Gawker Ordered To Pay Hulk Hogan $115 Million In Sex Tape Lawsuit
In a closely watched trial by the media community, shortly after 7pm on Friday night, and less than six hours after starting deliberations, the jury sided with ex-pro wrestler Hulk Hogan and awarded him $115 million in his sex tape lawsuit against Gawker Media. The trial lasted two weeks. The award consists of $55 million for economic injuries, and $60 million for emotional distress.
According to CBS, Hogan, dressed all in black including a black bandana, cried when the verdict was announced, CBS affiliate WTSP said while members of Gawker's team listened in shocked silence as the verdict was read.
The trial, which has been years in the making, has major implications not only with its potential "chilling effect" on the freedom of speech, but also focuses on the grey space of "what is public news", and finally has potentially terminal implications for the future of Gawker which will likely be forced to go out of business unless it miraculously lowers the damages on appeal.
For those who are unfamiliar, Hogan, whose given name is Terry Bollea, had sued Gawker for $100 million for publishing an edited video of the wrestler having sex with the then-wife of a radio shock jock named Bubba the Love Sponge. Hogan contended the 2012 post violated his privacy.
In spirited closing arguments on Friday, lawyers for Hogan and Gawker discussed themes of personal life versus celebrity, and freedom of speech versus the right to privacy. Hogan's attorneys told jurors this is the core of the case: "Gawker took a secretly recorded sex tape and put it on the Internet."
They said Hogan didn't consent to the video, that Gawker didn't follow usual journalism procedures before posting it and that the video wasn't newsworthy. Gawker did not try to contact Bollea or the woman in the video, and nor did the website contact the woman's husband, DJ Bubba The Love Sponge Clem, who recorded the video.
It was never conclusively determined during trial who leaked the video to the media.
Hogan didn't ask for any of this to happen, lawyer Kenneth Turkel said, adding that Bollea, the private man, expected privacy during an intimate moment. Much was made during the trial of Hogan's celebrity persona versus Bollea's privacy.
"I want you to imagine the fact that for 35 plus years he is essentially an actor, an entertainer, who has played the same role," said Turkel. He said Hogan "has every right, every right, to keep whatever precious private moments in his life, which for this gentlemen are very few."
Hogan's lawyers also said Gawker's value increased by $15 million due to the post, while Gawker contends it made $11,000 in ad revenue.
Hulk Hogan took the stand in court over a leaked sex tape of him, and some of the testimony got explicit.
Gawker's attorneys told the jury that the video is "not like a real celebrity sex tape" and urged them to watch the video, which contains nine seconds of sexual content. They pointed out that news of the sex tape first appeared on at least two websites: TMZ and The Dirty. Hogan went on TMZ's TV program to talk about it, and later appeared on the Howard Stern show.
"He has consistently chosen to put his private life out there, for public consumption," said attorney Michael Sullivan. He also criticized Hogan's claim that he was in Hulk Hogan persona when he was doing interviews.
"An actor playing a character does that on set, but when they go on a talk show, they're themselves," Sullivan said. Sullivan called into question whether the tape was all a celebrity stunt to drum up publicity for Hogan's career. He suggested that although the jurors might find the video, Gawker and Hogan's sex life distasteful, they must protect the First Amendment right to free speech.
"We ask you to protect something that some of you may find unpleasant," he said. "To write, to speak, to think about all topics, to hold public figures accountable. It is right in the long run for our freedoms."
The jury disagreed.
Putting the $115 million award in context, according ro previously disclosed information, Gawker's operating income for 2015 amounted to $6.5 million, 18 times less than the awarded damages. The website generated around $24 million in profit in the past 5 years. The company's revenue in 2014 was $44.2 million.
Previously Nick Denton, Gawker's CEO, had indicated that Gawker’s future hung in the balance if the jury ruled in Mr. Hogan’s favor for the full amount. “It’s a $100 million lawsuit,” Mr. Denton told The New York Times earlier this month. “We don’t keep $100 million in the bank, no.”
According to Gawker’s release, the company, which has never taken outside investment, has had five years of steady, if not eye-popping, growth. But for a media company, not losing money is good. Making some is even better. Many media companies would be very pleased with a profit growth of almost 10 percent. Gawker had also disclosed that its very expensive legal fees came out of its $6.53 million operating income but the company did take an $8 million loan from Silicon Valley Bank to pay for its new flatiron office, which the company is scheduled to move to later this month. That loan may now be impaired.
