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.