LoathsomePete |
06-24-2017 10:29 AM |
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What begins as a simple documentary into the court case between Hulk Hogan and Gawker Media turns more into a look at how Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel financed Hogan's case against Gawker because of a personal grudge he held against the site for outing him as a puff back in 2007. Then it moves on to how billionaire Sheldon Adelson purchased the Las Vegas Review-Journal newspaper, and finally, because all roads lead to him, a section on Trump and his rise to power and how he is a threat to freedom of the press and the 1st Amendment.
I could see that the documentary was going to segue into that because I'm a clever clogs who doesn't breathe with his mouth, but I can definitely see some people who just wanted to watch a documentary about an aged wrestler's penis be a little disappointed.
Funnily enough, my opinion on the case still hasn't changed and I do think the world is a better place without Gawker, which really is a unique toilet of the internet. It actually made me feel a little sorry for Hulk Hogan, who was really a pawn in all this, and even more angry at the owners of Gawker for basically making this the hill where the 1st Amendment starts to die.
It actually feels quite relevant as a film now due to the recent litigation against John Oliver of Last Week Tonight and HBO after doing a segment on the coal industry and specifically Murray Energy. Given how scathing those segments can be, it's not hard to believe that someone else Oliver has done an exposé could pool their finances to get that show off the air and ruin Oliver's career, but now I'm getting into Chula levels of conspiracy.
Overall it was a decent documentary, although my biggest criticism was that they didn't have much in the way of diversity between the subjects they interviewed, and I don't think any of them said much of anything on Gawker and their horrid excuse for journalism.
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