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Madison Square Garden Sues WIRED for Defamation After Article About Tracking Gay Celebrities
Madison Square Garden has filed a defamation lawsuit against WIRED, alleging the outlet falsely portrayed the arena as tracking gay celebrities in order to exclude them from events. MSG's parent companies, along with those of its sports team, argue the reporting was based on cherry-picked information from hacked data and misrepresented routine customer-relations record-keeping as a discriminatory practice, causing reputational harm and damaging business relationships.
The lawsuit, filed on Thursday in a New York trial court, names WIRED, its ownership, journalists Noah Shachtman and Maddy Varner, and editor Katie Drummond, citing defamation and interference with contracts. In its roughly 40-page complaint, MSG says it does keep data on celebrities' sexual orientation, but only within ordinary customer service software alongside details like birthdays and favourite sports teams, and solely to support inclusion efforts such as inviting LGBTQIA celebrities to relevant events and identifying community outreach opportunities. MSG accuses WIRED of publishing "with knowledge of its falsity or with reckless disregard for the truth" and of prioritising "clickbait" over accurate journalism.
In short
- MSG sues WIRED for defamation over celebrity-tracking article
- MSG says data was for inclusion, not exclusion, purposes
- Lawsuit names WIRED, its owners and three journalists
Steelman: both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
MSG argues that WIRED fundamentally misrepresented its data practices by portraying customer-service record-keeping intended for inclusion purposes as a discriminatory tracking scheme designed to exclude gay celebrities. If the reporting cherry-picked information and presented ordinary business practices in misleading light, this constitutes a material falsehood causing reputational harm published with reckless disregard for truth.
The case against
News outlets have a legitimate responsibility to scrutinise how major corporations collect and store sensitive information about protected characteristics such as sexual orientation. Even if MSG's stated purpose is inclusive, the existence of such detailed data collection raises genuine privacy and security concerns that warrant public investigation, and critical reporting on corporate practices serves the important public interest in transparency.
Explained simply
Madison Square Garden, the famous New York arena and sports venue, has sued WIRED magazine and several of its journalists, claiming their reporting about the venue tracking gay celebrities was false and damaged the company's reputation. The publication, along with journalists Noah Shachtman and Maddy Varner and editor Katie Drummond, are named as defendants in the defamation lawsuit filed in New York court.
The lawsuit stems from a WIRED article suggesting Madison Square Garden uses customer data to track the sexual orientation of gay celebrities for the purpose of excluding them from events. MSG does keep records on guests' sexual orientation in its customer service database, but the company argues WIRED misrepresented this information. According to MSG, the data is stored to support customer inclusion efforts, such as inviting LGBTQIA celebrities to relevant events, and the reporting was based on cherry-picked information from hacked data.
The case highlights the intersection of data privacy, corporate transparency and journalistic reporting, where disputes can arise over how internal business records are interpreted and presented to the public. Such lawsuits can affect editorial decisions about covering sensitive corporate practices based on leaked or hacked information.