I like the combination; the owner of a real newspaper going after a fake newspaper for attempting to blackmail him and a real billionaire taking down a fake one for requesting it.
Extortion or blackmail, it is better for Bezos to sell the Washington Post in order to protect and preserve the reputation of a great newspaper in America. Money buys a great paper but should not destroy a great paper. Readers will always remember the owner's name. Why don't you start a new paper Amazon Daily?
It seems to me very plausible that Bezos was caught in a honeytrap and sting.
He should have known better than to have an affair with a FOX news reporter whose own brother is a rabid Trump supporter.
This really forces us to question his judgment, including his famous business savvy.
1
Bezos should buy the Enquirer, and then shut it down.
2
Thought the same exact thing.
I have no intention to comment on Mr. Bezos personal life. But I have to say all the movements he made after he knew about the exposure of his “affair” were respectful. This is what I call man with wisdom. He was able to take the consequences, and play the game on the table. And this should be all man and woman’s choice when similars things happen. A honest person with flaws is always more respectful than a disguised “perfect” one.
4
I guess one way to reward Bezos for his courage for standing up against Trump and his ilk is to start shopping for your groceries at Whole Foods that doesn't carry the Enquirer, unlike Safeway or Lucky that still keeps it on the shelves at the checkout counter. Plus beers are cheaper there too!
1
So, the world’s richest man has a sappy fling with an erstwhile TV personality from Hollywood. When his divorce was announced, the mainstream media feigned surprise and portrayed disbelief in the idyllic union of this left winger.
Now we know that he is one of the people who has been sleeping with his paramour. The self-described family man is anything but wholesome.
By Hollywood standards this story is a yawner. The media is trying hard to pin this to the President through his onetime friendship with the owner of National Enquirer.
The Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was reported to have told the Talking Points Memo a few years ago (2011?) that she has "dirt" about the then GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich and will reveal it when the time is right." Hmm…
Is there fire behind the smoke? Are we going to hear the details since Pelosi is back? Inquiring minds want to know.
1
Trump called the National Enquirer a very reliable and accurate News Organization. 99% of the public would disagree with him on that gem of an advice. Good God, is this President sane?!!
6
Jeff Bezos would make a superb president.
1
And what about Fox and Sanchez? It may not be as simple as looking at the National Enquirer.
2
Bezos is not taking on just Mr Pecker nor just American Media Inc but a handful of wealthy wackos backing AIM and Trump. These folks also control Fox & Hannity, talk radio hosts Limbaugh & Coulter, the GOP, and more generally a widespread and enormously successful propaganda machine that defines reality for 85% of Republicans.
They also are completely unprincipled.
That is daunting opposition. The struggle is not with the less powerful. Bezos has guts, as well as money.
2
Paradox of paradoxes.
Trump cannot stand the free press roaming into his business. But he has no problem when they roam into other people's business.
Even worse? The Enquirer represents the worst human inclinations. It is all too happy to destroy other people's lives, but so much as turn an inquiring eye to the Enquirer, and a flock of predatory lawyers will rise up from the depths of hell to sue, blackmail, or extort whatever price their benefactors desire.
You see, The Enquirer only likes a free press when it is free to report whatever it wants, and can quash whatever stories it doesn't like.
I have always defended the free press since coming to understand the principles when I was an adolescent in the 1960s. I am now prepared to make an exception for The Enquirer (a rag I always hated anyway). Time to kill this beast. It has rendered itself a detriment to our society. It literally has absolutely no value in this world. Something I am reluctant to say when it comes to freedom of the press because it's the very making of a judgment that the First Amendment protects against.
Randy Newman had it right: Bring lawyers, guns and money.
Jeff Bezos did just that...and more.
1
@Lance Haley I think it was Warren Zevon who wrote that line
Bezos is a big baby and a horrible role model for his kids. Good thing his wife got out. Boycott Amazon.
I actually stopped buying stuff from Amazon a couple of years ago because of that article on how Bezos treats his employees. But as of today I'm activating my account again and I'm buying from Amazon and signing up for Prime.
3
Let’s not forget Bezos was and is married during this ongoing affair and legally remains so. How does that long term marriage get buried so deeply in this crush ?
@D Anne Because their marriage is none of anyone's business except themselves. We don't have a right to judge or jump into someone's marriage.
2
Blackmail is a crime.
6
The other article in the NYTimes states: "Mr. Bezos has risked significant personal embarrassment in taking on American Media Inc., "
Maybe he has nothing to be embarrassed about.
2
So while a large number of people are losing their mind about National Enquirer, Bezos and WaPo, global citizens are losing their lives, water around the world, including countries like the US is being poisoned, political corruption remains unchecked and intensifying, all for profit.
Why don't we focus on interventionism, regime change, health care and education? These are issues which can benefit the MANY instead of the few!!
4
AMI is desperately concerned that WaPo not get any closer to the story of an evil triumvirate that includes the Saudis, AMI and the president of the United States. The Saudis need to keep WaPo from digging deeper on Kashoggi, trump hates Bezos and the coverage he receives from WaPo and AMI either loves trump or is afraid of him for some reason.
Evil is right.
4
Neither AMI nor Jeff Bezos can be described as angelic here. Bezos should have known that he’s a popular media target.
That said, he really did turn the tables on Pecker (go ahead and publish the photos), while at the same time creating a case for extortion.
As usual these days, it’s hard to choose a side to cheer for. But AMI’s was the greater wrong.
As for the rest of us, be careful with those selfies and all the revelations on Facebook. You may not envision being president now, or the wealthiest person on earth. One thing is for certain, you will be a target for unsavory characters like David Pecker if you ever reach those lofty heights.
1
In this chess game (or plot line for a possibly engrossing TV political mini-series), I would say Bezos trumped Pecker and AMI in the PR wars.
Who looks sleazier?
Bezos (who was bound to take some flak for having an affair and getting a divorce after all his years of marriage), but called Pecker's bluff to publish the private texts and photos?
Or Trump's pal and publisher, Pecker, of the nation's #1 sordid, tacky rag sheet, who did try to extort Bezos. I won't publish the material I stole (somehow) if you do what I demand, Bezos?
Ha, ha! Pecker's plan backfired because Bezos called his bluff and admitted the truth publicly--thereby undercutting any "surprise" if published and squelched the extortion attempt as well.
Maybe Dad was right: Honesty is the best policy. You can't be faulted for telling the truth, but you sure can be faulted and appear untrustworthy if you lie.
It doesn't seem like Trump has figured this out yet, even at age 72. Or maybe Trump's brain wiring is crossed and he has it all backwards.
2
Thank goodness the AMI board will conduct an investigation into this matter. Whatever will they conclude?
There is no grey here. Absolute flat out blackmail. I wonder who else is getting blackmailed? Lindsay Graham? Mitch? Paul?
6
Mom told me to never trust anything in the National Enquirer, and that was in the 1970's...
5
The person who should be truly disgusted is Mrs. Bezos.
This creep and cheater has now suddenly cast himself as some hero and the left-wing media has enabled him.
5
@JQGALT Just to be clear, Mr. Bezos never "cast himself as a hero". He had only 2 choices: to give in to blackmail so that the embarrassing photos would not be revealed; or, to refuse and take the consequences, no matter at what cost to his personal reputation and damage to his family relationships. As for the first, even if he agreed to the blackmail, there was no guarantee that at some future date, the photos, would not show up in the public sphere, especially now that they were in the hands of a third-class,scandal-mongering rag like 'The Enquirer'.
I'm curious. What would YOU do?
@Vera Mehta
Take is easy on him, Ms. Mehta - he's from Philly. Can't help himself.
If somebody had asked you in, say, 2013, what widely available newspaper most represented Donald Trump's persona--wouldn't you have immediately said "the National Enquirer"?
Of course he and David Pecker go way back. Of course Trump is dim enough to think of the Enquirer as being just another paper on the same tier of journalistic value as the NYT or the Post. Of course the same paper that features stories about the alien-DNA "bat boy" or Michael Jackson's telepathic powers or how __________ celebrity is secretly dying of cancer or AIDS (w/ clearly doctored photographs) is the paper that matches the cultural moment of Trumpism.
I wonder what the crossover is between the 25% of die-hard Trump voters in America and the Enquirer's most avid readership?
2
That lawyer is toast!
1
It’s ironic that Trump is so gleeful about Bezos’ issues with the Enquirer, given his own sordid marital issues. Does The Donald’s love affair with Mr. Pecker reveal a case of mutual back scratching in order to prevent his own embarrassing pictures from coming to light?
1
My God would I love to see Pecker and Trump sharing the same cell in near future. I know Trump would eventually get away with everything but I would love to see all tabloids in this country die down either through vigorous prosecution and substantial jail time or personal as well as business bankruptcy.
1
I am one of those people who see extra-marital affairs with a "one bite rule." And I offer absolutely no sympathy for Jeff Bezos's marital woes and his affair du jour.
However, given the source of his aggravation and embarrassment — AMI, parent company of the pathetic rag-for-tiny-brained folk, The National Inquirer, and its equally disgusting CEO and DJT enabler, David J. Pecker — I hope Bezos's lavish wealth can eviscerate Pecker and his publication into extinction. Stories of lizard-skin babies and kidnappings by extraterrestrials will not be missed.
4
Thought for today: If you are going to drop a horse's head in someone's bed, make sure he is not capable of next day delivery of the whole stinking carcass to your front door.
15
This has 45 all over it. 45 had AMI, and his sleazy friend Pecker, do this because he can't stand Bezos success, power, favorability and wealth. I hope Bezos continues to tell all as painful and embarrassing as it may be for him and his ex. I'm really not happy with how Bezos marriage ended in affair but hoping this brings that tabloid rag down.
2
Trump is behind this, but he will escape as usual. But if they keep pecking away they can get Pecker.
