Hulk Hogan vs. Gawker Jurors Get Glimpse of Sex Tape

Jurors at Hulk Hogan’s $100 million invasion-of-privacy suit against the website Gawker got their first glimpse of the secretly made sex tape at the heart of the case on Thursday — from a local Florida news report about Hogan’s suit.

According to The NY Post, A brief clip of the hidden-camera recording was played in court during cross-examination of University of Florida journalism professor Mike Foley, who appeared as a $350-an-hour expert witness for Hogan.

After testifying that he couldn’t imagine a “reputable news outlet” publishing video of the pro wrestling legend having sex with his best friend’s wife, Foley had to eat his words when confronted on cross-examination with a 2012 broadcast of Tampa’s ABC Action News.

The station’s report included several seconds of grainy, black-and-white footage that showed Hogan’s bare butt as he leaned over a canopy bed.

Mike Foley

Also Thursday attorneys for the website Gawker got their chance to question an expert witness for the former wrestler Hulk Hogan, and they used their time to make him appear as out-of-touch with modern journalistic practices as possible.

According to the Tampa Bay Times, the questions began innocently enough. But within a few minutes of taking the stand, University of Florida journalism professor Mike Foley was forced to acknowledge it had been 43 years since he was a reporter and nearly two decades since he worked in a newsroom.

There were repeated references to "back in the day," when he was the executive editor of the Tampa Bay Times in the early 1990s.

"When you were last in a newsroom, there was no Facebook, right? There was no YouTube, right? There was no Twitter?" asked Gawker Media attorney Michael Sullivan. "You're familiar with Twitter?"

Foley has a Twitter account, but the point was made.

"Things have changed," he allowed.

A day earlier, Foley testified that when Gawker published an excerpt of a sex tape featuring Hogan in 2012, it had violated the Society of Professional Journalists' code of ethics and the former wrestler's right to privacy. Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, is suing Gawker for $100 million in damages.

Although the existence of the sex tape was news, Foley said, the tape itself was "not newsworthy." Publishing even one-minute and 41-seconds, as Gawker did, was gratuitous.