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Jury Orders Gawker To Pay $115 Million To Hulk Hogan In Sex Tape Lawsuit (zerohedge.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the that's-a-lot-of-zeros dept.

An anonymous reader writes: [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." And now they are paying for it, dearly. Also notable is that there doesn't seem to be anyone interested in defending them, as even the Twitter community (if it can truly be called that) has come out strongly in favor of the ruling against Gawker. Maybe they should have at least made more friends? They did make $6.5 million in net income in 2014 and their Wikipedia article states that they were last sold in 2009 for $300 million, so while they may not be put out of business, it seems likely they will at least be [changing] hands, and soon, with the jury ruling $55 million for economic injuries and $60 million for emotional distress. I think that's jury-speak for "body slam."
According to Ars Technica, Gawker Media was one of the first successful, large, digital-only news companies. "The stunning sum, which may have punitive damages added to it, is a life-threatening event for the New York-based network of news and gossip sites."

18 of 236 comments (clear)

  1. Good. by kuzb · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's time gawker got kicked in the balls for their shitty reporting practices. My only regret is that the hulkster is not allowed to use the piile-driver on the CEO in the court room following the verdict.

    --
    BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
    1. Re:Good. by Stormwatch · · Score: 5, Informative

      Hogan's signature move is the leg drop, not the pile drive.

      --
      Circumcision is child abuse.
    2. Re:Good. by Opportunist · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Given his age I'd already be surprised if he could do the leg drop anymore, let alone kick it up a notch.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  2. LIsten by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Gawker is garbage.

    They lead the charge telling the most astonishing lies about gamers - and getting away with it. They only people crying over this are Gawker's owners and the insane far left SF hordes who used it in their ideological crusade.

    May they rot in hell.

  3. Re:Fair that money was awarded, amount excessive by digitalderbs · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I don't disagree that the amount seems excessive. However, you can't compare him to a regular person. The personal damage could be comparable to a regular person--and the damages should be comparable. However, a large part of the damages here are for professional damages. I'd be surprised if the professional damages were that high too, but I guess the jury did not. It appears he was fired from the WWE over this.

    The number will escalate too, as they haven't added on punitive damages, and he's also getting money from the CEO and editor at the time.

  4. Whatcha Gonna Do Gawker by Kunedog · · Score: 5, Funny

    . . . when your own unethical journalism catches up with you?

  5. Re:Fair that money was awarded, amount excessive by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This isn't just compensating the victim, this is also about punishment. The only way to punish a corporation is in its balance sheet.

    All too often, we see fines levied against huge corps that are pretty much chump change to them. If you make millions or billions from misconduct, a few million dollars in fines is nothing - it's the cost of doing business.

    So, good for the Hogan! If it drives Gawker out of business, well fuck'em! I just hope that if the editorial staff tries to start another company like this, the investors do due diligence and realize the type of people they're dealing with.

  6. Re:Help! I've Been Colonized And I Can't Get Up! by sjames · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Because it would keep stockholders from acting as the worst sort of absentee owner allowing their evil sociopathic corporate child to run roughshod over everything.

  7. Re:HA HA by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm always in favor of seeing celebrity gossip "news" sites in pain. Honestly, who gives a fuck about what time Tom Cruise took a shit last night? If you read celebrity news because it gives you something to gossip to your friends about, then you are a piece of shit. This is (even if it's not gossip) by far the worst form of "journalism" that exists, and people have to have no life at all and/or a huge inferiority complex to even care about it.

  8. Re:3 Fucks Given by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    So you are supporting the #Fappening? Or is it only wrong when it happen to women?

  9. That's before punitive... by Khyber · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If the Hulkster hits the punitive jackpot, the total could be as high as $460M.

    That's an utter death blow to Gawker.

    --
    Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
    1. Re:That's before punitive... by wisnoskij · · Score: 4, Insightful

      But on the other side. There is a conceivable avenue thorough which Hogan can currently expect payment of his legal winnings. But if he is awarded much more, Gawker just files for bankruptcy, it as a cooperation is destroyed and 99% of their worth (which was always imaginary) goes up in smoke, and maybe Hogan gets a million of two when their office chairs are sold in auction and the couple hundred thousands in operating funds are transferred over to him. Gawker does not have $300 million in gold in their basement, they have a name that is worth money, but if their debts get anywhere near their net worth then it is no longer a viable business and is worthless.

      --
      Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
    2. Re:That's before punitive... by timholman · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Gawker does not have $300 million in gold in their basement, they have a name that is worth money, but if their debts get anywhere near their net worth then it is no longer a viable business and is worthless.

      I doubt Hogan cares as much about getting all the money as he does about seeing Gawker (and Nick Denton) suffer. Watching Gawker go bankrupt, while still having Denton personally on the hook for millions of dollars, would probably be a completely satisfactory outcome to Hogan.

