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Gawker and Hulk Hogan
Has anyone been following this?
So scurrilous-yet-somehow-haughty website Gawker posted a sex tape featuring Hulk Hogan (or Terry Bollea, his real name) and his friend's wife. Gawker said he was a public figure, it was true, it was interesting, so they published it. Hogan has protested, taken them to court for an invasion of privacy, and now won the case, winning $115m in damages (more than twice Gawker's annual revenue). All that remains is an appeal.
I enjoy reading Gawker and its other sites, but it seems pretty fucked by this. It's former editor, who posted the story, took the stand and said the only time they wouldn't post a celebrity sex tape was if it featured a child under the age of four (he was "joking", apparently). It already nearly imploded after outing a non-celebrity who was being blackmailed by a prostitute, and yet it also takes the high ground on nearly every other issue and loves to point out the hypocrisy of other news outlets. Will be interesting to see if it survives, and if it does, how it's different.