Gawker Founder Posts Essay Responding to Hulk Hogan Verdict, Explains What He Thinks Hogan Was Really Afraid of in the Sex Tape

As we reported yesterday, unsealed documents in the Hulk Hogan vs Gawker case could prove vital as Gawker prepares to appeal the verdict, which awarded Hogan $115 million and another $25 million in punitive damages.

The sealed documents likely contain the racist remarks Hogan made on the Heather Clem sex tape which lead to Hogan’s release from WWE. Gawker will likely argue that Hogan was more afraid of the racist remarks leaking to the public than the actual sex acts on the tape.

Gawker founder Nick Denton has posted an essay on Gawker expounding on his belief that Hogan was more afraid of the racial aspect of the sex tape than the sex, and below is an essay excerpt:

Hogan did not sue us, as he has claimed, to recover damages from the emotional distress he purportedly experienced upon our revelation in 2012 of a sexual encounter with his best friend’s wife, Heather Cole (then Heather Clem). It turns out this case was never about the sex on the tape Gawker received, but about racist language on another, unpublished tape that threatened Hogan’s reputation and career.

As our lawyers argued in legal briefs that were kept secret by the trial judge from the public—and even from me—until an appeals court unsealed them on Friday, Hogan filed the claim because he was terrified that one of the other tapes, which memorialized his rant about his daughter dating “fucking niggers,” might emerge. As I have come to learn, Hogan himself put it in a text message to his best friend, the radio shock-jock Bubba Clem, days after we published our story: “We know there’s more than one tape out there and a one that has several racist slurs were told. I have a [pay-per-view special] and I am not waiting for anymore surprises….” I had suspicions, but it is now clear that Hogan’s lawsuit was a calculated attempt to prevent Gawker, or anyone else who might obtain evidence of his racism, from publishing a truth more interesting and more damaging than a revelation about his sex life.