2
@Ronald Tee Johnson Isn't it more likely that AMI thought this up on their own? It has been reported that AMI was courting Saudi investment. If that's true, isn't it more probable that AMI was demonstrating to the Saudis, smarting under WaPo's insistent reporting on the Khashoggi matter, how useful it would be to have their own newspaper to needle Bezos? Genius move!
@Renee Ozer On the mark, Renee@
Only three years before they can commit another crime? What's wrong with FOREVER??
6
Before the electronic age, Charles Brownson (IN-R) gave us: "Never argue with someone who buys ink by the barrel." I'm not sure what the modern equivalent is, but it might be something about measuring Twitter followers (Twittees?) by the million.
If only Bezos were a republican, the story would would have been squashed, or he could have done what Trump did and simply lie. After all, republicans dont really care about moral behavior.
1
Aha. Maybe the AMI have a lot of unfriendly information of those guys with the letter R follows that why they are in lock step.
1
American Media, Inc. is going to be very, very sorry it stepped on Superman's cape.
Here's hoping Bezos nails AMI to the wall, and that a direct connection between AMI in this tawdry business is found.
2
SDNY had a non prosecution agreement with AMI;that is now blown out of the water. Trump could be in very big trouble. Ray Sipe
2
Bezos is not the world's richest man, that honor goes to Vladimir Putin.
2
Good for Bezos for calling the National Enquirer on this and taking it public.
2
I hope Mr. Bezos does what Peter Thiel did to Gawker when he was outed: stop at nothing until AMI and the NEnq are bankrupt. Thiel financed Hulk Hogan's lawsuit against Gawker. Bezos can launch his own lawsuits and finance anyone wanting to sue AMI. He has more money, so he will prevail.
1
They have the right to publish the texts. Thay have the right to not disclose their sources. They also have the right to disclose that they have photos.
Bezos made the claim that this was politically motivated, he has no proof of that. Nor can he prove that. Look for AMI to launch a claim of libel.
The National Enquirer does this for a living. You don’t need to be a billionaire to charge them with blackmail. They know what they are doing. They did not ask for money and as much as it pains us, they will be in the clear legally.
4
Legally, extortion doesn’t require a demand for money. A demand for “something of value” will suffice. So Bezos would seem to be on pretty sure legal footing will this charge, and it appears that AMI is at least concerned about that possibility. Otherwise, why would they be conducting an internal investigation into their conduct?
7
@Brando
They have the right to publish.
They don't have the right to hack his phone. Or yours. Or mine.
AMI can't be libeled. As the equivalent of "a public figure," it would have to prove that Bezos "maliciously" made the claim while knowing that it was false AND that AMI suffered a loss of reputation because of it. Since only idiots believe in the National Enquirer and most people already consider it to be the bottom-dweller amongst all known publications, its reputation can't sink any lower.
2
@steve the first amendment applies to “the press”, not just the non bottom dweller press.
1
Good for him. Definitely admire his drawing a line in the sand. Kudos, Mr. Bezos.
7
Interesting that Bezos says extortion is bad when it is happening to him but not when he is doing it to the residents of Long Island City, NY for his new campus.
9
Mistress? Really?
Ms. Sanchez is her own person. What's more, she has a name.
Use a gender neutral term for her role dating Jeff Bezos that can be applied to any man, or don't call her anything at all.
10
@AmesNYC. There are many terms that could be used to describe her but “mistress” seems to be the most polite.
2
Jeff Bezos "shame the devil (AMI)" and sell them on Amazon, or put them on Ebay and pay down the national debt.
Everybody wants to know what a billionaire is packing.
1
Mr. Pecker, Trump, Kushner, Miller, et al.
I hope this very rich man takes all of you down.
Today, Bezos gets immunity.
Long live Khashogghi!
19
Too bad that Jeff Bezos has no shame, sorrow or regret for cheating on his wife and creating this vile content in the first place. How many of us would like to see his naked selfies? Not I! Forget about his body -- it looks like his soul and spirit are quite ugly.
I would prefer that Bezos issue a public apology to his wife and children for his abhorrent behavior. As for AMI: two wrongs don't make a right.
8
Why should Mr. Bezos make a public apology if he has (assuming) already made a private one? We judge people too much based on their public statements. I think the joint initial divorce notice said it all...
4
@Tiffany Eleanor
Last I checked extramarital sex wasn't unlawful. This is a personal matter and you don't know the circumstances.
3
@Tiffany Eleanor Why, is Queen Victoria still alive? Who knew? Seriously, this prissy moralizing is totally out of place in the 21st century. There is nothing morally wrong with divorcing or having an affair. One does question the wisdom of sending nude selfies - but after all, he did not send them to Amazon Prime subscribers list. If Ms. Sanchez wanted to see Mr. Bezos in the buff, what’s that to you?
2
Blackmail is a crime, right? And Pecker is being accused of blackmail which means, if true, he violated the terms of his agreement with SDNY. Can we get a perp walk into a black SUV straight to Rikers? Oh, and h/t from Trump to the FBI agent putting Pecker in the suv - don't put your hand on his head when entering the vehicle.
10
I smell a rat named Donald Trump in the background of all of this. No one should put it past him.
25
Sleazy and likely to morph into a situation that the White House was too dumb to foresee.
19
Skip the article and just go right to Jeff Bezos's post in Medium. Simply brilliant. https://medium.com/@jeffreypbezos/no-thank-you-mr-pecker-146e3922310f
9
Publishing a scandal on the richest man in the world is pretty on point for the Enquirer. But is Bezos putting his fortune at risk by hitting Saudi Arabia when arms dealers could apply pressure through spook cloud service purchases from the likes of the NSA? I assume he wants to be a Trillianaire.
1
“Of course I don’t want personal photos published, but I also won’t participate in their well-known practice of blackmail, political favors, political attacks and corruption,” Mr. Bezos wrote. “I prefer to stand up, roll this log over and see what crawls out.”
Good for you Mr. Bezos. I applaud Mr. Bezos preempting and paving the way to shut down these unethical practices. Our country is sick from lies, distortions, blackmail, and cover up practices.
It's time to penalize any organization and individuals who engages in spreading false rumors, blackmail, corruption, and cover up practices.
We need to develop a scale that measures the extend of the lies, extortion, blackmail, and cover up practices and their intend to harm others.
Small lies on the internet/newspaper assess $250 - $500 penalty ticket
This will reduce all the garbage people post.
Medium lies on the internet/newspaper assess $500- $5000 penalty ticket
Large lies with impact to harm, hurt reputation, retaliation should be assessed of $$$$$$
Maybe we can then stop the rumors, blackmails, cover up practices...political corruption.
Give a ticket for every lie, blackmail, retaliatory practices, cover up practices...
Tabloid papers should be banned!
Maybe then we can resort to truth and ethical behavior.
6
I like Bezos's "publish and be damned" attitude. Would that Trump had the same guts. But he is a coward.
12
I hope Bezos sues AMI into extinction
18
Remember when Trump said that the National Enquirer should win the Pulitzer Prize for journalism.
My fervent hope is that the exposure of AMI and Trump corruption will take them down and begin to clean up what’s happened to America.
I suspect Sean Hannity has a role in these dirty dealings with his New York connections to Trump, Michael Cohen and the tabloid style of “journalism” he routinely practices. Someone should look into Fox News or as it’s known today, Trump TV. I think there’s more than rampant sexual harassment going on in that organization.
11
Pecker and Trump messed with the wrong guy, and they will both get a good hard kick in the derrière.
15
Pickled Pecker.
11
He's the second richest man on earth. Putin is first.
3
I suspect newspapers make such negotiations over such compromising stories on a regular basis, even the Washington Post and the NYT. Ask them how they negotiate publishing stories using classified government information that the government doesn't want them to publish.
@Aristotle Gluteus Maximus
Excuse me? Are you comparing a tabloid to a national newspaper that brought down a President not too long ago, and will most likely bring down another within the next year?
2
@Indisk
You didn't address my question. The NYT and the Washington Post have both adopted the methods of tabloid publications to gain readership when traditional advertising doesn't pay the bills anymore. You really should examine how the major newspapers acquire and publish national security information that is stolen from the US government and is handed to them by criminals who had to violate the law to obtain that information. Then examine the negotiations the publishers engage in when the government asks that they not publish the illegally acquired classified information in their possession.
1
Rather than buy AMI to bury its fish wrapper Enquirer, Mr. Bezos and other media giants should orchestrate a massive campaign against any entity that advertises in the horrid publication. Buying AMI just puts money in Pecker's pocket; killing all advertising puts Pecker and his lowlife staff on the unemployment line. Touché — Mr. Bezos wins, Pecker and Trump lose, and America is a better place because of it.
6
pecker and NE seriously misjudged.
bezos is not a trump soiled waif or dallying preacher, he's the world's richest man (whatever that means).
and, being the world's richest (before divorce settlement), what does he care about a handful of photos of himself in deshabillé poses "with his wedding ring"?
AMI vs. Bezos = Trump vs. Putin
2
Who freakin' cares!
4
I am shocked that the standard-bearer of ethical journalism in America (The National Enquirer) would run such a sensationalized, salacious story.
The Bezos story is an exotic tale of sex, nude photos, a mistress, divorce……all involving an extremely well known and high profile individual.
I am so disappointed in the National Enquirer for stooping so low. They should stick to mainstream investigative journalism like the following covers that were worthy of Pulitzers:
https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1KMZB_enUS610US610&q=enquirer+covers&tbm=isch&source=univ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjfj_eSg63gAhUjxVkKHTJ_DZ8QsAR6BAgBEAE&biw=1920&bih=938
4
Oh, this is so delicious!
First off, we need not fear seeing Mr. Bezos' nether regions. He's pretty much inoculated himself on that score. Second, the only thing dumber than sending photos of your nether regions on your cell phone is blackmailing someone via e-mail.
When will they ever learn?
6
Except for our president, I don't think anyone has called him "Jeff Bozo" since third grade.
