tonight on "nightline," selling sex. he's the man behind the iconic playboy bunny. now, hugh hefner says he has one last big move left. can he make his business hot again? and, cyber bullies. the video has become a sensation. >> you bunching of lying no good punks. >> a daughter and her father attacking the bullies they say are ruining the young girl's life. so, what really happened? and who is to blame? plus, superstars. how much did tiger woods' public shaming cost him? we'll have the answer in tonight's "sign of the times." >> announcer: from the global resources of abc news, with

terry moran, martin bashir and cynthia mcfadden in new york city, this is "nightline," july 22nd, 2010. >> good evening, i'm cynthia mcfadden. we begin tonight with a classic business battle being waged over an iconic magazine, "playboy." once a place that pushed the boundaries of sex in american society is now attempting to remain relevant in the internet age. hugh hefner is determined to put the hop back in the bunny. as john donvan reports for our series "modern sex in america." >> reporter: icon. that overused word, but this one really qualifies. you know what it is and what it stands for. you know who created it, because he is as much an icon himself, as much the face of playboy enterprises as that flat rabbit he launched an incredible 57 years ago, which makes him as of this week, when we sat down

together at the playboy mansion in los angeles, 84 years old, announcing his retirement -- not. why not let go? why not retire? >> because i think that retirement is the first step towards the grave. >> reporter: to the contrary. right now, hefner is on a mission to buy back all the shares of playboy enterprises still held by the public. >> the company, in this particular economic climate, is not being properly dealt with. it's worth a good deal more than what it's being traded for. >> reporter: details? he wasn't sharing. nor reacting to the fact that the company that owns "penthouse" is trying to buy "playboy" also. all he would say is -- >> the greatest success of the company was in the 1950s and '60s, when we were private, and maybe it's recapturing my youth. >> reporter: is part of it getting those days back? >> i just celebrated by 84th birthday and thinking in terms of the future of the brand, the

magazine, and staying the course and making certain that it's going in the right direction and we'll be there long after i'm gone. >> reporter: and if these sound like the words of an old man looking forward by looking back, well, hefner has been looking back a lot lately, courtesy on a documentary based on his life being released this month. and part of why he may have looked so wistful when it was screened here at the mansion is simply the fact that he was so young back then. >> certainly isn't approach -- >> i would not only suggest that, i would say we consider it pretty healthy. >> reporter: and those times are so long gone by. even what was cool, the look of tuxes and cocktails and sex about to happen. >> i saw that even though he was the playboy, and the magazine, but there's a man who is so complex, has so many different sides -- >> reporter: and sides that you

admire? >> sides that i have discovered and that i find are very important. ♪ i'm so glad that i brought my wife ♪ >> reporter: like the fact that he booked african-americans on the tv show he started in the late '50s showed blacks and whites socializing together. something you did not see on television. and that he insisted racial integration in the playboy cl clubs. >> 30 years from this year, a negro can become president. >> he saw another human side of them. >> reporter: hefner was a leading liberal when liberals were still leading. he's called the magazine lifestyle. he was a campaigner for abortion rights and for freedom from censorship. >> i want to live in a society in which people can voice unpopular opinions. >> reporter: people don't remember it. for some reason, they remember the playboy clubs, et cetera. so, i think it's the people, too. i think they congregation to the

sexy in that sense. >> reporter: we're all so pure yent, i guess. >> yes, we are. yes. >> reporter: but that fueled the business that provided the funds that allowed for the social activism. >> absolutely. >> reporter: so it's all tied up. >> and i think mr. hefner would say that. >> reporter: yes, sex sold. it built clubs and dressed bunnies and outraged feminists and conservative christians alike -- >> the day you are willing to come out here with a cotton tail attached to your rear end -- >> hugh hefner is a pornograp r pornographer. always was. >> reporter: but in a certain way, the forces unleashed by playboy would go on to overtake the playboy business model. >> what's the impact on the fact that there is so much explicit sexual material now available in forms where you don't have to go to the drugstore and buy it, but you can just go -- >> i think it's had a dramatic impact on playboy, just as i think other things on the internet have had a dramatic

impact on print. one of the sad things i think about the younger generation, quite frankly, is they have less sense of yesterday. and if you don't know who you were, you don't really know who you are. >> reporter: can we pull something at random and see what we find? >> sure. >> reporter: hefner's yesterday are bound together here at the mansion on shelves of scrapbooks, and it is point yent to leaf through these with them. his reck lakes precise, regardless of what page you turn to. >> this is the opening of pips, february 1973. a private club here in beverly hills that i started with a couple of friends. >> reporter: a club that's not there anymore. on the next page, a girlfriend from years ago. >> this is barbie. >> reporter: much of what hefner created is gone now, faded from popular memory, like bunny clubs in big american cities. >> reporter: you sign off on the choice of playmate, on the cover? >> still pick the covers, the pictorials, the cartoons, edit the letters, party jokes. >> reporter: it's a format whose major elements haven't been

