I am a big fan of the first amendment. It is technically what gives me the right to write stupid shit like some of the reviews you may have read before on this website. The Resident Evil one? Thanks first amendment!
I was excited to hear about Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free Press was not only now available, but readily available on Netflix. Because it is about the first amendment, lawsuits, celebrities, and most importantly, a lawsuit I sort of actually follow a little bit as it happened!
A documentary about something I know a little bit about! I mean, it wasn’t a trial I was actually a part of, in the same state I was at, or anything for real related to me. But I read articles on the internet!
Let’s just go on and say it. Fuck Gawker. Fuck all of Gawker’s affiliate sites, and I do mean all of them. Fuck Buzzfeed too. I have been doing my best to rage against the click bait media that is ruining journalism, and Gawker is sort of at the head of it, while also doing just smut articles. And that is my opinion. People aren’t buying news as much as they should, and that sucks, please support news, so click bait doesn’t work as much. But I wont click on an article if it is click bait. I will go out of my way, google the keywords, find it from a reputable source, then maybe respond to it on Facebook letting people know the info they want without the shitty tactics.
So I am biased against this story, I guess.
Holy hell, Hogan’s hand looks huge.
Hulk Hogan once had sex. It was on camera. And it was shared on the internet. Not just shared on the internet, but Gawker decided to make an article not only about the tape, but also you know, hosting part of it, and sharing it freely for people to watch as they please. And Hogan sued them, and eventually he won. It is why you can now go to Gawker and see that they are shut down. They are completely bankrupt and fucked.
But that isn’t the whole documentary. It then goes into a man who works in Silicon Valley who funded the Hogan lawyers because he had a vendetta against Gawker and wanted them to pay, and pay they did. And then a third act about a Las Vegas newspaper, who were bought by someone shady in their community, so they reported on it and bad stuff happened. That third act was complete news to me, so I was happy to see it, just not happy to hear what happened.
Which brings us back to Gawker. The documentary brings out claims abotu what happened to them, and compares them to Trump who is on his own war against media. Sure, I guess, but it still feels incredibly different. Because even if the guy who bankrolled Hogan wasn’t the best dude Gawker. Still. Was. Wrong.
They put out a sex tape of a celebrity, against his will, didn’t shut it down when asked, and got fucked for it. The internet is a fucked up and unforgiving place, but things are getting better. It used to be that celebrities were not seen as people and just torn down on a whim and just had to take it. But they are getting involved speaking out for the wrongs against them. Especially the women.
Like the women who had their privacy fucked over by the infamous The Fappening, which had a hacker gain access to dozens of celebrities phones, find the naughty ones and post them online, hurting peoples privacy. Places like Gawker did NOT publish these, but talked about them negatively. And then they also do stuff like this, and don’t see the problem.
Having people take down the press, could be a problem. But this documentary tried to say that Gawker wasn’t at fault here, and that kind of makes it hard to accept its bigger points.