Pro wrestling legend Hulk Hogan's ongoing trial against Gawker Media is coming to a close and attorneys for both parties delivered their closing statements before a jury in St. Petersburg, Fla., on Friday morning. Hogan (real name Terry Bollea) is suing the New York-based online media company for the 2012 publication of a sex tape featuring the former WWE Hall of Famer and Heather Clem, the wife of his former best friend and Tampa radio shock jock Bubba "the Love Sponge" Clem.
Hogan has maintained that he was not aware that he was being filmed during the sexual encounter with Heather. The Hulkster is suing Gawker for $100 million in damages, including invasion of privacy and infliction of emotional distress but attorneys representing the online publication are calling up the First Amendment Rights of freedom of speech and freedom of the press in its defense.
"The media has the power to do great good and the power to do great harm," Hogan's lawyer told the jury. "What's significant in the world of Gawker is a tape of my client in a private bedroom at the lowest point in his life, in a private act... and what they know at that time is that it was secretly recorded... they do nothing by way of trying to find anything out. They don't even call my client."
Gawker's defense team claimed that Hogan is a celebrity who spoke openly about his sex life in the press, which is why they considered the sex tape as newsworthy. The media company did not know the origin of the tape when it was obtained, but they chose to only publish a one-minute, 41-second edited version of the tape along with a 1,400 word commentary about the sex lives of celebrities.
One of Hogan's lawyers cross-examined former Gawker editor A.J. Daulerio and questioned his decision to publish the clip of Hogan's sex tape.
"Can you imagine a situation where a celebrity sex tape would not be newsworthy?" the lawyer asked Daulerio on the stand.
"If they were a child," Daulerio said. When the lawyer asked him to state a specific age, Daulerio responded, "Four."
During their closing statement, Gawker's attorneys asked the jury to watch the edited video clip so they can see for themselves that their published version is "not like a real celebrity sex tape."