"With the possibility of an initial judgment against Gawker Media at the forthcoming trial in Florida, there’s been interest in the company’s underlying financial health," Denton said in a statement. “Our journalists and I stand for open discussion of true and interesting stories, and our finances have become part of the story. So we intend to be open about them, both in the media and in the St. Petersburg courtroom. I am as proud of our business track record as I am of our writers’ reputation for journalistic boldness.”
He may now be regretting his writers' journalistic boldness.
And while the implications of this trial will reverberate in online media and the interpretation of what content is and what isn't subject to the First Amendment, some early media comments suggest that for the time being schadenfreude is winning over concerns over the trial's chilling effects on the media.
Ordinarily I'd be very concerned about the effects of this Gawker verdict on chilling of press freedom, but it's Gawker. Fuck em.
— Popehat (@Popehat) March 18, 2016
In retrospect it probably wasn't a good idea for Gawker to sell ads on their live coverage of the trial, but then they wouldn't be Gawker.
— Popehat (@Popehat) March 19, 2016
(10 votes)
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LOL. HILDERBEAST FOR POTUS NOW
Precious private moment of having some dude film you while you bang his wife ???
If it ends Gawker, then justice will be served. Hallelujah
WTF is Gawker?
history....................
can you smell what the hulk is cookin?
@ Way Behind: Think of Gawker as crybullies given a safe space to blog about pop culture bullshit with their feelings out.
They should just file the papers to become a bank, then I'd think Hank Paulson would demand they be bailed out for the greater good?
Got laid and got paid...
Some best friend the Hulkster was! What a douche. From here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3499500/Unsealed-Hulk-Hogan-sex-...
Some role model.
I feel so let down after voting for President Comancho.
Y'know, I hate gawker, hate hate hate.. but I'm on their side on this one. If you don't want people seeing you screwing your friends wife, don't record it.
Hogan did not record it.
Actually his best friend recorded it and Hogan did not consent to the recording.
Maybe the NSA should put out video of you banging, or jackin' off, or whatever, online for the world to see.
You think that they do not record you with the cameras on your PDA...Personal Digital Assistant...otherwise known as a Smartphone or a Laptop...a Thinkpad (Damn. Now isn't that Orwellian?)
Well your kids have those, right?
The US Military has certainly have trafficked enough child porn. Just where do you think that they got it?
No. Not your heroes, may the good Lord forbid? That is blasphemy.
Hell the Pentagon quashed that investigation as they'd have exposed...themselves?
They only captured the video from your child's bedroom...or someone else's child....from the camera on their cellphone or computer.
Oh you did not know about the Pentagon TRAFFICKING IN CHILD PORN?
You can read all about that here.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/upshot/pentagon-declined-investigate-hundred...
America's Military...Keeping you and your children safe from harm.
WELL FUCK GAWKER.
FUCK THE NSA
Dude- seriously- if you can't make your point in two paragraphs or less, then you're just wasting our time. Your shit takes up half the bandwidth of this site.
So shouldn't his 'best friend' "Bubba the Love Sponge" (wonder what he sponged up after....) be the one being sued for filming and allowing the distribution of the tape?
Not a Gawker fan, but the video was 'out there' all they did was host it; they didn't hack into the "Love Sponge's" computer or break into his house to obtain this tape...
And 60 million for 'emotional distress'???? For 9 seconds of sexual activity? Because of Hogan's "celebrity"? Who is Heidi Fleiss going to sue first???
Kinda tells you your place in the pecking order...
I have observe his case as a side story about whatever in the News, as they call it, as I am not a trained Legal Dude, I wonder what the actual Law trained Dudes and Dudettes think about this case ? I know there are many on Z.H. What is the perspective on law as Loser Pay's. It would certainly dilute a trillion yards of Bullshit and work for lawyers. Fuck Lawyers, in a Sam Clemens kind of way,How about some fucking Defamation Law's in the USA, some fucker say's I Butt- Fondled Kwanji (My Ex- Wife.) I would like to take the bitch to court, see some evidence, I hope the wrestlertard gets his money and fucks off out if the USA, A White-man is a Target, that is all, A Woman says he fucked Alien Dolphins and tis become true, he has Zero legal defense.Do not be a white heterosexual, you will get fucking smashed for that offense.
From 'Important Things of 2016' (reprinted by permission, copyright 2150, NWO Press):
'On Eighteenth of the third month, entity 'Gawker' lost a legal action regarding the penis size of one human AKA 'Hogan'. ALSO, Founding Father Obama took some well-needed rest, and played GOLF (the global national pasttime for more than 100 years). Founding mother Kim K. blessed the world with her gluteous maximus, once again. Oceanea once again declared that it had always been at war with Eastasia. The middle-eastern oil Blocks continued to kill off their tribal members in car-bombings (remember, this was long before the 'awakening' of 2103).
