Vohra’s view: If it’s a racist outburst like Hulk Hogan’s, it’s never private

Bikram Vohra 08:59 30/07/2015
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  • Hogan is one of the most iconic figures in wrestling.

    I don’t watch the WWE circus acts on TV except for a brief stopover when I am surfing channels. So in these brief moments one gets to see two big guys slamming each other with choreographed perfection, a blonde somewhere in the vicinity and some undergrad exchange of epithets evidently scripted by a guy with a two digit IQ.

    The one other common factor is that the stadium is always jam packed with screaming fans. So, obviously, it is a winner to many and no surprise that its shareholders became $160 million richer three weeks ago when major investment companies called it a rock solid option for parking your money. The WWE was golden and the richest public franchise in the world of sports.

    — Hulk Hogan (@HulkHogan) July 27, 2015

    This week it slid down a slippery slope and there are no signs that slick PR will contain the damage. The most famous wrestler of all and the face of this peculiar and highly popular offline sport is a gruff, teddy bear of a mountain called Hulk Hogan whom nearly everyone loves and those who don’t at least love to hate him. He was the voice, the big sell, the man people trekked miles to watch in action.

    Up until last week, he still held court in the world of WWE. That was before the media picked up and played one of the most vituperative and vile racist tapes depicting old loveable Hogan sounding off about black people like you wouldn’t believe.

    Even though the muscleman immediately offered an unreserved apology, whatever that means, it is clearly not enough. These tinfoil apologies in the aftermath of the insult count for little. In this case, the chasm between the diatribe and the plastic sorry has inflamed rage even more and compelled the WWE to sever ties with Hulk. They have also knocked him out of the Hall of Fame.

    For thousands out there who see him as wrestling incarnate the disappearance of ‘Ogan the ‘orrible will be a tragic loss. In the first 24 hours after the WWE’s decision to dump him dribbled into the media the shares showed a loss of $60 million. Without Hogan in the WWE it is like chicken pie without any chicken in it. But so gross and ugly is this tape that the WWE itself would have been labelled racist if it had condoned the outburst.

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    Hogan was reportedly privately telling his friend (acquaintance?) how he felt about his daughter’s affair with a black person. And was he talking dirty.

    Can there be a defence on the basis of an invasion of privacy? Yes, but it won’t matter.

    It wasn’t public, it wasn’t on TV, at a press conference over a microphone or in the company of several people. Does it, therefore, come under privileged conversation and does the media have the right to broadcast what is said between the walls of your home or office or even by the pool regardless of how ugly it is? Privacy does have a legal basis and one can ask, what has happened to the de facto convention of a man and his castle being sacrosanct even if he is a celebrity.

    If any of us were taped over 24 hours in our homes most of us would be mortified at things we say which could be construed as prejudiced, hostile, mean, threatening, vilifying and racist (like relaying a bad joke) and how indicting and out of context they would become if made public. Even though it is eight years out of date, the story has turned sordid and has the wrestling world in an armlock. For now, the Hulk has nowhere to hide. And the shares keep slipping.

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