3
If you need more evidence that Donald Trump is a wanna-be lowlife mafioso, look no further than the grotesque behavior of cronies like Roger Stone, Michael Cohen, and D. Pecker. This criminality doesn't belong in the Executive Branch, and should forever be a stain on the Republican Party--at least for those of us not mesmerized by the Criminal-In-Charge at the White House.
8
Keep it classy, Lauren and Jeff!
2
I am more interested in hearing about the legal consequences, if any, of the extortion threat by the National Enquirer. Let's just say that I am not entirely confident of the "investigation" AMI is conducting.
4
What this entire episode make me wonder is how many other tawdry stories AMI's "safe" contains, and how many other public figures may have decided to comply with their blackmailing threats in the past.
Mr. Bezos deserves a round of applause for exposing AMI's mafia-like behavior in this situation, despite the personal distress it is causing.
There is a decidedly ironic aspect to this story since AMI's "safe" likely contains a plethora of information about the POTUS that had been withheld - especially given Cohen's testimony about AMI's involvement, and Pecker's immunity agreement with the Mueller investigation.
To have both Bezos and Trump put into the same basic situation, and see their actions/reactions in starkly different ways to such threats is beyond amusing, and quite telling about each individual’s innate character and integrity.
8
Ever since that tabloid rag decided to get into trump's game, I have done my small part toward putting them out of business by using the time spent waiting supermarket checkouts to turn all their 'product' around in those racks at the register so that they are less of an impulse temptation.
Then I got to thinking there must be a better way. And there is. I now face copies of Scientific American at the front of the racks, covering their dreck. This gives me great satisfaction.
13
Better to buy them all up and recycle them at home.
You're only inconveniencing purchasers of the rag, not stopping them. Besides, I'd have nothing to amuse myself with while I stand in line at the grocery.
@Amanda Reckonwith
You madame, are the genius of the first order. Bravo! Put those uppity tabloids in their place.
1
Lost, buried, ignored or whistled over along the graveyard in all this is the more enormous press-worthy saga this week involving Jill Abramson's plagiarism. When Bezos wrestling in the muddiest pigpen of all gets home page status here, there must be a reason.
1
Abramson's lifting other writers' work is her problem. AMI blackmailing habit, aiding the Saudi government to polish their image and shutdown inquiries into crimes is something we all need to be aware of.
1
How can it be that a tech titan and the world's richest man is as foolish as Anthony Weiner when it comes to the use of texting/selfie sending? Another Russian hack, perhaps?
5
Absolutely, Trump's puppeteers in Moscow had him harass Bezos so much that Bezos resorted to questionable selfies to get back at Trump.
I just called Chatham Asset Management (973-701-2424) the owners of AMI and The National Enquirer. I asked them if they were now in the blackmail business. I think we should all call. I am also going to call the stores like Safeway where the Enquirer is sold and ask them to stop selling it.
3
Knock yourself out. Rational people ignore it. Those who don't line birdcages with it.
2
He probably just needs to ask his soon to be ex wife how they got the information.
2
If AMI stopped publishing, what would I read and laugh at the check-out lanes at the grocery store?
1
How many Republican elected Senators and Congressmen did AMI blackmail to ensure their protection of and complicity with Trump.
I would bet many!!!
6
My older brother was a trombonist in a German orchestra and still lives there. Every other summer he would visit the states for their six-vacation and he would purchase the National Enquirer and take it back to Germany with him. Then during orchestra rehersals the percusions would have a break and he would whip out one of the copies and the guys would all sit around and laugh hysterically at the articles. Sometimes it would continue in a pub as well!
5
I hail Jeff Bezos for standing up and saying NO! He's right that if AMI can try to extort him, they can do it to anyone. Bezos has the resources and voice to pushback. Embarrassing-yes but Bezos did the right thing.
8
I'm going to going to renew my Amazon Prime membership at the end of the month, due to Mr. Bezos standing up to the Enquirer.
Go, Jeff, go!
6
@Ken
I would recommend a couple of subs for Washington Post in addition. We need to fund good journalism, especially in these dark times.
3
Who saw the independence of the WaPo confirmed when it featured 16 hit pieces against Bernie Sanders within 24 hours, freshly shocked he could become competitive to the(ir?) corporate shill (at least beholden by implication) he was running against? Interesting take by fellow commenter JD.
Jeff Bezos, like Clint Eastwood, has gained fame with featuring an empty chair. In his case the one he involved prominently in brainstorming sessions with his executive staff, where participants should pander to the client as the strongman lifting the boat of the stock owner, never to the perspective of the lower rank workers, who Bezos famously largely, ruthlessly prevents from using chairs at the job despite getting lashed by harsh picker treadmill regimes, as if their boss were a Saudi ruler. And especially union chairs were and are systematically preemptively abolished?
You don't think there's an invisibly taken seat at the Post where everyone projects Jeff?
Mr. Bezos might be a slightly enlightened ruler, picking up 'early' on the 15 dollar minimum wage demands for example, it's still questionable that we organize our business world to deal few individuals so much hardly checked or bridled power.
Mr. Pecker seems to have abused it routinely to extort and to blackmail, apparently completely used to the extorted and the blackmailed folding instantly and always. The luck we have that he found an exception to the rule in Bezos, does not plead for the power he and Bezos wield though.
3
I am so tired of these apparent shenanigans surrounding Trump and his shady alliances. If anyone doesnt believe that Trump's orbit is not involved in Saudi Arabia for past and present personal gain, lives in " la la land."
Plus, how did National Inquirer able to hack Bezo's phone- who had to have security protections rivaling the CIA? Think about it.
8
I never thought I would say anything positive about the man, nevertheless--good for Jeff Bezos! I very much approve of his response to this situation, and I think he's doing the world a larger service by it. The only mystery here is why Bezos sent the embarrassing photos and texts in the first place. Most of us, who have less technological savvy, know better!
3
@Steven Pinkerton
Why? He doesn't care. Same reason why he's standing up and calling them out.
I'm not a fan of Bezos but I hope he utilizes the weight of his considerable wealth in order to take no prisoners as far as AMI and the National Enquirer goes.
7
The bigger issue here is whether there was covert involvement by the Trump appointed intelligence apparatus in assisting AMI to get at private communications of Bezos' online accounts. If true, how many other corporate or political entities are being extorted for similar political or greed motivations.
6
It's nice to recall how Murdoch's News of the World in the UK was forced to close after public outcry and an inquiry into how it obtained its information.
This was said to end a reign of terror the tabloid had conducted against celebrities, politicians and other public figures for many years. There was wide community relief and rejoicing.
In Mr Bezos's case, I hope he is willing to bare all about the findings. Already we have seen the spotlight fall on his girlfriend Lauren Sanchez's brother, a Hollywood agent and fixer accused of links to the National Enquirer and Trump circles.
I suggest they could check out where Jeff's girlfriend parks her phone when she is having her cosmetic surgery procedures.
When the salacious story first broke I saw a statement that the text leak came from a close friend of Ms Sanchez who had sent them to her, excitedly boasting about her affair with Bezos. Was this fake news, or too sensitive to pursue?
5
Where is Guy Montag the fictional character and the protagonist in Ray Bradbury's dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451?
For those folks not familiar with the novel, Bradbury said that he wrote Fahrenheit 451 because of his concerns at the time (during the McCarthy era) about the threat of book burning in the United States. In later years, he described the book as a commentary on how mass media reduces interest in reading literature.
8
All those who are genuinely interested in Mr. Bezos's divorce, please raise your hands.
3
@ L.Bodiford
Once again, blaming the victim for what has happened. This is no reason to be chilled from using this form of communication. It's the misappropriation of the photos that should be unlawful.
2
Look at the Board of AMI, one ex Trump employee and 2 partners from Chatham Asset Mgt
12
I hope it all has trump's fingerprints all over it.
19
Who knows how many other people and politicians have been extorted by AMI? It reminds me of the dirty tricks that Cambridge Analytica folks were doing to extort politicians. It seems that everyone around Trump plays by mob rules.
16
"That agreement, signed in September, stipulated that A.M.I. 'shall commit no crimes whatsoever' for three years, and that if it did, 'A.M.I. shall thereafter be subject to prosecution for any federal criminal violation of which this office has knowledge'.”
Well, THAT lasted all of 4-5 months...
22
Could it be that Trump so dislikes Jeff Bezos because he knows that Bezos IS the richest guy in the world.
And he made it in his own, without daddy’s help.
I think he just uses the Post angle as fake outrage.
It’s envy.
18
I was one of the people who trained Jon Fine when he was an investment banker before he went to law school. I fear that the Wall Street lessons regarding lack of ethics may have left a lasting impression. the more times I reread the letters from Fine and Howard the more I am convinced a crime was committed and that my former associate Mr Fine needs to find a new career for disbarment is an appropriate remedy.
19
In some ways, this is all sounding very eerily similar to the Murdoch/News International hacking scandal of a few years ago. Interesting to think about who was involved in that one, versus who is apparently benefitting from this one, when looking at possible suspects or motives in the big picture.
11
Trump, Saudis and Putin found Fox News and AMI as their mouth piece. Let us take all of them down together. The real Axis of Criminal Empires.
28
It's time for our biggest grocery and big box stores like Walmart, Target, Safeway and others will remove this blackmail rag from their shelves.
It's time for the Inquirer to go away for once and all.
24
I could have told you that in 1963. Apparently there is still an affection for tabloid phantasy and science fiction. Pay no attention to those flashing lights in your back yard; it's only swamp gas.
Isn’t it odd that the peak agreement seems to allow National Enquirer the opportunity to break the law after three years? Why the limitation? What does THAT mean?
8
@Dsmith
It means that after three years, a certain person who would likely pardon the National Enquirer for further transgressions will either be out of office or re-elected, with re-election demonstrating that the American people don't care about lying, politically motivated scandal rags who function as part of the propaganda operation and wouldn't want their editors jailed.