The great 'fast food wars' had begun in earnest, and 'two for $5.55' and 'four for $4.00' deals were paring down the final survivors that would be chosen to provide the GMO foods for the lower classes. Of course, after Kim Kong Un of North Korea targeted all McDonald's franchises back in 2026 shortly before he died short, the war finally ended (blessed be the name of "Shorty" Kim).'
Excerpted from 'The Camacho Memoirs'
He's his "best friend" _because_ he shares his wife... that there is some generosity! But if it's a honey trap that he wanted to then spring on him... well then... that's not cool. Bros before hoes!
on a side note she is a fat and disgusting pig, worst porno ever.
What about the wives?
I sure as hell hope they don't record [and leak] a sex tape with Me in it. I'll have to sue and become a multi-millionaire!
Pure horror!
Good one Heavy.
Hulk "Camacho" Hogan for President 2020!
$115 MM???
Where do I send MY tape...
.
Animal husbandry doesn't count.
That depends. It might sell at a furry convention...
I hear Zootopia was a good movie.
They should have seen it coming that it is not 10 inches from his small hands
Peruse at your own sanity, behold - http://gawker.com
I think that was the point of the huge reward. The jury voted to end Gawker and just give it all to Hogan.
I've always liked Hulk Hogan and I think most people do. I think most people don't like tabloid sleeze and that's what Gawker became. Made for an easy Jury decision.
Supposedly his buddy Bubba The Love Spooge - set up the encounter. Yeah it is slimy but Hulk and other people deserve privacy.
F Gawker!
ex-buddy
That's right brother! Macho Man: Oh Yeaaa!
Never forget the 3 commandments of Hulkamania: Take your vitamins, prayer, training. Hulk was a true visionary, even saw the greatness in the Donald back in the '80s
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Oyx9z1qUPS4
Whatcha gonna do
When the Hulkster's Dream Team
Rolls Over You?!
Brother!
A.J. Daulerio, 41, was sitting ramrod straight in the Florida courtroom during the awkward moment when he was asked on video by Hogan’s lawyer,
“Can you imagine a situation where a celebrity sex tape would not be newsworthy?”
Daulerio answered flatly, “If they were a child.”
“Under what age?” attorney Charles Harder asked.
“Four,” he said.
“No four-year-old sex tapes, OK,” Harder said.
THIS IS WHAT THE EDITOR IN CHIEF OF THE SITE ACTUALLY BELIEVES. THIS IS WHAT HE ACTUALLY SAID.
Death is too good for him, but maybe we can be compassionate people and give it to him anyway.
Win for the Hulkster. So what he said the word NIGGER on the video. Why should that matter? They were trying to ruin his career because he said NIGGER!!! freedom of speech!!! Win win!!
I was listening to the DL Hughely Show today, and they were covering what Cuba Gooding Jr said about that very word. He says they should be allowed to use the word nigger on tv, and I'm all "huh?" South Park already did it, and did it well. It's just a silly word.
What was interesting was how this black radio show had to bleep the word.
The debate was freedom of speech vs right to privacy.
Frankly, they're both quaint notions in the USSA.
But on balance, right to privacy is under greater threat from the State right now, so it's proably for the better that the CORPORATE PERSON's right to speech be restrained in this case (since Citizen's United isn't likely to be overturned by SCOTUS anytime soon, or negated by the Corporations' pet Congress Critters).
And the defense team tried to win the case by saying that Hulk is a racist and said the word NIGGER. Just like how OJ got off because Furman said the word NIGGER. Using the race card.
Fuck the nigger stuff. I hope Gawker loses their ass!
What is his career now? Setting up people so he can sue them?
No, I believe he just retired.
Congrats!!
After appeals and paying lawyers I'm sure the amount will be significantly smaller but good for him.
Some states to file an appeal you have to put up the money. Gawker may need to put up lots of dough for the appeal to be held at the courthouse escrow.
depends, most judges won't let a $115 Million award stand.
Hogan initially asked $1.5 Million and punitive damages, if memory serves,
the judge would be hard pressed to maintain that jury award, most judges would either reduce the damages to 1.5, plus Punitive damages plus legal fees and stop there.
That would still be a major hit to Gawker.
Hogan has been exposed in public twice now - once on the video, and again today when he rammed his pecker up Gawker's ass.
Good for him.
Mrs. Bubba: Hold on honey, this thing is too big!
Bubba: Wait, lemme zoom in! This is white mail material! We can retire!
"If the Rubber doesn't fit, you must acquit!"........CHA CHING $$$$$$$$$$$
The Hulk is swingin' free tonight!