declared bankruptcy, Daulerio is currently working through a settlement proposal with Hogan’s camp to resolve his legal and financial issues. A big part of the deal appears to hinge on A.J.’s ability to tell his own side of the story down the road rather than handing over all rights to Hogan.
If you followed his career before the trial, it’s exactly the kind of issue you’d expect Daulerio to be hung up on.
A redemption tour for the embattled former editor began in earnest in August. But now that the dust is finally settling and a large portion of the populace finds themselves either on his side or at least willing to acknowledge that the decision against him creates some disconcerting grey areas, Daulerio is beginning to get that story out there in order to fill in the blanks between the preconceived notions many have about the guy behind so many sex scandal stories.
Maxmillian Potter recently spent some time with A.J. and wrote about what he learned for Esquire. He recounts Daulerio’s meteoric rise with Deadspin, eventual dominance with Gawker, and epic fall due to drugs and the eventual defamation lawsuit. There’s also some disturbing revelations about an apparent molestation by a therapist in A.J.’s childhood, which may or may not have informed his successful career as someone who outed the sexual exploits of famous people.
Much was made of the alleged way that Nick Denton and Gawker throw Daulerio under the bus during and after the trial in order to escape the financial burdens and possibly the blame. A.J. says that while Denton might have had kind things to say about him, that clearly didn’t come through in his actions.
“Nick told me part of the reason he was settling was he didn’t want to be the cause of me overdosing,” Daulerio says. “I mean, if that’s the way he felt, if he really cared about me, why didn’t he reach out to me and try to get me help while I worked for him?”
As for where Daulerio goes from here, that depends largely on the settlement deal his lawyers make with Hogan’s. His assets are currently frozen and he’s living in a $1,200-per-month one-bedroom (which, honestly, could be much worse). He seems very intent on finding some way to get back at Peter Thiel for the lawsuit and ending Gawker.
“We have Trump in office, and this person who is very close to him has this playbook…Maybe you need that sociopathic bully to fight back against a sociopathic bully. And the thing is, Nick is out. I’m not out.”
When asked who he needs to make amends with, Daulerio tells Potter “the list is pretty long,” but he also stands behind practically everything he ever posted for Deadspin and Gawker (“Where was I doing my job and where was I doing something I need to apologize for?”).
He does admit that the one post he regrets is the one about former Texas Rangers star Josh Hamilton and his fight to remain sober. Daulerio had posted photos of Hamilton partying at a time when he was supposed to be sober and it became one of Deadspin’s most popular posts of all time, derailing Hamilton’s pro career in the process. Daulerio would still run the story, but given his own experiences with drugs and alcohol, he might take a different tact.
“That’s one I would still do…but I would do it differently. I would have more empathy. I have a different perspective on that one because I know how challenging it is… [I] could be Josh Hamilton in a second.”
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