5
Really, Bezos is probably happy we're all talking about his love life instead of how badly he's stiffing his workers.
9
The Russians just found out what works with Trump but not with Bezos...
11
If attorney Jon Fine is not in hot water, something is definitely rotten in our legal system.
18
All the salacious details aside, there is a fundamental question here that we seem to be ignoring. Since when does an ultra rich man have the right to demand that a newspaper disclose its sources? I thought we had laws protecting the press from this sort of thing.
We may not like the National Enquirer, but are we prepared to allow this sort of precedent?
3
@Oakwood
He doesn't. And he's not. He's merely launching his own investigation into how this information was obtained, and the motivation for publishing it. If he finds out that it was stolen, (i.e., hacked), then he's got a criminal case, and if he finds out that the motivation for publishing the story was to help Trump, (making it potentially an illegal political contribution) then the Enquirer is in trouble because of its agreement to not do anything illegal.
He's not going to court over this, so laws and precedent don't apply.
18
@Oakwood
Not when it comes to blackmail or extortion.
12
@Oakwood
You think national inquirer is Press? The whole thing is based on lies, extortion and unlawful dump of information.
Jeff Bezos's open letter raises the question, why was David Pecker given immunity by the special council's office? Pecker's recent actions with regard to Mr. Bezos suggest that he remains politically active and motivated to commit crimes on the president's behalf under the guise of journalism.
Why then did Mueller give him immunity?
24
>>> "Why then did Mueller give him immunity?"
Probably in exchange for testimony and/or documentary evidence. And it isn't immunity, it's a conditional non-prosecution agreement. We'll soon see what Mueller thinks constitutes a violation of that agreement.
15
And of course the Enquirer's parent company American Media, also controlled by Mr. Pecker, immediately issues a press release that they will investigate themselves. Oh, great. [And they believe "fervently" that they "acted lawfully".]
13
Bezo's should do us all a favor and buy the National Enquirer.
19
@jeff I agree. Catch and kill
28
@jeff
Then destroy it piece by piece.
12
@jeff
Better to sue them into oblivion. Buying them just puts money in their pockets.
16
It all seems surreal, but I guess Hollywood does have it right. Extortion & Blackmail are accepted realities in politics and big business.
As zillionaire tech giant with majority stakes in the Washington Post, Bezos should have exercised better judgement. He's a target from just about anyone who obsesses over money, power & fame.
But maybe everything does happen for a reason and he'll use his money and power to not only humble David Pecker, but also challenge the very existence of Tabloids. How those images were obtained should be just one concern for anyone who cares about basic decency. Equally perplexing are the laws that make intrusion and abuse acceptable in the first place. Legally obtained or not, trashy publications like the Enquirer should not be permitted to destroy lives for money.
It's quite sick and cruel.
4
It is not inconceivable that Saudi Arabia might be involved.
Please keep pulling on that thread, Mr. Bezos.
24
I see Pecker is still doing trump's bidding, but this may land him and NI in very hot water.
10
If Jeff can buy the Washington Post, then he should perform a national service and buy A.M.I. outright, force the staff to sign 20 year non-competes and then shut the whole thing down. The publication has done little more than disparage people and publish lies (space aliens controlled by the Army in the desert southwest, Prince Charles undergoing a court martial beneath Buckingham Palace and the never-changing "Hillary is dying!").
Perhaps the only person to miss it would be Donald Trump but then that would be a leap in assuming he reads anything.
12
We'll see. The press has a lot of legal wiggle room. Newspapers are allowed to pick sides. Newspapers are allowed to report on the richest man in the world when his actions could affect large corporations (Amazon, WaPo, etc.), where his divorce has financial repercussions.
And Bezos personally investigating "the free press" is itself a threat towards AMI, even if they are a nonsense press (but we have freedom of religion that allows for nonsense beliefs too).
2
Democracy dies in darkness, and AMI is darkness. Yes, exactly how did they get those private texts? We need new wiretapping laws to protect against these invasions of private communications. I don't want to hear from pious tsk-tsk'ers who say anyone prudent with something private to say must reasonably avoid all modern communications systems to say it, and that hacking victims should have known better and somehow deserve it. Investigate hackers. Then jail them.
9
The National Enquirer has been a rag since i was a kid. I never read it nor look at its histrionic front page. To see the owners and staff are blackmailing business leaders and other people is a disgrace. Shut the rag down! Immediately.
19
I agree completely. I have myself called it a rag in a comment in this discussion, if the NYT deigns to let it through. However, I think we are doing a disservice to real rags, which serve a purpose: dusting, washing windows, etc. The NE, OTOH, has no purpose, except maybe for wrapping fish, lining birdcages, or hanging in the outhouse (Port-o-Sans for you non-boomers).
1
Hey, Jeff Bezos, why don't you buy the National Enquirer to shut them up? Wouldn't that be some delicious irony?
6
I think many commenters are losing the context. The original NE revelations were political -- they went after Bezos because he owns the WP. Does that count as an attempt to defeat the 1st amendment? I think so.
Bezos then hired his investigators, which apparently unhinged Pecker to the degree that he got the lawyer to threaten Bezos. Given the rumors about Sanchez' brother, apparently an enthusiastic trumpie, being the source of the photos, texts, etc., Bezos might have wanted to avoid awkward Thanksgiving dinners.
Whatever any of these folks touch turns into s sordid mess. The trumpies got away with Melania's soft porn, and DT's betrayal of her soon after Baron's birth. Bezos probably will, too -- other than private pain. Having your sexual betrayals exposed used to sink careers, but now seems to just increase celebrity profiles.
1
I want to thank Jeff Bezos, for spending a lot of money keeping the Washington Post alive and strong, while suffering for giving the newsroom staff total independence to go after the news, including events surrounding the horrible murder of colleague Jamal Khashoggi, and the behavior of our thug President Donald Trump.
And I am sorry for Mr. and Ms. Bezos, Mr. Bezos's lover, and her family, that they have been made the subject of a blatant blackmail attempt for daring to live typically messy human personal lives.
I happen to hold the single-stop-shopping website Amazon, now running a cloud system for rent too, deserves an anti-trust/anti-monopoly/infotheft investigation.
But I am thrilled someone is finally taking on the blackmailers at the National Perspirer.
I can't wait to hear a lawyer tell a judge how printing stolen sex-txts and threatening to run photos of Mr. Bezos's genitalia, shows his poor business skills.
This is no landmark leak uncovering national history, like The Pentagon Papers.
And though appealing to readers' prurient interests is no grounds for suppressing publication, I've never heard of even the lowest vilest alleged "journalist" tell a subject "Tell us more, say you're a liar or we'll print MORE." If it's important, you print it, not suppress it for profit.
Even if the "news" so far published is 100% accurate, unlike Enquirer pre-election tales like "(source says) HILLARY INDICTED", the lawyer letter proves it was printed with genuine legal malice.
9
I pity the people who pay their hard earned money to read the National Enquirer.
3
They're probably buying it with someone else's money as they use their bene card.
This is a hot issue for the Southern District and Mr. Mueller whom I assume are watching very closely. The connection between Trump, American Media, and Saudi money is clear. Once again Trump and Co. are both feckless and gormless, and nasty and sordid. This extortion might very well be illegal. The theft of the texts and photos is almost certainly illegal. The agreement between the prosecutors and American Media was clear. Any criminal wrongdoing, and the sweetheart deal is off. As for the House Democrats, whom I assume are also watching: please just subpoena the heck out of these people. Democracy dies with every lie.
(Bezos did good here. Trump's protector American Media was seeking to unduly influence the Constitutional free press. Of course Bezos is a billionaire, and has little to lose when extorted by American Media compared to, for instance, your average porn star. Moreover, Bezos really had no other choice. Though I suppose people must really give in to this American Media blackmail? Does anybody believe American Media would ever have given back or destroyed the photos?)
15
I wonder who reads The National Enquirer? I consider it a less than second rate publication which publishes stories about aliens invading earth, etc. I didn't even know it was still in circulation until we started hearing about it in association with Trump's campaign related affairs. I guess trash and gossip sells in America but now we know to what extent the publication will go to achieve it's means.
5
I’m a long-time NYT subscriber and have now decided to become a WAPO subscriber as well. The paper’s fearless determination to not let Jamal Kashoggi’s murder be forgotten is admirable. Good luck to Mr. Bezos.
13
Never put anything in writing that you don’t want the whole world to see.
7
I just never understand why people send x rated photos at all, much less electronically, to people they are trying to keep secret. It’s been at least a decade since sex text and email scandals started appearing and shattering careers. This isn’t a brand new way of blackmailing or catching people. Bezos may be smart but in this case he was just phenomenally stupid.
2
Or perhaps Trump has changed the moral environment for the worse.
1
Echoes of Joe Halderman attempting to extort David Letterman over extra-marital hanky-panky.
Halderman was sentenced to 6 months in jail.
5
@Allen Braun
Rick Pitino is another one. Embarrassing facts about him came out but his extortionist served seven years and is still on probation.
3
A New York Times article about the richest man on earth exerting his control over the media to publish a story in the Washington Post examining the political motivations behind the tabloid the National Enquirer (who brought us such great journalism as “Macaulay Culkin Addicted to Heroin 6 Months to Live!”) publishing a lurid article about his extramarital affair, potentially due to its owner’s closeness to the man occupying the most powerful office on Earth and apparently despite its owner’s previous closeness with Jeff Bezos?
How disturbingly postmodern. Stimulating sensationalism pervades this story of sex, money and power underneath a horrible mess of entangled perspective and power, no matter which story you read. It grips you with the base emotion of the narrative, and manipulates you towards financial and political ends. How can any individual be expected to unpack and understand this?
