Madison Square Garden Sues Wired Over Report on Tracking ‘LGBTQIA’ Celebs
The New York City venue claims in the suit that the labels were the opposite of discriminatory.
Madison Square Garden is suing the technology, politics, and culture publication Wired from Condé Nast, its contributing editor Noah Schachtman, writer Maddy Varner, and others after Wired reported on an internal database that was leaked by a hacktivist group.
The leak had put the venue’s celebrity-screening security practices under scrutiny, especially as the Wired article detailed that MSG had listed 93 celebrities like Phoebe Bridgers and Ricky Martin under “LGBTQIA” without any explanation of the purpose of the description. It was part of a dataset, which included risk assessments of about 400 stars from Fat Joe to Edie Falco.
The venue is known to keep records of its high-profile fans and even those who criticize the Knicks’ owner and MSG CEO Jim Dolan, according to Wired.
Wired also reported that race and gender were included in some of the celebrities found in the database of tens of thousands.
In the lawsuit filed Thursday, MSG called the Wired article written by Shachtman and Varner and published on July 9 “unethical and inflammatory.”
“Wired and contributing editor Noah Shachtman reported false and purposely misleading “facts” to generate a story with complete disregard for the truth and their ethical obligations as journalists,” the lawsuit claims. “Specifically, Wired combed the dark web, obtained data stolen from MSG by an extortionist hacking group, and cherry-picked fragments of that data to manufacture a false narrative portraying MSG as targeting the LGBTQIA community for discriminatory purposes. Nothing could be further from the truth—MSG is a fervent supporter of the LGBTQIA community with a long history of inclusion, not exclusion.”
The database in question was reportedly obtained by the hacker collective ShinyHunters, and was first reported on by 404 Media before Wired’s follow-up story identified the “LGBTQIA” tags.
The company also said in the suit that the database was pulled from a standard customer relationship management platform used to actually support inclusion efforts — including invitations to LGBTQ+ community events, sponsorship outreach, and charitable initiatives.
MSG said the list was the opposite of discriminatory, which it argues Wired‘s article made the list out to be.
“Defendants have crossed the line separating protected journalism from actionable defamation, and this action seeks to hold them accountable for that choice,” the lawsuit states.
MSG is seeking a jury trial, damages, and a correction or retraction of certain statements in the article, as well as its attorney’s fees.
In response to the suit, Wired posted a statement that they stand with the reporting of the July 9 article.
“Earlier today, Wired learned that Madison Square Garden was suing us for our accurate reporting. We stand by this reporting, and plan to vigorously defend it against this baseless and ridiculous lawsuit,” the statement said. “We look forward to continuing our coverage of MSG, and on billionaire James Dolan’s use of technology across his entertainment empire. It’s one part of our wider mission and the critical job of journalists, now more than ever: holding power to account.”
