Madison Square Garden has sued WIRED alleging the publication lied in an article to make readers believe the arena was tracking gay celebrities so it could exclude them from events, which is the opposite of the truth, the arena said.
Parent companies of Madison Square Garden and its sports team filed the lawsuit Thursday in a New York trial court against WIRED, its ownership, as well as journalists Noah Shachtman, Maddy Varner, and WIRED editor Katie Drummond and claimed defamation and interference with contracts and obligations due to the news organization allegedly reporting private business information that hurt and sabotaged relationships with customers.
“Defendants published the Article with knowledge of its falsity or with reckless disregard for the truth,” MSG said in a roughly 40-page complaint. “This is not the first time Defendants have rushed to publish clickbait in place of facts, but it should be their last.”
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The legal filing accuses WIRED, with a focus on Shachtman, of cherry picking information from hacked data to create a “false implication” that MSG tracks LGBTQIA celebrities for exclusionary purposes. While the arena acknowledged keeping information on celebrities’ sexual orientations, it said the purpose of this information was “to further inclusion” by inviting LGBTQIA celebrities to supportive events, identifying sales and sponsorship opportunities, and facilitating donations and community outreach. The information was kept in mundane customer service and relations software alongside other information like birthdays, favorite sports teams and other ordinary fields for routine business purposes, MSG said in the complaint.
The arena told the court that WIRED manipulated this ordinary business information and “reported false and purposely misleading ‘facts’ to generate a story with complete disregard for the truth and their ethical obligations as journalists” in what the complaint describes as “shockingly unethical conduct.”
“The Article’s implication that MSG maintains a database with a sexual orientation field for exclusionary, discriminatory, security, or risk-based purposes is a lie,” the arena said. “Defendants knew there was no nefarious ‘list’ of gay celebrities.”
In the legal filing, Madison Square Garden said it has a history of supporting LGBTQIA causes and organizations.
On July 9th, WIRED ran an article headlined “Madison Square Garden Kept a List of Gay Celebrities” that reported the arena designated some actors, musicians, including rappers, and other celebrities with risk levels and kept track of the sexual orientation of some. The article was still online as of Thursday evening. The arena quickly denounced the piece as “inaccurate and false” and said it was taking legal action.
Madison Square Garden asked for a jury trial and to be awarded money for compensation as well as punitive financial costs for WIRED and its affiliates to be determined later. The arena also asked that WIRED and affiliates pay for legal costs and attorney fees.