1
Interesting that this ties back (again) to Saudi Arabia which also means (again) Kushner. It would be no surprise if the story and the attempt to blackmail Bezos into silence links to the White House. More alarming is the fact that Saudi Arabia would have never dared attempting the recent assassination without an understanding that Trump wouldn't react adversely. That connection, and assuredly there is one, has yet to be established. The Washington Post and Bezos' private investigative team have lots to work with; so too should federal prosecutors who are likely favourably disposed toward a criminal investigation into the Enquirer. Meanwhile Trump alone in the developed world ignores the behaviour of Saudi Arabia, lavishes praise on its leadership, and pursues deals both public and private with the Kingdom. You can bet he will also do what he can to protect his buddy Pecker, not out of loyalty, but because their interests align. Bezos was a fool, but his puerile behaviour may lead to some positive results.
7
Weren't most of the 9/11 killers Saudis? Funded by the Kingdom? Just saying, Jeff...
5
And Kushner's father helped bankroll them. But Chris Christie covered that up when indicting him and sending him to prison. Follow the money: Kushner Sr., KSA, Christie, Trump, Kushner Jr , KSA, Trump....
It's shocking how utterly stupid AMI was to do this. An iconic "Stupid Criminal" classic example. Didn't they know who they were proposing to blackmail? It's like a 4-year-olds threat to blackmail their 40-year-old parent.
And it gets more perversely stupid when you consider the fragile position they are regarding their on-going immunity deal — that “any crimes” the publisher commits after signing the deal can negate the agreement entirely.
I think blackmail is a crime. And stealing private property.
12
Last night Rachel Maddow mentioned that David Pecker and A.M.I. (which publishes the National Enquirer) may be in serious trouble for violating their plea agreement by attempting to blackmail Jeff Bezos.
Under the plea deal, Pecker and A.M.I. agreed not to participate in any illegal activities for a period of three years.
It seems they're in violation of the agreement and may be in big trouble.
13
Agreed not to engage in illegal activities for three years! So, in year four they're good to go and all bets are off?
Paging Robert Mueller.....
11
Maybe the Enquirer should return to its roots of placing photos of aliens on the cover, and car wrecks and decapitated heads (clearly fake of course) in the centerfold.
1
That was the National Examiner. The Enquirer didn't do aliens. It was dedicated to celebrity gossip. In its heyday in Hollywood, they scooped the mainstream media on OJ stories that were true. They were bought by the right some years ago and put themselves to work trying to create a sex scandal out of Obama's PC and squeaky clean administration.
1
They too started with space aliens.
“At one time the Enquirer ran stories about. UFOs and Bigfoot .... murdered and ate six space aliens who came to earth on a mission of peace in ...”
See JOURNAL ARTICLE
Aliens, Ape Men and Whacky Savages: The Anthropologist in the Tabloids
Mark Allen Peterson
Anthropology Today
Vol. 7, No. 5 (Oct., 1991), pp. 4-7
1
Bezos has the resources to go thermonuclear on Pecker/AIM and drive them out of existense. Mankind would be better for it- push the button Jeff!
16
Just glad that Jeff Bezos exposed yellow journalism and the yellow press of National Enquirer, one more infamous friend of trump David Pecker, who publishes all this garbage.
What else is new, we live in the age of sleazy tabloids, “extortion and blackmail”...very fitting for this grotesque WH, who is trying to get his revenge on WAPO...pitiful.
Jeff Bezos keeps this front and center in WAPO...
Great! That's exactly how people who have integrity fight against sordid behavior.
AMI is officially out of business.
Why do people read this rubbish anyway.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/07/technology/jeff-bezos-national-enquirer-blackmail.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
8
This just may be the action on the part of Trump’s coconspirator David Pecker that turns the tide at last on Trump’s many criminal activities. Trump & Pecker, along with the Russians & others, conspired to win the White House. Now, in a continuing show of grandiose hubris, Pecker is going after the owner of one of Trump’s chief antagonists, The Washington Post. But, Pecker, by attempting to blackmail Bezos, just insures his own prosecution for the very election law violation that put Trump’s lawyer, Cohen in prison. It won’t end there. Sort of a Greek tragedy in farce.
7
Do you think Pecker is that dumb? Hubris aside, he can see when to keep his powder dry. If he's already linked to Trump, why get in deeper?
Thank you, New York Times. This is the best article I’ve read on this new story. I hope AMI and Mr Pecker get rolled into jail, or at the very least his tabloid gets buried for good. And if there be a god of justice, let’s also hope that Trump and bin Salman go down with them, as well.
10
Think Terry Gene Bollea (Hulk Hogan) v. Gawker. So long National Enquirer.
2
KOMPROMAT: Compromising information collected for use in blackmailing, discrediting, or manipulating someone, typically for political purposes.
You can let your imagination go wild on this one, but the facts will be far more terrifying.
If AMI is arrogant enough to display total disregard and contempt regarding their agreement with the prosecutor's office, that stated Should AMI break the agreement; the company would “be subject to prosecution for any federal criminal violation of which this Office has knowledge.” will action be taken now or will this fade away?
Saudis and Russia are happy to help with character assassinations or the removal of limbs. That's what they do.
Crimes will be linked to agreements involving billions and coverups that will make Watergate look like shoplifting at Walmart.
What will the deafening silence and compliance of so many in the White House reveal? The dirty laundry of politicians has always been The Gift that keeps on giving.
7
Bezos, if anyone, knows about "kompromat." He has compromising data over us all -- only god and Jeff's minions know that I stayed home from work to binge watch the Gilmore Girls or that I have spent $500 on cat toys.
4
Has he tried to blackmail you with it?
2
I can only hope that in the final analysis, The National Enquirer will be no more.
4
I do remember that it was a bit strange when Bezos first announced his divorce and DJT commented something to the effect that JB has a lot of problems with a smirk. I assumed he meant divorce issues but maybe he knew more about his friend Pecker’s pursuit of JB?
8
We all make missteps, but to have the money (and be willing to have your secrets revealed) in order to take on this media bully puts Bezos in the (to be nominated for) sainthood category.
7
I'll never understand why people need to cheat. If you are unhappy in your marriage, divorce first and then go find someone new. That said, I am happy to see that Mr. Bezos elected to “to stand up, roll this log over and see what crawls out.”
4
I don’t understand why AMI has tried to play centerfield, when their adversary is a $100 billion guy with a newspaper among his portfolio, running one of world’s top five companies that he started from his garage.
…Or may be its out of AMI’s fear to get eventually dragged into a congressional investigation of everything-Trump.
Whatever AMI’s logic of an outdated extortionate strategy, they should take note of Peter Thiel’s adversity with Gawker. There’s a fine line separating sound journalism from invasion of privacy, which in this case is on display against Jeff Bezos.
…Or may be AMI hasn’t heard of an old saying, “Don’t poke the bear”.
Perhaps AMI should’ve picked an easier target, like Trump himself, to sell their dying paper.
5
It would really be nice if once the really bad guys would spend decades behind prison bars instead of tens of thousands caught with drugs supporting their drug habits:
I wish I lived in a nation where two Americas didn't exist.
5
AMI made a huge mistake in assuming that Jeff Bezos would be intimidated and behave like a politician.
7
This one of those "Who do I root for here?" situations. It's like one of those Godzilla films from Toho Productions. No matter who you root for, Godzilla or any of his myriad mega-adversaries, the one constant is that Tokyo invariably gets destroyed.
1
What is Tokyo in your metaphor here?
Bezos brought this on himself. He needs to learn to be very careful of who you mess with, particularly in DC. A rich man is not necessarily a smart man.
4
Can we please revive “Celebrity Death Match” for the Bezos-Pecker episode? Amazon Prime could stream it.
1
Even when I was a little girl, I knew the National Enquirer was a waste of freedom of speech. Who buys this stuff?
John Waters has a hysterical mock-up front page art piece of a fictional rag called ‘National Brainiac’ featuring headlines about Joan Didion’s weight gain (“Joan Didion Hits 250 Pounds!”), Joyce Carol Oates writers block, and “Nude Photos of W. H. Auden Found.” Omg, haha. I wish John Waters was president.
90
Hysterical. You, my friend, are a genius.
3
@itsmildeyes
Who buys this stuff? Well... losers who have no life and who support Trump. I don't want to be crude, but they live in rural areas and have no life, so they rely on these tabloid news, along with their opioids.
I am glad that Bezos took on the fight, and will now shop first on Amazon!
4
My husband cheated on me. (I've never asked but I'm pretty darn sure no selfies were involved. Thank God). That makes him a crap husband who did not live up to his own moral standard. As each of us has done to a greater or lesser degree.
What the Enquire did was blackmail. Blackmail is a form of extortion. Extortion is a felony in all states.
Big difference.
13
I'm glad Mr. Bezos was being Transparent about the scandal, otherwise he'd be facing Prime difficulties.
3
Anyone who pays any attention to the National Enquirer is an idiot, including Jeff Bezos.
7
@Jeff
I'm guessing that Bezos didn't become the world's richest man by being an idiot.
5
@Jeff
And if they were going to publish "your" intimate photo's and correspondence ??
3
A little bit off the point but crucially: it is such a pity that the nimbus, prestige and financial power of the world's richest opponent of Trump and defender of democracy will be reduced by the divorce from his wife, no matter how the current controversy will end. Unfortunately, the process is already well under way.
It would be so much better for the sake of freedom and democracy if Jeff and McKenzie Bezos would stay together. They say they are still friends, so where's the problem? They can either repair their relationship or pursue separate ones privately - but for the world's sake, stay together!
2
So, I'm still unclear: Did DJT in fact PAY similar extortionate bribes demanded by Pecker/American Media/Enquirer to "catch & kill" accounts of his extramarital affairs?
7
@vishmael - Y E S
1
Bezos and Pecker were "longtime friends". Maybe they deserve each other? Did Bezos call him up to ask about some Kanye scoop? Would Pecker ask Bezos about polling data from upstate NY?
2
@Gw
You misread the article.
"Mr. Trump and Mr. Pecker were longtime friends."