      Gawker and its subsidiary websites (e.g. Jezebel) are festering boils on the backside of the Internet. Denton has helped nurture the culture of "trial by Internet outrage", "guilty until proven innocent", and "due process only applies to people I approve of" that permeates the world today. I can think of no possible way that the world will be worse off by putting every Gawker site out of business, and Nick Denton in the poorhouse.

  10. Re:Fair that money was awarded, amount excessive by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    I believe this is the tape that contained Hogan making racial slurs, which caused him to be kicked out of the WWE, lose his toy line, and most of his other various promotions, etc. His source of income is gone.

    He's 62 now, so if he lives another 15 years, that's basically just 8 million dollars a year that he's charging. And his estate has also lost out from sales that would have happened after his death. And don't forget punitive damages.

    $115 million seems fair considering that it was a humiliating invasion of privacy that left his career and estate in ruins and his personal reputation extremely damaged. (For comparison, Erin Andrews got $55 million for being spied on and recorded, which was unquestionably a highly traumatic experience invoked on her by a despicable person, but ultimately it may have helped her career if anything.)

  11. Wrongfully imprisoned people get far less by swb · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I think these amounts awarded to Hogan and Erin Andrews (TV reporter secretly video recorded nude in her hotel room) are excessive when people who are wrongfully convicted of crimes they didn't commit get fractions of that amount after serving many years in prison.

    This guy (http://www.nbcnews.com/id/18715007/) wrongfully convicted of a rape he didn't commit was imprisoned for 18 years and only got $5 million.

    And Hogan gets $115 million and Andrews got $55 million? If you use the $5 million figure for false imprisonment, Hogan would have to have been imprisoned for 415 years to justify that amount, Andrews 198 years.

    Don't get me wrong, both Hogan and Andrews were wronged, but to what extent were their lives ruined the same way being convicted of rape and losing decades of your life to a prison sentence? Hogan's career as anything but somebody famous for being famous is basically over anyway, and I seriously doubt any of his celebrity has been damaged by viewing him having sex.

    Andrews cried crocodile tears on the stand, but how believable is that considering she apparently has no problem continuing to be on TV (new contract, even!)? She's only on TV because of her sex appeal to male sports fans and her entire career since high school has been based around being basically an eye candy accessory (being a cheerleader in high school and college). If anything, her complaint boils down to overexposure, and whatever loss of her allure occurs because now we've seen her naked. She wasn't even caught do anything of the embarrassing "fappening" poses, either, just walking around her hotel room.

    I think $5 million probably isn't enough for someone who was jailed for 18 years, although you can probably make some kind of lost earnings argument that is at least grounded in reality. Hogan and Andrews? I can't even begin to see the justification.

    1. Re:Wrongfully imprisoned people get far less by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      ... imprisoned for 18 years and only got $5 million ...

      First, it's a government department paying for the shitty/dishonest behaviour of some prosecuting attorney. Second, after years in prison the wrongfully punished can't afford a good attorney. Normal civil cases don't have these problems. While the government likes to cut a my-'bad'-but-no-fine deal with some corporate legal department, a civil plaintiff wants a measurable result and gets it because juries tend to dislike corporate management.

      ... can't even begin to see the justification.

      This is why most countries don't allow punitive fines in civil suits, which keeps the rewards for litigation 'manageable'.

  12. Re:Fair that money was awarded, amount excessive by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    It feels very strange to me that someone could be set for life, catapaulted to wealth far beyond what most individuals might accrue, based on a legal judgement like this.

    I doubt the amount will stick, juries really have no idea how much in damages to award though the final number will be interesting to see.

    It really is possible he's lost $55 million in income since his racist comments on the tape really hurt his career. But should Gawker be on the hook for that, even if they were wrong in publishing the tape?

    Note that the summary omits many of the more lurid details of the case, such as:
    -The fact that Gawker defied a court order to remove their posted copy of the sex tape: http://gawker.com/a-judge-told-us-to-take-down-our-hulk-hogan-sex-tape-po-481328088
    -Court testimony by the Gawker reporter accused that they considered anybody above the age of four (not a typo) to be a valid subject for this kind of article: http://nypost.com/2016/03/09/gawker-editors-line-a-sex-tape-of-a-4-year-old/

    The actual testimony is a absolutely fascinating train wreck: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Pr8S44o6N4. The defendants literally did everything they could to make both the judge and jury loathe them; so much so that the jury awarded above the originally requested amount when delivering a verdict.

    The damages awarded is well and truly deserved for once so it's got a pretty good chance of sticking.

  13. Re:Fair that money was awarded, amount excessive by Cederic · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I fear your utter misinterpretation of his fairly simple point.

    In related news, hide a camera in my bathroom and the police will be paying you a visit. However, for $55m I'll visit your professional studio so you can photograph me naked. Shit, I'll do a goatse pose and everything.