diff --git a/bridges/CarThrottleBridge.php b/bridges/CarThrottleBridge.php
index 5b95dd28..913b686c 100644
--- a/bridges/CarThrottleBridge.php
+++ b/bridges/CarThrottleBridge.php
@@ -25,20 +25,28 @@ class CarThrottleBridge extends BridgeAbstract
             $articlePage = getSimpleHTMLDOMCached($item['uri'])
                 or returnServerError('could not retrieve page');
 
-            $item['author'] = $articlePage->find('div.author div')[1]->innertext;
-
-            $dinges = $articlePage->find('div.main-body')[0];
-            //remove ads
-            foreach ($dinges->find('aside') as $ad) {
-                $ad->outertext = '';
-                $dinges->save();
+            $authorDiv = $articlePage->find('div.author div');
+            if ($authorDiv) {
+                $item['author'] = $authorDiv[1]->innertext;
             }
 
-            $item['content'] = $articlePage->find('div.summary')[0] .
-                $articlePage->find('figure.main-image')[0] .
-                $dinges;
+            $dinges = $articlePage->find('div.main-body')[0] ?? null;
+            //remove ads
+            if ($dinges) {
+                foreach ($dinges->find('aside') as $ad) {
+                    $ad->outertext = '';
+                    $dinges->save();
+                }
+            }
+
+            $var = $articlePage->find('div.summary')[0] ?? '';
+            $var1 = $articlePage->find('figure.main-image')[0] ?? '';
+            $dinges1 = $dinges ?? '';
+
+            $item['content'] = $var .
+                $var1 .
+                $dinges1;
 
-            //add the item to the list
             array_push($this->items, $item);
         }
     }
diff --git a/bridges/GatesNotesBridge.php b/bridges/GatesNotesBridge.php
index 61dccb1a..24ba9b2e 100644
--- a/bridges/GatesNotesBridge.php
+++ b/bridges/GatesNotesBridge.php
@@ -23,9 +23,11 @@ class GatesNotesBridge extends BridgeAbstract
         $cleanedContent = str_replace([
             '<string xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/2003/10/Serialization/">',
             '</string>',
+            '\r\n',
         ], '', $rawContent);
+        $cleanedContent = str_replace('\"', '"', $cleanedContent);
+        $cleanedContent = trim($cleanedContent, '"');
 
-        // The content is actually a json between quotes with \r\n inserted
         $json = Json::decode($cleanedContent, false);
 
         foreach ($json as $article) {
@@ -98,7 +100,7 @@ class GatesNotesBridge extends BridgeAbstract
         }
         $article_body = sanitize($article_body->innertext);
 
-        $content = $top_description . $hero_image . $article_body;
+        $content = $top_description . ($hero_image ?? '') . $article_body;
 
         return $content;
     }
diff --git a/lib/contents.php b/lib/contents.php
index cfb9f36a..a3830ca7 100644
--- a/lib/contents.php
+++ b/lib/contents.php
@@ -158,13 +158,12 @@ function getSimpleHTMLDOM(
     $defaultBRText = DEFAULT_BR_TEXT,
     $defaultSpanText = DEFAULT_SPAN_TEXT
 ) {
-    $content = getContents(
-        $url,
-        $header ?? [],
-        $opts ?? []
-    );
+    $html = getContents($url, $header ?? [], $opts ?? []);
+    if ($html === '') {
+        throw new \Exception('Unable to parse dom because the http response was the empty string');
+    }
     return str_get_html(
-        $content,
+        $html,
         $lowercase,
         $forceTagsClosed,
         $target_charset,