Below, I talk about a recent Netflix documentary:
Oh boy, there's a lot I could say here... I'll try to not write a dissertation with this review or upset anyone by stating comments involving politics. Last night seemed like a good time to check this out, what with all that controversy over the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner and how it's yet another issue with the press. Now, cable news media I have a dim view of (and that is all the ones we have in America; I am not singling out Fox News, for example) as it's more entertainment than actual news reporting, and what is said there: usually inaccurate; otherwise, journalism is not the heinous thing that Trump says it is-and he is discussed in like the last 10 to 15 minutes of this film. The idea of billionaires influencing the news media so nefarious stories about them are not printed is an Orwellian nightmare, a scenario that is always frightening due to how it is an affront against the free speech rights that are guaranteed in the United States.
Besides discussing Trump, there's are two main stories covered, one at a time: Las Vegas billionaire Sheldon Adelson in secret purchasing the city's major newspaper, in effect so they wouldn't write any more stories that mention his name, as in the past when his name was broached, it wasn't always in a positive light... but perhaps he shouldn't have done those things that resulted in bad press being reported. The spotlight piece was Hulk Hogan vs. Gawker, and what an absurdity the whole thing was:
* Hulk Hogan sues Gawker because they published part of a sex tape where he bangs the wife of his close confidant doofus shock jock DJ Bubba the Love Sponge, who gets off on other men banging his wife
* Bubba was the one who leaked the tape; what a pal he turned out to be.
* The trial was a farce and it definitely was slanted against Gawker.
* Absurd dialogue happened, such as Terry Bollea stating that his claims of having a 10 inch penis were him in his Hulk Hogan character and Terry Bollea does not have a 10 inch penis.
* Allegedly, Hogan suing was not for the minute of the sex tape that was shown on Gawker, but rather another sex tape where he uttered racial and homophobic slurs.
* Oh, and Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel funded Bollea's legal team as he had a vendetta to bankrupt the organization.
Now, I am not a Gawker fan; them covering stories that traditional media won't touch... that idea alone isn't offensive to me. I did not like the Gawker site nor the sub-sites that are now currently owned by Univision. To me it was a bunch of glib unfunny condescending p****s who usually were lousy writers and wrote the dumbest drivel and articles that were wastes of time. The fact that they publicly outed Thiel (among many other offenses) meant that I did not feel sorry for them that Gawker Media lose the case and in such spectacular fashion... even if it was totally unfair against them and it set a horrible precedent of rich tools going after traditional media due to negatives being reported against them-which Gawker and newspapers did... they covered the failures and gross acts that Thiel and his rich compadres were involved in.
Like I said it may have been more ideal to have those three topics discussed in three separate full-length documentaries as all are worthy tales. Alas... this at least did present the general point of how journalism should never be affected by how much money an individual possesses and it is an important message to present.
I'll close this out by mentioning how I hope the whole Gawker case is written about in books; aside from what I have previously mentioned, what a past 10 to 15 years Terry Bollea has had: he decided to have one of those awful fake "reality" shows created so it could be the launch of his daughter Brooke's singing career... which did not happen. The show may have increased tensions between him and his longtime wife Linda, resulting in a nasty divorce where he lost a lot of money... Hogan can't wrestle any longer because his body (especially his back) broke down due to all those years in the ring... and oh yeah, his son Nick was a dumbass one night and drag-raced, resulting in a crash that resulted in his friend John Graziano being injured to the point he suffered brain damage and will likely need to receive care for the rest of his life. That is why I say there should be books about a story that has such outrageous incidents & moments.
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