Bollea’s lawsuit, saying he was financing cases against Gawker because it published articles that “ruined people’s lives for no reason.” Mr. Thiel, a founder of PayPal and one of the earliest investors in Facebook, acknowledged in an interview with The New York Times that he was providing financial support for Mr. Denton did not respond to a request for further comment. “All-out legal war with Thiel would have cost too much, and hurt too many people, and there was no end in sight,” Mr. The Guardian: Dana Canedy, the first Black woman to serve as the publisher of Simon & Schuster, was named managing editor of Guardian U.S.Discovery announced that the new streaming service expected to replace HBO Max, uniting HBO titles and Discovery reality series, would be named Max. Farewell, HBO: Executives at Warner Bros.Vox Media: The company said it was spinning off NowThis, a news site whose videos regularly go viral on Instagram and TikTok, ahead of the 2024 presidential election.NPR: The broadcaster said it would suspend all Twitter use after the social network designated it “U.S.Gawker Media even lost its name - the sites that Univision acquired are now part of the Gizmodo Media Group. , which was at the center of the Hulk Hogan lawsuit, was shut down. Univision took down other Gawker articles that were involved in litigation. The sale brought an end to the company’s independence, and Nick Denton, its founder and chief executive, left. Bollea, for $31 million, according to court documents, and bringing to a close a multiyear dispute that stripped the company of much that once defined it.įaced with a $140 million judgment in the invasion of privacy lawsuit brought by Hogan over the publication of a video that showed him having sex with a friend’s wife - and the later revelation that Peter Thiel, the billionaire Silicon Valley entrepreneur, was financing the lawsuit and others against the company - Gawker filed for bankruptcy in June and ultimately sold itself in August to Univision for $135 million. On Wednesday, however, Gawker capitulated, settling with Hulk Hogan, whose real name is Terry G. Ken Turkel gave Hogan’s summary of the case.In fighting a lawsuit filed by the former professional wrestler Hulk Hogan, Gawker Media lost nearly everything - the verdict, its founder, its independence - but it maintained its resolute conviction that it would win on appeal. If Hogan has proven the elements of his claims, the jury will also take up Gawker‘s defense - that the publishing of the video is protected by the First Amendment because it related to a public concern, meaning it was “newsworthy.”īefore closing arguments began, Pinellas County Judge Pamela Campbell noted the line between free speech and unfair intrusion, telling the jury they’d have to consider what “ceases to be the giving of legitimate information to which the public is entitled and becomes a morbid and sensational prying into private lives for its own sake.” The jury will also consider whether Hogan had a reasonable expectation of privacy and whether Hogan’s name and likeness was used in a commercial purpose. In weighing Hogan’s claims, the jury has been instructed to consider whether the video was highly offensive and was outside the bounds of human decency, causing (purposely or by reckless disregard) Hogan to experience shame and embarrassment. Hogan (real name: Terry Bollea) contends that a less-than-two-minute excerpt of a 30-minute video, showing the famous wrestler sleeping with Heather Cole, then the wife of his best friend Bubba the Love Sponge (a radio host born Todd Clem), was an invasion of privacy, illegal wiretapping, a violation of the right of publicity and inflicted emotional distress. These jurors began deliberations without having yet seen the sex tape in question. The proceedings represent a probing of newsworthiness and whether the press can be held to maintain a standard of decency. More than three and a half years since Gawker published a post titled, “Even For A Minute, Watching Hulk Hogan Have Sex In A Canopy Bed Is Not Safe For Work But Watch It Anyway,” jury deliberations began after Hogan and Gawker gave a six-member jury in a Florida courtroom their closing arguments. The time has nearly come for a verdict in the first-ever trial pitting a celebrity against a media organization for the posting of a sex tape.
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