Hulk Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, testified that the sex tape \u201cturned my world upside down.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Given the contents of the video, it\u2019s hard to argue that. The tape shows him having sex with Heather Cole, then-wife of his best friend, Tampa-area radio shock jock Bubba the Love Sponge, the Hollywood Reporter reports<\/a>. It also featured Bollea making racist comments.<\/p>\n Read more<\/p>\n Gawker struggled in court from the very beginning. The pre-trial rulings by Florida Circuit Judge Pamela Campbell left the website without the ability to use any information from a lawsuit between Bollea and Bubba the Love Sponge \u2013 also known as Todd Alan Clem. In addition, Gawker\u2019s attorneys were not allowed to bring up any of the racial comments made on the tape. Gawker\u2019s defense had hoped to use the racial comments as evidence for an ulterior motive by Bollea for the lawsuit. However, no part of the sex tape was shown to jurors \u2013 not even excerpts published by Gawker.<\/p>\n Gawker\u2019s lawyers presented their argument as a battle for the First Amendment rights to free speech and free press. Meanwhile, Bollea\u2019s lawyers made their case for defending the Fourteenth Amendment, allowing citizens to have the right to privacy under equal protection of life, liberty, and property.<\/p>\n The 13-year-old digital news site is not new to controversy. Once the home of the Gawker Stalker, a map of celebrity sightings that allowed users to \u201cvisually pinpoint the location of every stalkworthy [sic] celebrity as soon as they’re spotted,\u201d<\/em> Gawker lost two editors over an article that outed a Conde Nast executive.<\/p>\n The executive had been blackmailed by a male escort who provided Gawker with texts and information about the executive. The editors resigned after the article was removed with permission by the editorial team, the New York Times reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n According to The Hollywood Reporter, Nick Denton, Gawker\u2019s founder, has already indicated plans to appeal the decision.<\/p>\n Michael Sullivan, Gawker\u2019s attorney, said in his closing arguments “We don’t need the First Amendment to protect what’s popular. We need a First Amendment to protect what’s controversial.”<\/em><\/p>\n Gawker has yet to post a comment on the ruling.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Via RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The two-week trial of Hulk Hogan versus Gawker has ended with a Florida jury awarding $115 million to former pro wrestler. The case began three years ago when Gawker published a sex tape that the wrestler claims was recorded secretly.
Hulk Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, testified that the sex tape \u201cturned my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":232536,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-232535","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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