Day seven of the Hulk Hogan vs Gawker trial featured the testimony of Nick Denton, Gawker’s founder, who said that sometimes a celebrity’s right of privacy is trumped by the public’s right to know the story.

Denton admitted that watching the video made him “uncomfortable,” however in the bigger picture, it was the right thing to do in the interest of their readers. Hogan’s lawyer then tore into Denton and reminded him that during his wedding to husband Derrence Washington, they asked their guests to turn off their cell phones. “We asked them, yes, but we didn’t sue people,” Denton shot back.

Denton defended the posting of the tape however and said he would have taken action if the story turned out to be false. Denton said that there are three things he believes in before posting a story: “Is it true? Is it interesting? And check with legal,” Denton said. The attorney then asked Denton if all celebs waive their privacy just because they are a celebrity and Denton responded with a no. During a heated exchange, Hogan’s attorney Ken Turkel dropped the F bomb and then apologized to the court and the jury.

Turkel then demanded that Denton read a portion of the post that accompanied the video, a very graphic post which Denton earlier described as a “sweet, sympathetic paragraph.” Ouch! The jury at this point has still not seen the video which is the main topic of this lawsuit.

Taking the stand today as well is Mia Libby, the Senior Vice President of Sales for Gawker Media. Libby is defending Gawker when it comes to the financial side of the website, saying that Gawker didn’t make additional money from the Hogan post, adding that advertisers don’t want to be associated with sexually explicit material. She said that posts tagged NSFW triggers an “automatic collapse” of advertising across Gawker pages.

Full videos of the trial are available on our YouTube page at http://www.youtube.com/wrestlingonlinecom.