Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free Press review – Hulk v Gawker in portrait of wealthy arrogance

This new Netflix docu-feature examines Hogan's case against the gossip site, highlighting other wealthy figures aggressively seeking to silence the press

The extraordinary case of Hulk Hogan's 2015 legal action against the gossip website Gawker is far shadier, far creepier than many appreciate. Certainly, I didn't realise that, until I saw this punchy documentary which sites it in a new context. The Hogan attack was a vanguard operation in the aggressive new reactionary philistinism and hatred of press freedom being nurtured by some of America's super-rich which is encouraged as a political diversionary tactic by the US president.

The wrestler sued Gawker for posting a sex tape of him with his best friend's wife - the video was allegedly made and distributed without his knowledge. Much later, it was revealed that the suit was secretly bankrolled by the Silicon Valley billionaire, Ayn Rand-ist libertarian and Trump supporter Peter Thiel - apparently in revenge for Gawker outing him as gay. So far, so debatable. There are many who feel that both Hulk and Thiel were entitled to privacy and had no great sympathy for Gawker and its trashy, bitchy stories. But this film shows that there is ample evidence that Hogan knew that the tape was being made and was ready to let it accidentally-on-purpose emerge to promote his reality-TV career, panicking only when he thought that a longer version would become public, revealing his racist language. As for Thiel he was already furious at Gawker's ValleyWag column and its continual, irreverent criticism of him and his financial performance, and had, in any case, a highly authoritarian contempt for the democratic impulses of the press. Thiel and Hogan won a staggering $140m in damages, enough to knock over first amendment issues and put Gawker out of business.