WWE drops Hulk Hogan after racist 2007 rant surfaces

[Syt]

I didn't have them specifically in mind, but let's put it this way--if you're a minority, and you spent any significant amount of time wrestling in the WWE, then at some point you were given a stereotypical gimmick or storyline.

Just out of curiosity (I'm really not that well-versed in wrestling stuff), does that hold true for hispanics?  The closest I'm aware of to a "stereotypical gimmick" for one is Rey Mysterio, and that probably doesn't count since he actually was a luchadore before ever joining the WWE...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2Qo8r6tRpA

And of course Razor Ramon (though Scott Hall is not ethnically Hispanic).

[Martinus]

*shrug* don't be a public figure then.

Yep. After all if WWE thinks this is bad for their image then they've an imperative to cut ties.

Hulk Hogan is a bona fide public figure, admittedly, but isn't the tendency these days to make anybody a de facto public figure? I mean, we start to get to the point exemplified by gawker recently posting a story about some nobody executive of some company cheating on his wife. We quickly get to the point when there is no privacy expected or respected at all - and if we adopt the attitude like yours we will get there much faster.

[Tonitrus]

*shrug* don't be a public figure then.

Yep. After all if WWE thinks this is bad for their image then they've an imperative to cut ties.

Hulk Hogan is a bona fide public figure, admittedly, but isn't the tendency these days to make anybody a de facto public figure? I mean, we start to get to the point exemplified by gawker recently posting a story about some nobody executive of some company cheating on his wife. We quickly get to the point when there is no privacy expected or respected at all - and if we adopt the attitude like yours we will get there much faster.

With Ashley Madison recently being hacked, that kind of exposure might explode geometrically pretty soon. 

[Martinus]

These were just idiotic social justice warriors - the fact that big companies and media outlets cave in to their pressure is what is alarming. Given that people do not have decency to respect other people's privacy anymore, the law should step in to protect it with criminal sanction, I'm afraid.

[Richard Hakluyt]

It is not as if Mr Hogan is a Bishop or High Court judge.

[garbon]

I'm confused, what exactly are you saying should be criminalized?

[jimmy olsen]

*shrug* don't be a public figure then.

Yep. After all if WWE thinks this is bad for their image then they've an imperative to cut ties.

Hulk Hogan is a bona fide public figure, admittedly, but isn't the tendency these days to make anybody a de facto public figure? I mean, we start to get to the point exemplified by gawker recently posting a story about some nobody executive of some company cheating on his wife. We quickly get to the point when there is no privacy expected or respected at all - and if we adopt the attitude like yours we will get there much faster.

Didn't they pull that story almost immediately because they realized the law wouldn't protect them if he sued, since even under the most charitable of definitions he was not a public figure?

[Syt]

It is not as if Mr Hogan is a Bishop or High Court judge.

He was for years, though, the icon of the American Dream^TM.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKM1AAzeRCg

[Martinus]

I'm confused, what exactly are you saying should be criminalized?

Publishing private information about people, unless the publishing party can prove public interest. This is how it is done in Europe, by the way.

[Martinus]

*shrug* don't be a public figure then.

Yep. After all if WWE thinks this is bad for their image then they've an imperative to cut ties.

Hulk Hogan is a bona fide public figure, admittedly, but isn't the tendency these days to make anybody a de facto public figure? I mean, we start to get to the point exemplified by gawker recently posting a story about some nobody executive of some company cheating on his wife. We quickly get to the point when there is no privacy expected or respected at all - and if we adopt the attitude like yours we will get there much faster.

Didn't they pull that story almost immediately because they realized the law wouldn't protect them if he sued, since even under the most charitable of definitions he was not a public figure?

Yeah but I am saying the threshold should be higher (i.e. the way it is in the UK, France or Poland) - if you public potentially defaming information about another person (even if the information is true), you need to show public interest. The threshold for a public figure is lower than for a private person, but even a public figure is not a free game, so to speak.

[alfred russel]

Dennis Rodman is supporting him, so it's all good.

He's also supporting Donald Trump's presidential aspirations, so I wouldn't exactly say, "In Rodman we trust."

But he was so good at rebounding. 

[The Larch]

I didn't have them specifically in mind, but let's put it this way--if you're a minority, and you spent any significant amount of time wrestling in the WWE, then at some point you were given a stereotypical gimmick or storyline.

Just out of curiosity (I'm really not that well-versed in wrestling stuff), does that hold true for hispanics?  The closest I'm aware of to a "stereotypical gimmick" for one is Rey Mysterio, and that probably doesn't count since he actually was a luchadore before ever joining the WWE...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2Qo8r6tRpA

And of course Razor Ramon (though Scott Hall is not ethnically Hispanic).

The Mexicools used to get to the ring riding lawnmowers.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0y5ndEtqGs

Check this Grantland article for more info on racism in wrestling since the 80s:

http://grantland.com/features/excerpt-david-shoemaker-new-book-concise-history-racism-wrestling/?ex_cid=GrantlandTW%3Fex_cid%3DGrantlandFB

[lustindarkness]

Now, that is .

[The Brain]

They sure like moving that lawn.

[Malthus]

Is the guy driving the lawnmower wearing Siege's sunglasses?