The issue is whether Trump is involved in the National Enquirer's attempted extortion of Bezos (and Ronan Farrow).
3
the article said Trump and Pecker were longtime friends.
1
@GwYou need to re-read the article. It says Trump and Pecker were longtime friends, not Bezos and Pecker.
1
Get the Times and Post competing headline-to-headline with AMI and the fab-loid racks at the grocery store aisles. The fabrications must be met with fact at all battle lines.
Put down the gossipy fluff, aim higher. Isn't that convincing enough?
See Dick and Jane Run through those aisles before the celebrity titillation sets in. Get wholesome.
Put full-time workers at more of those registers! WALMART, keep the fabrications, if you must - for The Last Baby Boomer. However, EVERYONE (except David Pecker) wants fast checkout. Give it to us. We demand it. And if that hurts Mr. Catch-and-Kill-and-Deceive-Voters, then too bad.
1
National Enquirer readers don't want facts, otherwise they wouldn't be reading National Enquirer. Facts that don't fit the chosen narrative just upsets and confuses them.
2
This is the one time I'm going to defend him. The Enquirer spent the Obama years trying every week to drum up a sex scandal from the Obamas' very tame and PC White House. That publication has become a pile of dung compared to its heyday when it brought OJ down. Time to take out the trash.
22
Pecker and Trump must be desperate to try to silence Bezos with this material. It indicates (to me) that Trump and Pecker are feeling the heat from Mueller and are trying to stop all of the criticism. The fact that Pecker and Trump have made this error will haunt them for years to come.
17
@toom. Why are you including Trump?
1
@Jackson Pecker and Trump were co-conspirators in 2016, and the attempt to silence Bezos and WaPo is a continuation of that attempt.
5
Bezos just check-mated Pecker. If the Enquirer runs those photos now, they'll just look craven, while further endangering their own legal position.
It's probably the one time in my life that I'll feel something like admiration on behalf of Mr. Bezos.
18
I think Bezos accepted responsibility. Now it's time to take down Pecker.
14
It is interesting to read that the AMI board is looking into Mr. Bezos's allegations, but it would be even more interesting to hear whether prosecutors are already looking into these allegations, and if so which prosecutorial authorities are or may become involved.
5
I have a question. Why would Pecker think that Bezos would agree to vouch for the purportedly apolitical nature of the tabloid's odd expose of a non-show-biz billionaire's extramarital affair? Answer: because Pecker was waving the sex photos in his face and threatening to publish them. Pecker was trying to ingratiate himself with Trump with the original expose and Bezos's sanitizing of it would be the icing on the cake.
7
Let me get this straight. A man of compromised morals, seeks to expose a man of compromised morals, but, is derailed by a man of compromised morals.
16
@Mike - What, Bezo's comprmoised morals. Judge not buddy and obtw, please secede, please
1
@Mike pretty much. The thing is, one of them was willing to publicly admit to his failings while the others are scrambling around denying theirs
2
@Mike All because of a President with more compromised morals than either of them.
3
Well done, Jeff Bezos.
His online post was a masterpiece. It trounced the National Enquirer from the get-go.
In the 1st paragraph, he says: 'an offer he couldn't refuse' and the words 'extortion and blackmail.'
Translation: RICO Act
24
The more this administration maneuvers, the more it reminds me of Mussolini: use the media to spread lies, conspiracies, and fear to subjugate a large swath of the population; threaten bodily arm from a rabid, minority crowd, Charlottesville VA, to those who disagree with its mandates; use a straw man as the enemy uniting the populace. What will be our reaction when Trump declares a national emergency and usurps the power of the people?
10
Good for Bezos for exposing this rag’s trashy behavior to sunlight. Carol Burnett sued them a million years ago and won. Who cares about reading the junk they stole? The real story here likely involves you-know-who’s involvement.
19
When your job is threatening to publish photos of prominent people without their clothes....you might want to question your lot in life with a bit more ethical vigor.
24
Even in a country with a free press, I am sometimes startled at what the Enquirer gets away with. Not the lies but the libel.
Assuming this story ends with whomever has the most money winning, Mr. Bezos should ask for a year of retractions from the Enquier, each week apoligizing to a different celebrity. Big letters. Bold colors. We lied. We're sorry!
8
There is no bottom to the well of rottenness of Trump and his cronies. It's turtles all the way down.
16
Bravo, Jeff! Still...why do some men think women get excited about their below the belt selfies?
10
This is what happens when you have an illicit lusty affair when your wife is legally, ethically entitled to half of your business empire that she actively help you build.
The man is in a panic and things will only get worse for Amazon, et al. Get ready Washington Post. Make your contingency plans. Interesting Times are upon you.
(I claim copyright on the phrase "Interesting Times")
3
@Aristotle Gluteus Maximus, no, this is what happens when someone stands up to a blackmailer. The affair is unfortunate and does not speak well of him. His handling of the aftermath is fairly admirable.
5
@Aristotle Gluteus Maximus - Get ready Bezo's, for what? I personally just placed a large order, doubt many in the south have the ability to buy anything other than the Inquirer, if that.
So much for John Roberts siding against another ignorant southern state
2
@Aristotle Gluteus Maximus
Huh? Did you read the article? It is not about Bezos pining over his divorce settlement, which anyway is unlikely to affect the prosperity of his businesses.
You have it backwards. Bezos coming clean takes all the leverage away from Pecker, who must have been in a panic even to make his extortionate offer. Pecker's in even more of a panic now, because his cooperation agreement with Mueller is revoked if he commits any crime afterward. Blackmail is a crime.
5
... That agreement, signed in September, stipulated that A.M.I. “shall commit no crimes whatsoever” for three years, and that if it did, “A.M.I. shall thereafter be subject to prosecution for any federal criminal violation of which this office has knowledge.”
- To me the original non-prosecution agreement seemed like a slap on the wrist, especially in light of the obvious propaganda the Enquirer has been publishing. Why WOULDN'T the Enquirer think they could continue publishing shameful stories?
It's sadly ironic that it takes this crossing the line with Jeff Bezos (Not the Clintons, nor the Obamas, nor even this paper) that we start to see any censure of the National Enquirer.
4
What kind of person reads The National Enquirer? The same kind of person that votes for Donald Trump, of course.
20
Why isn’t our government shutting down A.M.I.? It clearly has a long history of illegal activities.
6
One wonders if the alleged extortion is at the direction of “Individual 1”, you know, the president.
7
There appears to be a credible argument that 1) there may have been foreign government involvement in the Bezos photo leaks. 2), that the Saudi Government has been in disagreement around the circumstances around Khashoggi’s death, which would provide a motive for having Bezos silence WAPO as its owner.
Part of AMI’s non-prosecution agreement includes a 3 year window for not committing ANY crimes. With letters from AMI’s legal counsel requesting Jeff Bezo’s stop his security investigation or else they will publish photos, seems like this makes a case for criminal behavior. The company and some persons are guilty of charges of blackmail, extortion and likely RICO laws! At least, some of their lawyers should be disbarred!
You can bet with the Trump’s silence and later excuse that Khashoggi was not a US citizen places him squarely in the crosshairs of this new scandal!
Most likely others and myself have a complicated love hate relationship with Mr. Bezos. Yes I order from Amazon and subscribe to the Washington Post (as well as the NYT), but dislike the employment conditions that have been stated at his warehouses.
In light of these new developments, I have to admire him for stepping out in front to stop this despicable behavior.
28
This is just the first of many extortion attempts that will be made using illegally obtained data. Wait till petty criminals get into this game.
9
If you don’t engage in bad behavior it is much more difficult to be blackmailed.
2
Big mistake to try to shake down a man whose wealth is the same size as the GDP of Hungary. I am praying that the parents of the Sandy Hook children who were massacred can take down the disgusting Alex Jones, and that AMI will be driven out of business. It was striking how Trump was able to get away with saying during the presidential election that the Examiner was a reputable newspaper. He seems to be able to say anything and get away with it.
24
Between Bezos and Pelosi Trump has to two formidable enemies. Now we will see drip drip of Trump's journey from the White House to Trump Tower in NYC.
9
In the current social media digital age the right to or expectation of privacy rights is increasingly naive. As the we careens recklessly toward a 5G world the intelligent course will be to treat all electronic data of any kind as if it will be headline news on every outlet, posted on every bill board and available to every criminal.
2
Good for Bezos. I with hold judgment on his business practices and his personal affairs. In this day and age, not a lot of people are going to be shocked that a married man was having an affair with someone else's wife. We may not like it but we're probably not going to stop using the amazing convenience of Amazon. At least I'm not. It's great that he is bringing this all to light and letting the chips fall where they will. So even if he loses a few billion, he'll be OK. I hope he puts a stop to the nasty practices of blackmail that have fed on people's fear on one hard and sick appetites for bad news about people in power that has fed the whole ugly business. Let there be light!
9
Mr. Bezos reminds me of Carlos Danger, aka Anthony Wiener. He may be a billionaire but he obviously has a weak moral compass. Cheats on the wife with a married woman and sends x-rated photos her way. Got to lo love the irony of David Pecker exposing Mr. Bezos! Of course he spent a few million dollars to run his ad during the super bowl telling us why we need the media to tell the truth. The Inquirer did a pretty good job catching him and John Edwards.
8
@Bill
Why would it matter to anyone that Bezos had an affair? Edwards was running for president. Bezos is not running for anything, and WaPo follows standards of professional journalism. Bezos's personal life is irrelevant.
6
I would be careful with the moral compass bit. He was married once for 25 years, not thrice married and paying hush money to the women he slept with.
,
4
I preferred the Weekly World News that claimed many members of Congress, including Hillary Clinton, were space aliens.
93
@Llewis
Not so funny now, huh?
3
Another example of a rich nerd who got caught and is willing to throw money at someone to hurt them instead of accepting responsibility. I''m starting not to like this guy.
8
@Pilot
What do you want him to take responsibility for? Having his personal texts stolen and publicized?
