The Whaleoil site will blog no more.
David Fisher at the Herald has this background:
The Whaleoil blog began in 2005, with Slater saying it was an outlet through which he was able to manage depression.
In the years that followed, it became increasingly politicised until 2014, when the book Dirty Politics revealed it was running political “hit jobs”, targeting opponents of the National Party-led government.
The book, and a court case, also exposed Slater as accepting money for writing stories targeting individuals.
A second book published this year, called Whale Oil, described a campaign of harassment against businessman Matt Blomfield, who had successfully sued Slater for defamation over a series of articles published on the blog.
Slater is also currently party to another defamation case taken by health academics and researchers also targeted through the Whaleoil blog.
And it went out as it started.
The final post on the Whaleoil site today floated a discredited conspiracy theory that “shadowy forces conspired” to destroy the blog by hiring the hacker who supplied Dirty Politics author Nicky Hager with digital content taken from Slater’s computer.
The final post pointed visitors to a new site set up by those who provided content to Whaleoil. The contributors did not include Slater, who has told the High Court he is too unwell following his stroke to participate in the ongoing defamation case.
I wonder if this is strategic? And I wonder how creditors feel about this announcement? I am sure they will be interested that there is a proper amount paid for any IP the Whaleoil site may have.
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