For those who missed it the first time Gawker was sued out of existence, you might get a chance to see it happen again. Yesterday the site published a story titled “Losers Pal Around at Alex Jones Film Premiere.”

University of Austin professor Thomas Chatterton Williams had a busy night in Austin, Texas this past Saturday. The Harper’s letter author took a break from teaching these boys about Black male autobiography to snap some Instagram Stories from the premiere of Alex’s War, a documentary about Alex Jones’s years-long crusade to find out why Richard Linklater stopped casting him in movies…

Chatterton Williams has had some trouble with friends in the past, so it’s great that he has found a community of like-minded companions. To borrow the words of Alex’s War fan Ariel Pink, the chillwave pioneer who was just “peacefully showing support for [his] president” on Jan. 6, we are “so fucking proud.”

Gawker is targeting Williams because he’s the wrong kind of person. They mention the Harper’s letter which he co-authored. That was a letter aimed at rejecting cancel culture and while it was signed by a number of people on the left (Noam Chomsky and Gloria Steinem) it was also signed by several people the left loves to hate including J.K. Rowling, Jesse Singal and Bari Weiss. The story also knocks Williams for his connection to the University of Austin which is an as-yet-uncredited university launched by Bari Weiss with the goal of fighting back of the tide of left-wing cancel culture.

All of that to say, Williams was already paling around with bad people so putting him at a film premiere for Alex Jones was just more proof he’s a bad guy. There was just one problem with the story. Thomas Chatterton Williams wasn’t at the premiere.

This article is insane and just a lie. @gawker has been harassing me for months now and I just ignore it because it’s not real journalism, but this has to be retracted. I never heard of this movie until now and wasn’t anywhere near Austin at the premiere. https://t.co/bWRxDv1Eqq

— Thomas Chatterton Williams (@thomaschattwill) July 26, 2022

I like @ggreenwald and @annakhachiyan personally, know nothing of this project or anyone else involved in it, and the idea that that could be erroneously flipped into a published piece of writing and someone gets paid to do this is preposterous.

— Thomas Chatterton Williams (@thomaschattwill) July 26, 2022

That second tweet is a reference to Anna Khachiyan who runs a podcast called Red Scare. She was posting pictures on Instagram about Austin and, in the midst of that, posted an older photo of Williams taken in New York. The Gawker “reporter” apparently saw this photo and assumed Williams was present at the premiere in Austin.

Omfg lol I think I just realized what happened… Did one of their high IQ gumshoes think you were there bc I reposted that IG story of you wearing RS merch CLEARLY TAKEN IN AN NYC APT in between posting stories from Austin??

— Anna Khachiyan (@annakhachiyan) July 26, 2022

Williams added that he was getting some unsolicited advice about possibly taking legal action against Gawker. He says he’s inclined to pursue it, especially since Gawker’s editor has stated previously that they are targeting him.

I have the appetite and inclination to pursue legal options. @Gawker has an established pattern of defamation w/ me and @leahfinnegan told @semaforben in the NYT it’s company policy to target me + @ggreenwald—apparently to the point of inventing disparaging stories pic.twitter.com/nVWriIbcKW

— Thomas Chatterton Williams (@thomaschattwill) July 26, 2022

Eventually, Gawker added and update to the story:

For what it’s worth it’s also false that I’m a professor at UATX, I’m a professor at Bard

— Thomas Chatterton Williams (@thomaschattwill) July 26, 2022

The entire story was only three paragraphs in the first place so given that they were wrong about Williams being there the whole thing really ought to be retracted. Finally, Williams notes that even the update didn’t fix all of the errors in the first line of the story. I guess we’ll see if Gawker has second thoughts and pulls this story down but as I write this it’s still up. Last word from Jesse Singal who sums it up nicely.

You keep thinking Gawker can't get any worse.

First sentence. Just a complete falsehood. Characteristically garbage journalism. pic.twitter.com/ia8x1hnGHD

— Jesse Singal (@jessesingal) July 26, 2022