Wired Magazine used stolen data to falsely accuse Madison Square Garden of creepily surveilling a “list” of gay celeb fans, the entertainment company said in a bombshell lawsuit.
In the defamation suit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, the Garden accused Wired of using data stolen by a hacking group to “to manufacture a false narrative portraying MSG as targeting the LGBTQIA community for discriminatory purposes.”
The July 9 article accused the Garden of maintaining a secret database of celebs and assigning them “risk scores,” Big Brother-style. Their race, gender and sexual identity were also cataloged, the piece claimed, with dozens of entries allegedly categorized as “LGBTQIA.”
“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 Garden said Thursday.
The James Dolan-run institution took issue with everything in the piece from the details to the headline of “Madison Square Garden Kept a List of Gay Celebrities.”
In fact, the list was “created by the reporters themselves through their own manipulation of raw data,” the Garden said.
The hacked data came from a “standard customer relationship management platform” used to serve customers, “including by extending invitations to LGBTQIA support events, identifying sales and sponsorship opportunities, and facilitating charitable donations and community outreach,” MSG explained.
It noted that it’s come under attack from Wired before.
“Wired has published several false articles about MSG that are more focused on manipulating information to fit a salacious story than with reporting the facts,” the Garden said.
Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp. – which recently celebrated the New York Knicks’ historic NBA championship – is seeking a retraction and correction, along with damages.
Contrary to discriminating against LGBT people, the Garden said it has a history of supporting them. It pointed to hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions to LGBT and Pride organizations, along with maintaining a “Pride Employee Resource Group” of nearly 300.
The Post has sought comment from Wired.