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Op-Ed: Hulk Hogan a ‘racist’? Sleaze vs reality is the issue

The story so far –
An eight-year-old sex tape, secretly recorded during a session with the wife of the guy who recorded it, surfaced in which Hogan used “homophobic and racist words.” Hogan was fired by WWE and removed from the WWE Hall of Fame, as well as merchandising.
Now it seems that this very tacky bit of information, which miraculously emerged after all those years, includes a lot of spin factors:
1. Hogan has worked with so many black athletes, (all of whom could do a lot about any words they didn’t like), for decades. Never a problem.
2. His friend Booker T, a top wrestler, started calling Hogan the same word, as a sort of in joke, years ago.
3. The source is someone who used to be a friend of Hogan’s. There’s nothing nastier than an ex-friend.
4. Why take so long to get this tape out and about?
5. Why was the tape made at all? Souvenir value?
6. There’s even a new twist, related to an incident in which someone allegedly tried to extort money from Hogan with a tape, but the FBI got in the way.
There’s an issue here, and it’s not about Hogan. The question is whether materials like this deserve to be considered worth acting upon. I have more than a few doubts. WWE has taken the politically correct stance, but maybe not the factually appropriate position.
If the new approach is anyone with a tape can do this sort of damage, a very messy situation is the likely result. There wasn’t an issue with anyone in WWE, and then there was. I think a major media organization is entitled to take an objective view of this “instant chaos” risk which could turn in to a very nasty little hobby for a lot of people.
Hulk Hogan was, and is, synonymous with WWE. He was the headliner in Wrestlemania 1 and many other big WWE events. Is it realistic, or wise, to remove him from those, too?
The sarcasm from WWE fans has been truly monumentally deafening. One notable comment was “Yeah, Andre the Giant slammed himself,” or words to that effect. Looks like the demographic has spoken, and they don’t give a damn what some guy with an ancient tape has to offer.
There’s a good PR way of managing this situation, if anyone wants to turn it around. Hopefully, that’s what’ll happen, because this isn’t a good look for anyone.

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Written By

Editor-at-Large based in Sydney, Australia.

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