A former Gawker editor told a court on Wednesday that the only situation where a sex tape would not be newsworthy is if it included a child under the age of four.
AJ Daulerio, who no longer works at Gawker, is a key witness in the $100mn lawsuit against the website brought by wrestling star Hulk Hogan, real name Terry Bollea, over a sex tape Delaurio published in 2012.
Daulerio was questioned on day three of a trial that is expected to last three weeks and could spell the end of Gawker, a website founded in 2002 by British journalist Nick Denton.
Gawker built its brand with gossip about the media elite before expanding into a network of sites that cover things such as feminist issues, sports, and celebrities. But the media empire could face bankruptcy if it loses the case and is forced to make the $100m payout.
Gawker’s legal team is looking to prove that the release of the video is protected by the first amendment because Hogan is a public figure. Hogan, however, said his life was turned “upside down” by the release of the video and is attempting to prove there is a difference between his wrestling persona and personal life.
Daulerio said he published the sex tape after receiving it an email and watching it “one or two times”. The person who sent the video did not ask for money, Daulerio said.
Hogan’s attorney asked whether Daulerio would still publish the video if they knew it was published without Hogan’s consent. Daulerio said yes.
He also said he had been “enthusiastic” when writing the post about the video, because he had enjoyed watching it and had found it amusing.
Later asked by an attorney for Hogan if there was a situation in which a celebrity sex tape might not be newsworthy, Delaurio responded: “If they were a child.”
The attorney then asked him to specify: a child under what age? Daulerio responded: “Four.”
That answer brought an end to his cross examination, which reporters in the St Petersburg, Florida, courtroom said was difficult to understand and “mumbling”.
A.J. Daulerio is very difficult to understand in this deposition. A bit of a mumbler. #hulkvsgawk
— Tom Kludt (@TomKludt) March 9, 2016
“This is like watching a recalcitrant child be questioned,” Tampa Bay Times reporter Anna Phillips tweeted.
Denton called Daulerio “the most successful editor of Gawker.com” when Daulerio left the company in January 2013.
After Gawker, Daulerio held a job at SpinMedia for two months, before being laid off.
He eventually went on to found the tabloid-style media site Ratter, which shut down indefinitely in January. That month, Daulerio said he was temporarily closing the site, in which Gawker media had invested $500,000, “until after the Hogan trial”.
