"... in the next phase, you too will be subject to a dose of transparency. However philanthropic your intention, and careful the planning, the details of your involvement will be gruesome."
Indeed, I am kind of surprised at how many in the press are backing Gawker, after Denton straight-up threatened to use the site (and presumably others) for further blackmail. It is crazy.
You could be right. The Gawker case has left bad blood with other journalists and the press in general, including those that hate Gawker, ironically.
Publishers -- online & off -- now fear that a single lawsuit has the potential to shut them down. Many on hn have applauded the cases' outcome. Yet it presents a future where big corporations and the world's ultra wealthy can fund endless suits against hostile news outlets until they fold. That is a chilling future in exchange for being free of the drivel of horse shit Gawker and Jezebel published daily.
Bezos and other business minded press owners recognize this. Even if they aren't free speech idealists, they don't appreciate dramatic adjustments to their company valuations due to previously unforeseen external threats.
One can weave a lot of threads between Thiel, Buzzfeed, Facebook, and even Trump. May be it has nothing to do with Peter Thiel and it was just a few disgruntled employees or two.
One thing is certain, when sources complain about Thiel or his companies now and in the future, journalists are going to be paying a little more attention than they did before.
For what its worth, in regard to the original article, it doesn't strike me as particularly damning to Palantir. If a pentest fails, either you hired someone who wasn't that good, or your network is airgapped and your devices have zero external ports.