3
@Pilot What the devil are you talking about. They published private communications, probably obtained illegally, then tried to blackmail him into saying their activities were not politically motivated, when plainly they were. They are a bunch of malevolent hacks and if you think they look good in all of this, you need to get some reading lessons. What part is Bezos not taking responsibility for? Cheating on his wife? Or is he responsible for the illegal disclosure of the same?
Get a life.
3
@Pilot I'd say him posting the letters from the Enquirer detailing the photos they were threatening to publish is pretty well accepting responsibility.
A couple of years back, you should remember the long list of female celebrities whose intimate pictures were hacked from the Internet & posted online. The hacker in questions is now in jail.
The letters from the Enquirer insisting Bezos not imply political motivation for the pictures getting posted, in light of the DOJ agreement at Cohen's sentencing, says volumes; they *know* at this point they could be brought up on campaign finance charges AND potential blackmail against a man with more money than most countries to pay the lawyers with.
3
The really disgusting story here is of the selfish 50 year who has hurt his, by all accounts, devoted spouse and their four children to have an affair with an unreliable woman of many romances. Now he is trying to be the aggrieved party. The outrage at David Pecker, but not at Jeff Bezos seems misplaced at best. The Enquirer has never pretended to be respectable.
9
We are talking about the threat of publishing the photos unless Bezos ensures that an inconvenient investigation is dropped. How is that not criminal blackmail? Scurrilous is one thing, but leveraging on that reputation for nastiness in order to bend other journalists and news organisations to your political will is surely criminal. You bet I am outraged! Good for Bezos for calling their bluff. That's the only effective course of action with blackmail.
6
@Breakless
Bezos didn't try to extort anyone. Cheating on a spouse is not a crime. Blackmail is.
8
@Breakless Did you miss the part about blackmail?
7
That's one way to skin a slew of crooks.Way to go Jeff!This friday you're my hero.I can't wait to see if our lowlife, faux President ordered the hacking of your personal data and if so finally puts a rope around djt's neck.
9
The personal cost of this affair to Jeff Bezos is astounding! Yet, the bill is still racking up. I just hope she is worth every penny of the final tab!
3
Cue #MeToo ...
I pray that Mr. Bezos will stand for morality by asking his wife and children for forgiveness and letting go of his mistress. To whom much is given, much is required. Wouldn’t it be awesome if he modeled for men around this country how to stick it out during the tough times? What happened to until death do us part? Why do these mistresses go after married men? My heart aches for the children.
3
@OMGoodness "Wouldn’t it be awesome if he modeled for men around this country how to stick it out during the tough times?"
Bill Clinton had that gig.
1
@OMGoodness: You really want men to "stick it out"?
1
@OMGoodness
Will his wife be castigated if she sticks with as Hillary Clinton was?
1
Burn 'em down, Jeff!
5
I gotta say, the mixed response here is surprising. I couldn't care less about Jeff Bezos or his personal life, but am absolutely astonished that a purported news organization would attempt such a bold faced extortion. No apologies, no cutesy legalese - just straight up extortion.
Based on that, you've gotta give JB some credit for the straight up call-out - he just put it all out there. The only way he could have made it any better would have been if the headline photo was him wearing a towel.
Based on their supposed arrangement with the Justice Department, I imagine AMI is about to enter some hot water. Likewise, I suspect that AMI's chief council may soon be getting a call from his Bar Association...
25
Get your popcorn!
8
This is potentially a huge and very damning story for Trump, Pecker, AMI, bin Salman, and probably several others.
Bezos owns the Post. Khashoggi worked for the Post.
Trump and bin Salman hate the Post and it's owner, Bezos. The Saudis have murdered Khashoggi and the Post is digging even deeper into the story.
AMI has already admitted to doing illegal work for the Trump campaign. AMI did a glossy puff piece about the Saudis last year. No doubt there is big money involved in these complex relationships. AMI is on thin ice with Justice. This latest caper could send em to the hoosegow.
Trump and bin Salman appear to have clear motive for asking Pecker to do a National Enquirer political hit job on Bezos.
Why was Trump's first internation presedential destination Riyadh? Which other characters are likely to crawl out from under the log? Kushner? Netayahu? Trump Jr., Mnuchin? Reese Mogg?
The Saudis may not realize that Trump will be voted out of office in two years. Our next President will not turn a blind eye to political murder, corruption, and two-bit dictatators.
13
Hoping to see detailed reporting on david hughes, barry schwartz and evan ratner the other "board members" who serve with david pecker! Before they take down the biographical sketches, count how many times the word TRUMP appears in each man's work history! Start counting here: https://www.americanmediainc.com/about-us/executives/david-r-hughes
3
The saddest thing it that AMI and The Enquirer are businesses. They only have a business because Americans buy the tabloid of untruths. I am sure the audience for AMI are the same gullible crowd that have fallen for the con that is Trump. What is wrong with people that they spend money on this trash. I hope Pecker and his slimy business are run out of business. Everything Trump touches is one step away from prison.
5
Its heartening to see a billionaire with an agenda so altruistic. And I hope he uses his wealth to build on this behavior. Like the big corporations and the billionaire class or not, I don’t think they’re going away soon. And so we polity must need be satisfied that we can swing our support to a worthy hero. The gangster tactics of Trump and his cronies (wittingly or not, Trump is behind these AMI shenanigans) need to be sussed out and illuminated. I hope the good people of this country with the means will not rest until the Trump era is over asap. Kudos to Mr. Bezos.
5
Now we love billionaires. Apparently your Queens representatives on the city council want to stop Amazon from coming to NYC. Apparently the company won't pledge to be neutral in a union organizing campaign. People are only applauding him because he hates Trump.
3
Once again...does no one understand that #1: you shouldn't take selfies that you wouldn't otherwise want on the cover of the Enquirer; and #2: don't text, email, or send any electronic images that you wouldn't show your grandmother — and that includes video chatting For God's sake, I have an imagination. So does my husband. When we were dating and when we are apart now, I felt/feel no need to see an electronic image of his nether region. Frankly, it's more exciting to wait until the real thing... And why does anyone assume that anything remains private these days?! Perhaps none of us have a fundamental understanding of how technology works.
115
@L Bodiford
Meh. I disagree.
Consenting adults should be able to use technology however they want.
Honestly, he seems so much more normal now knowing that even he sends some sexy selfies to his sexual partner.
And let's be crystal clear: blackmail and extortion are NOT OK. No one should avoid sending a sexy photo because they're afraid of getting blackmailed.
Blackmail is the issue, not sexting.
44
@L Bodiford
Isn't this the exact thing teenagers are warned against, as one intercepted sext can pretty much ruin their future careers ? Guess Bezos didn't get the memo . . . and I can't help but feel bad for his kids, how embarrassing for them.
5
@L Bodiford Let's just hope Bezos isn't involved in any of the security and privacy controls at Amazon, WaPo or his space ventures.
3
Face it, the photos were gotten by a "Foreign Entity" like Russian State Hackers as revealed by MSNBC last night and given to the National Enquirer.
Pecker is part of a Conspiracy to destroy any and all of Trump's critics.
Ask Ronan Farrow, the journalist, who got threats from the National Enquirer to stop his anti-Trump reporting.
This is not a newspaper. It is an Extortion Scheme by Trump against the Real News Media. Fox News need not worry.
And we are to believe that Pecker knew nothing about this??
Heck, he runs it.
23
Now this is Donald Trump's fault ? Absolutely ridiculous. Where is the proof? Time to start fact checking your commenters and your writers.
4
Of course it's Trump's fault. He made Bezos cheat on his wife and then send those pictures to her. Talk about right wing wing nuts, the NYT has a large number of them as subscribers.
4
@Bill
we're playing chess and you're stuck on checkers.
2
So after three years, AMI can once again commit crimes? I know that’s not what is meant, but...
Anyway, while I’m not a Bezos fan, I want him to succeed with his investigation. Many others whom the “Enquirer “ has slandered do not have the resources to fight back. Parenthetically, the fact that people want to read that ridiculous tabloid trash speaks volumes as to what an idiot nation we’ve become.
It’s a shame that Pecker and AMI were granted immunity. I think a better tactic would be to say, “tell us everything you know and did, and instead of 20 years in jail, you’ll get only five.”
Let’s hope they’ve violated their immunity deal with this blackmail and extortion crime. Fingers crossed.
14
Mueller is watching David J. Pecker as is the Southern District of New York. Tick Tock.
9
Give ‘em hell, Jeff. Freedom of the Press is one thing, and this sure looks like another.
10
Mr. Bezos is a public figure. So he's not going to get very far with this one. While I wouldn't exactly call the Inquirer a news organization, the same could be said about the Washington Post's relentless drumbeat against Republicans. Ms. Tyson's story wasn't credible but Ms. Ford's was? I think that says it all.
5
rats desert a sinking ship
https://www.law.com/corpcounsel/2018/11/14/american-media-inc-hires-new-top-lawyer-as-longtime-gc-exits/?slreturn=20190108102631
2
It just goes to show how small-minded DJT and his circle are, and how they project onto others their own deepest, darkest fears. DJT is deathly afraid of the purported pee-pee tapes, and will do anything to prevent their release, and he assumes someone like Jeff Bezos is likewise afraid of compromising photos coming to light. These people sought to threaten a REAL billionaire with what DJT himself most fears, believing this person would surely cave. That Jeff Bezos might operate from a very different set of principles was totally beyond their comprehension. What a revelation this must be!
10
Fox News, Info Wars, National Enquirer: This is real news, not fake news, as any GOP Senator will tell you. Can you imagine how many of these toadies are in the pocket of the National Enquirer.
The Trump-Pecker and Giuliani-Weiner connections during the 2016 election are especially newsworthy.
12
Yes, yes. Sunlight is the best disinfectant! Let's open up all AMI's vaults & disinfect them.
10
@Salix I'd settle for Hillary's hard drives.
