R.I.P. Hulk Hogan (And My Trust)

By Gordon Hopkins Maybe I am reading more into my reaction than is really warranted. Maybe not. It could be significant. Or not.There has been a lot of news lately. I mean, there's always news but, sometimes, it seems like there's an awful lot of it going on.For example, a number of celebrities died recently. I don't mean “personalities” or internet “influences” but actual celebrities. The kind of celebrities that makes a guy of a certain age (aka: old) aware of his own mortality.One of those was the very recent death of Terry Gene Bollea, alias pro-wrestler Hulk Hogan.Now, I am certainly not, nor ever was a fan of the “Hulkster,” as he sometimes called himself, thus committing one of the ultimate acts of narcissism by giving his nom de guerre a nom de guerre. Neither, did I particularly dislike Hulk Hogan. I have always been, to put is generously, ambivalent about his existence. My feelings on Hulk Hogan are similar to my feelings on polka music. I am aware it exists. I am aware other people like it. But I don't even think about it unless someone is playing it very loudly nearby.If you grew up in 80s like I did, then he was harder to avoid than polka music at a Czech wedding. The point I am trying to make is that I have no skin in the game if Hulk Hogan is dead or alive. That is important to keep in mind because, when I first heard the news, my first reaction thought was, “Is he?”Yes, I genuinely doubted the news that Hulk Hogan had died. Now, there were previous incidents where Hulk Hogan's death was announced that turned out to be hoaxes. But I didn't know about that until much later.So why did I doubt that Hogan had, indeed, shuffled off this mortal coil? Because the first place I read it was on a scandal-soaked website for TMZ. For those not in the know, TMZ is a celebrity gossip TV show that has the equivalent level of journalistic reliability as Uncle Ron who, halfway through a 12 pack of Pabst, will assure you that the government puts fluoride in the water because it can be tracked by satellites. So, I decided to find out for myself. How? Well, I didn't call the Hollywood coroner's office. I checked out some other news sites. Reuters and Associated Press and CNN and Fox and The New York Times, none of them had anything posted about it. So, it was clearly a hoax.At least, it was until Reuters and Associated Press and CNN and Fox and The New York Times all posted that the iconic wrestler had, indeed, died.What is the meaning of all this? Well, I'm not really sure. I thought I knew where I was going when I started my column but now I realize I don't really know what any of it means. I don't think anyone would fault me for doubting TMZ over those other news outlets. Yet, it concerns me that my immediate reactions to a news story, even coming from TMZ, was that it was bogus. At what point to I cross the line from healthy skepticism to paranoia?

Christina D. Weidner

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