altered in half a century, despite younger editors telling hefner it's time to make changes. is it possible you're wrong and you're holding onto something that is dear to you, because you made it, but it worked a long time sago. >> i have very strong theories about magazine publishing, and i think a magazine is an old friend. so, what you try to create with the publication is a sense of a friend visiting, with something new. >> reporter: another iconic image he cherishes is that of himself, as the quintessential playboy. as he's aged across the decades, the girlfriends never have. he says he was faithful during a imagine of several years in the 1980s, but after that, he returned to the field as documented in a globally popular reality show about a try owe of girlfriends called "the girls next door." the success of which he says shows he's still got game. business wise. >> and more popular with women

than it is with men. playboy products, that rabbit, that trademark is famous everywhere. maybe other people are looking back a little bit, too. maybe they want a little piece of the world they missed. >> reporter: you're saying there's a bit of a nostalgia. what was there then that's not here now? >> class, romantic connection. >> reporter: the martinis and the tux. a little more of that. >> uh-huh. >> reporter: you think we'll get back there? >> some of us will. >> reporter: i'm john donvan for "nightline" in los angeles. >> john donvan goes one more round with hugh hefner. the hugh hefner documentary opens july 30th. when we come back, the disturbing videos of an 11-year-old girl verbally attacking her tormenters and having an emotional breakdown. they've gone viral. what was behind it?

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...and keeps killing for 30 days -- on dogs and cats. that's why it's... .the #1 choice of vets for their pets, and yours. there's killing, and thers complete killing with frontline plus. we turn now to disturbing clips from the internet which have gone viral. an 11-year-old girl at first angrily ranting against online tormenters and then having an intention emotional breakdown. all in front of her web cam. was cyber bullying behind it? her screen name is jessi slaughter, and as andrea canning reports, florida detectives are slaughter, and as andrea canning reports, florida detectives are now investigating what drove this 11-year-old to the edge. >> reporter: it's the tirade that's gone viral. >> it's jessi slaughter here and this is to all your [ bleep ] haters. >> reporter: turning 11-year-old jessi slaughter into an overnight online celebrity. >> i'm happy, okay? if you can't, like, realize that, and stop hating, then, you know what, i'll pop a glock in your mouth and make a brain slushie. you just think -- jealous of me. i'm saying you're jealous of me because, one, i'm more pretty than you. i have more friends, more people like me. i have more fans. yeah, and all that [ bleep ]. i never thought it would get to this point. >> reporter: slaughter which is actually her screen name, can be seen against her so-called online haters in a series of web videos. >> shut your mouths before you make a fool of yourself again. >> reporter: but what could cause a girl just 11 years old to feel so hated she had this virtual meltdown? >> emotional breakdowns, one after another. i'm crying my eyes out, if you haven't noticed that. you're just ruining my [ bleep ] life. >> reporter: speaking only to abc news, slaughter, alongside her parents, gene and diane, said he used the videos to retaliate after people started posting lies about her on social networking sites. what were people saying about you? >> they were just writing about my alleged sexual history. they were saying that i got raped by somebody who i knew. >> reporter: when these trolls started posting these things about you, what made you decide to make these videos? >> i decided that if i made them, maybe somebody would watch them and try to get the truth out of them, but other than that, they just completely took it the wrong way. and just turned it around and it snowballed from there. >> reporter: call it a giant cyber snowball, involving millions of viewers and users. how this nasty back and forth all began is still unclear. some say she was the one who started it. one website pointed out that she tweeted "i love drama" days before the video went viral. but slaughter denies she instigated anything and maintains she's the victim. con froblted by posts like these, poking fun at her makeup and looks, quote, that's one washed up looking 11-year-old. >> i'll put some [ bleep ] in the [ bleep ] bar. >> reporter: her series of explosive outbursts only continued to attract more attention. why so much profanity in the videos? >> it's just -- i had no worlds running through my mind, it was all done live, and that was just a way to get out my anger. >> reporter: anger that slaughter's dad unleashed in his own rant. >> this is from her father. you bunch of lying no good punks. and i know who it's coming from, because i back traced it. and i know whose e-mailing and who is doing it, and you've been reported to the cyber police and the state police. and it's from her father. >> going to come and beat her ass. >> and if you come near my daughter, guess what? consequences will never be the same. as a father, i was just trying to support my daughter and get people to stop hating. >> to respond to someone who bullies you is totally counterproductive because it incites your bully or other bullies to bully you even more. >> reporter: now the videos have sonned a series of parodies. >> consequences will never be the same. >> reporter: there's t-shirts and mugs for sale with some of her father's now infamous phrases, like, consequences will never be the same, and, you dun goofed. but the family says it's no joke. claiming to receive dozens of threatening phone calls and e-mails every day. >> when this first started, we were very afraid. >> i've been getting a lot of death threats. >> online people accuse me of molesting my daughter. >> reporter: an investigation is now under way by florida police who released this statement, saying, our detectives are looking into what could amount to a cyber stalking or cyber bullies case. if we find evidence, we will pursue suspects. slaughter is adamant she's not suicidal, but believes this kind of taunting that could push a teen over the age. cyber bullying is on the rise and has driven some teens to suicide, who faced constant harassment through texts and e-mails. >> it's out of control. kids just really need to stop this. it's -- so many children are turning to suicide as an alternative, just to get rid of their pain and that's not right. >> i think that it's completely wrong that people would taunt somebody to some degree that they would actually kill themselves over it, and that's actually completely wrong and whoever is doing it should be locked away for a really long time. >> reporter: up next for jessi slaughter, counseling for her anger. her parents acknowledge she needs help deeming with her tie raids. but they have no plans to make

