Madison Square Garden sue Wired over gay surveillance claims
Madison Square Garden has moved to sue Wired.
It comes following their recent article, which MSG described as “unethical and inflammatory,” that alleged that the New York venue had been keeping tabs on the “risk” level of artists who visit the grounds, including their sexual orientation.
The explosive investigative piece from Wired stated that the New York City venue reportedly keeps a “talent” database with 39,539 entries, consisting of musicians, actors, politicians, athletes, business figures, and similar noteworthy guests.
Around 93 people in the database were marked down as “LGBTQIA”, including the likes of Phoebe Bridgers and Geese guitarist Emily Green.
Additionally, approximately 400 celebrities were also assigned a “risk” score: “low risk” stars included Selena Gomez, Benson Boone, and Ice Spice; “medium risk” people included Morgan Wallen, Lily Allen, and David Harbour; “high risk” stars included DaBaby, Freddie Gibbs, and Lil Jon.
Now, the venue has filed a defamation lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court, obtained by Far Out, which names Wired contributing editor Noah Shachtman, co-author Maddy Varner, and Wired global editorial director Katie Drummond as defendants.
MSG states that the promotion of the piece in the days following publication persisted “without concern for the truth and with the intent to cause maximal public impact.”
Allegedly, the investigative team “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.”
According to the lawsuit, the “list” of gay celebrities referenced in the title of the piece was “a ‘list’ created by the reporters themselves through their own manipulation of raw data.”
It states outright that “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. Defendants knew there was no nefarious ‘list’ of gay celebrities.”
The lawsuit posits the existence of other “mundane fields such as address, phone number, and dietary restrictions” as evidence that the inclusion of sexual orientation was “used for relationship management purposes, not discrimination”.
As a result, Madison Square Garden is seeking a jury trial, along with compensatory, presumed, special, and punitive damages; a correction or retraction of the false and defamatory statements and implications; and attorneys’ fees.
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