Netflix's documentary game just keeps getting stronger. The streaming service released the first trailer for the upcoming documentary Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free Press, premiering June 23. The film is about the Hulk Hogan vs. Gawker Media case that transfixed the media beginning in 2012, when Gawker published a clip from a sex tape of the wrestler and his friend's wife. The wrestler (real name: Terry Gene Bollea) took the now defunct Gawker to trial for invasion of privacy, seeking $100 million. The real scandal, though, is what emerged in the fallout: that Silicon Valley venture capitalist Peter Thiel bankrolled Hogan's suit in order to retaliate against Gawker, which outed Thiel as gay years earlier.
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Nobody Speak, which premiered to rave reviews at Sundance this year, delves into the fiery debate that followed the bombshell revelation that a billionaire was surreptitiously seeking revenge on a media outlet. (It worked: Gawker was found liable last March and filed for bankruptcy, selling its assets to Univision.) The investigation into the scandal looks at the larger issues of freedom of the press vs. privacy and the slippery slope the shocking ruling could lead us down — especially in an age where the president frequently antagonises journalists and threatens to sue the press.
The doc promises to look into the potential for a billionaire sitting in the Oval Office — making him far more powerful than Thiel ever was — to punish the press when it writes or publishes things he doesn't like or find truthful. The present and future of freedom of the press and the First Amendment are at stake, and this wildly entertaining-looking Netflix exposé promises to shine light on the uncertain, potentially treacherous path ahead for the industry and the country.