you're just ruining my [ bleep ]

but the family says it's no

her log off any time soon. for "nightline," i'm andrea canning in palm coast, florida. >> a frightening part of the new internet world. when we come back, who's the richest of them all? sports figures, that's who. is tiger on top? or did lebron's move to miami propel him to the number one or did lebron's move to miami propel him to the number one place?

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>> announcer: "nightline" continues from new york city with cynthia mcfadden. >> to many, they are modern day heroes, doing battle in the sports arena and conquering madison avenue at the same time. professional athletes are young, famous and rich. how rich? bill weir looks at the cream of sports illustrated annual bill weir looks at the cream of sports illustrated annual fortunate 50 list of proffering athletes. it's a wealthy subject for tonight's "sign of the times." >> reporter: say you have a promising youngster on your hands. he dazzles the youtube audience with coordination and drive, while you have your eye on a new yacht and/or vineyard. so, which game should you encourage? well, the folks at "sports illustrated" have crunched the numbers, and the fortunate 50 provides a valuable glimpse. >> we may not be going to the ballpark quite as often, we may not have the 50-yard line seats,

but we're consuming sports more than ever in more ways than ever. >> wade, there he goes! >> reporter: dwyane wade, kobe bryant, shaquille o'neal and yes, the newly loathed lebron james. >> here comes james again, the freight train has left the station. >> here comes james again, the freight train has left the >> reporter: all take advantage of a game free of closeup spoiming helmets and intermittent at-bats. a game that allows one superstar to take over primetime, not including the commercials in between. including the commercials in at $45 million in earnings and endorsement, king james were the fourth highest earner last year, a ranking that may be in jeopardy after his widely panned defection to south beach. >> can't remember an athlete whose image took such a hit in such a short amount of time. if lebron james goes to miami, wins that nba title, we love winners, brands love winners. maybe that endorsement income goes up even more. >> extends for the touchdown.

>> reporter: the nfl may be america's favorite game, bpeyto manning is the only football player to crack the top ten. >> there's a salary cap. and there's a lot of players that an average guy on the street can't recognize without his helmet and uniform. >> only two baseball players live atop this list. both yankees. at five, alex rodriguez outearns derek jeter by $12 million in salary. but jeter makes $6 million more than rodriguez. see, kids? image matters. and as we get into the top of the list, proof that team sports may build civic pride and social skills. but individual stars make friends with a lot more dead presidents. at number three, fighter floyd mayweather jr., who vaulted onto the list with one $60 million payday. at number two, phil mickelson. >> he's the champion.

>> reporter: his steady putter won him $10 million on the course. but his reputation as a model husband brought him another $52 million from madison avenue. and at number one -- tiger woods. >> breaking news this afternoon. >> a minor accident. >> reporter: yes, scandal and all, his $20 million plus and $70 million in endorsement make him america's best paid athlete for the seventh year in a row. >> obviously took a hit, didn't lose all the sponsors. it will be interested. he's not won a tournament this year. if he doesn't get back to winning, it will be interesting to see what effect that will have on his endorsement income. >> reporter: and finally, the lesson is, mommas, let your babies grow up to be golfgolfer? >> pay per view golfers. that's when you'd really make that's when you'd really make it. >> reporter: there you go. time to saw that driver down to toddler size. oh, and in the interest of endorse ms, don't forget to instill the golden rule.

i'm bill weir for "nightline" in new york. >> you can check out the complete list of the fortunate 50 on si.com. our thanks to bill weir. and, a bit of "nightline" news. i'm pleased to report that the talented mr. weir will be joining terry and me as a co-anchor of this broadcast in a couple of weeks. welcome, bill. we'll be right back with a look at the rather fun and fabulous brand new abc news ipad app. trust me, it's cool. first, here's jimmy kimmel with what's coming up next on abc. >> jimmy: on the show tonight, wilmer valderrama, dwyane wade from the miami heat, music from keane, and the double rainbow guy is here, which is important. "jimmy kimmel live" is next. since i've been doing roller derby for the last thr years,

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