1
It may - weirdly - take President Trump and Saudi Prince MBS to make a hero out of the rapacious Mr. Bezos.
5
@Brian Zemach
"Rapacious"??
You seem to admire trump, and to *you* Jeff Bezos, who stood up to those trying to use Blackmail, is the bad guy?
Is it willful ignorance, or just blind hatred of those who, like Jeff, made something of themselves for you to post such nonsense?
2
This issue truly defines "seedy". No wonder Trump seems to be in the middle of it.
14
Feds should immunize anyone who comes forward with their own evidence of Enquirer blackmail and hold secret their identities as Individual 3 through 20 (or so).
7
Patriots who speak the truth about this non-democratically appointed, absolutely fake, lying president, and his criminal regime, may very well become a target.
Long live Khashoggi and the Journalists who write the truth.
24
What a strange thing to demand. By asking Bezos to affirm that the "reporting" was not politically motivated, they make it appear that it probably was. I have no use for trash like the National Enquirer so I wish him well in his fight. This kind of response is probably the last thing they expected.
21
The Age of Trump. Who here is truly surprised that sleaze, sex, rumors, paranoia, media feuds, blackmail, prostitute payouts, alimony, and '80s style New York tabloid gossip are dominating the national conversation. Trump has brought his own world front and center into the presidency, and we all live in it now. Like it or not.
14
"Tell the truth and shame the devil." Good job.
12
Who is the Cohen this time? Is there somebody in Trump's inner circle who coordinated a Bezos expose with Pecker? Sounds like mafia style practices.
Trump must hate the Washington Post with passion.
10
Grown men selling garbage to the public and breaking laws and ruining lives to do so. AMI won’t be around a year from now. Couldn’t be happier
13
@MLB
If Mr. Bezos hadn't taken the pictures, there wouldn't be a story.
2
@Bill
Pictures are treasures for those who treasure them. They are not anyone else's business.
2
@Bill
Private matters.
Just how did that get to AMI?
1
Note to David Pecker: You reap what you sow. Prepare for the harvest.
17
Way to go Jeff. Crucify that rag.
23
Team JEFF! It’s depressing to see trump’s friends’ Roy Cohn bullying tactics but thank You Jeff Bezos for publishing the letters. I’m so sick of trump the narcissist. Remember when a President inspired the nation to sacrifice and common goals?
10
"Pecker, De Becker and Bezos" sounds like a great name for a law firm. The three of them should team up! Their business could be handling the "affairs" of disgustingly rich and vulgar celebrity clients.
1
@Emile - You seem to miss the whole point of this story
1
@Marc It was supposed to be a joke...of course I concede a joke attempted is not a joke made.
I look forward to the 6AM Federal raid on AMI headquarters when they load all those safes into a van, drill them open in a a warehouse and find a lot of stuff on the Donald. After this happens, the Enquirer rag will have a valuation of a few dollars that Bezos can buy with his spare change jar
9
Men, stop taking pictures of your penis and sending them to people. It's never a good idea.
47
Assuming the story is true, Pecker should be taken to court and made to face justice.
It is very much like the sexual assault victim. He or she is always innocent and the predator is the criminal.
Having said that, I think Bezos was incredibly foolish for taking the pics and/or not putting super security on them just like the sexual assault victim or for that matter any assault victim who walks thru a deserted, desolate area at 3 in the morning.
1
Victim blaming is so last century
3
OK..admire Bezos for standing of up these creeps. Now having said that I continue to be amazed at how all of these masters of the universe at some point in their career engage in middle school behavior ----the stupidity of sending out pictures of your private parts over a mobile phone and thinking--maybe not thinking---that these pictures would not go public---come on Jeff--talk to your IT people
20
@Amanda Jones
I'm pretty sure they were not sent over a private phone. I suspect a hidden camera was put in their hotel room installed by the goons following him.
Notice, Bezo was not naked. The most revealing photo was of him coming out of the shower with a towel around his waist and in the process of making a phone call. Does this looks like a selfie to you? And why would the camera focus on his finger with his wedding ring on?
I sincerely hope that Bezos causes as much pain to Mr Pecker and the sleazy National Enquirer as they have caused to countless people and their families over the years.
The biter bit.
10
“Oh what a tangled web we weave when we practice to deceive.”
That just about says it all for Pecker and Trump.
10
On the one hand, congratulations to Bezos for standing up to Pecker and what, indubitably, must be Donald Trump in the background. Bullies should never be obeyed.
That is about where my sympathy and patience end in this tale of poor little rich man being squeezed and exposed for really crass behavior toward his wife.
While Bezos has as much right to privacy as any fellow citizen, given what his company does, this whole story is rather ironic in many ways.
The sad thing is that Bezos will probably take away those things that affect him personally, but not the overarching lesson in this tale. Americans have no privacy, even though, on paper, we are supposed to have it. Amazon and all the other tech and non-tech companies trade in us, using us to profit. Pecker is just doing the electronic version of what he's always done. I hope some enterprising journalist looks into the Pecker-Trump relationship at the business level. Have those two ever squeezed anyone else?
---
Things Trump Did While You Weren’t Looking [2019]
https://wp.me/p2KJ3H-3h2
7
@Rima Regas
Newsflash: Bezos is not Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.
1
@Allen Braun
If that's what you think, then think again after you read this Gizmodo piece from January 30:
"I Tried to Block Amazon From My Life. It Was Impossible.
Apparently, I am a masochist.
I am on a mission to live without the tech giants—to discover whether such a thing is even possible. Not just through sheer willpower but technologically, with the use of a custom-built tool that would literally prevent my devices from accessing these companies, and them from accessing me and my data."
January 30 entry
https://wp.me/p2KJ3H-3h2
2
Does AM really manage to actually sell many or most of its rags, I never see ppl actually buying those Nat’l Enquirers in the market...or is their $ mainly coming from these blackmail attempts, from people like Trump who’ve had to ‘pay the Pecker/piper’ to keep out of the front pages of NE?
3
I continue to be amazed that supposedly savvy people continue to take, or allow others to take, nude photos of themselves and then send them to other people over the internet. These folks of all people, should know there is no privacy on the internet, and if more than two people know something it is no longer a secret.
Oh well, this will turn out to be very expensive lesson for Mr. Bezos, and perhaps, a word to the wise for everyone else.
7
This is costing Bezos a mere pittance, and it may well enhance everyone's bottom line, if it exposes more criminal activity and gets Trump out of office faster.
2
@Bruce1253
Looking to me like Mr. Bezos is very comfortable to spend the money to a) fend off the attack; b) not make a public affirmation of a fact on behalf of these idiots since he has i) no obligation at all to do so and more importantly has no idea if the extorted affirmation is true or not and c) not be bullied by friends of the President who himself is a demonstrable coward and bully.
As to the photos, woe upon he who transmitted them to AMI/Pecker. Mr. de Becker has pretty much a blank check from someone who can fill very large blank checks... he can hire a hundred investigators to run down leads. A thousand. And do it all in a perfectly legal fashion.
This hopefully spells the end of Mr. Pecker's "illustrious" publishing "career".
2
@Fran Taylor
I would beg to differ, his wife's divorce lawyer probably shouted "Hallelujah, Thank You Jesus!!" Its going to cost him half of his fortune.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Jon Fine, the Deputy General Counsel at Media at American Media, Inc., worked at Amazon from January 2006 to January 2015. For the first 20 months of that period, he worked as an Associate General Counsel. There is a potential conflict of interest in his attempt to extract concessions from a former client in exchange for his promise to keep that client's secrets.
16
@Michael Pullara.
It does seem as if that would be of interest to the American Bar Association.
1
I laugh.
I'm hardly a Trump apologist nor am I a reader of the cringeworthy Enquirer. By any means.
But I'm certainly not a Bezos fan either. All that wealth, yet so little attention paid to details. Details that matter to real working people, and yes, that includes his employees. Plenty of time, and money- to enter into adulterous affairs.
At what point do we call out these supposed icons who want all the accolades. Icons who think they can do no wrong. Icons who the adults tell their kids to emulate.
No thanks.
10
@RLC
Off topic much?
Anyone victim of extortion can either fold or fight.
I'm for the fighter.
David Letterman also fought. And Joe Halderman went to jail for trying to extort him.
3
@RLC
These men aren't philanthropists, they're oligarchs. I wonder if the press will ever summon up the nerve to use the term.
3
“Mr. de Becker confirmed to The Daily Beast on Jan. 31 that he was leading the investigation into the matter of how the Enquirer had obtained the text messages. Not long afterward, The Post prepared an article exploring competing theories about the motivation behind the publication of the tawdry tale.”
No fan of Trump or the National Enquirer, but lost amidst all the gushing praise of Mr Bezos from the commenters was the distinct possibility that he could be using the esteemed newspaper he now owns to pursue his own ends. Or is this immaterial assuming he passes one’s political litmus test.
7
@Rek It's highly likely to lead to another story about the Trump crime family, which would be actual, you know, news.
2
@Rek
The thought occurred to me that this could indeed have been engineered to play into the Nat Enquirer's base operation to sell "news"papers.
But Occam's razor wins out. Pecker, The National Enquirer and its sleazy board just couldn't do this right.
And now Pecker or others will go to jail. Just as Joe Halderman did when he attempted extortion on David Letterman.
Easy to hate Bezos - I'm no fan of Amazon's practices (management, employees, etc.), but he's a driven man, fearless and in this case ... aroused....
2
This “offer”…the extortion email…reads like one of those items that shows up in your Inbox…saying that they have ALL your passwords AND a video of you masturbating while watching porn last week. They’ll toss the video but only after you send ‘em some Bitcoin.
Classy outfit, this AMI, publishers of Our National Birdcageliner.
11
To say that the Saudis enjoy a cushy relationship with the Trumps & Kushners is an understatement. This time they have crossed the wrong billionaire. I hope Bezos takes the tarp off of this rot. If Pecker is lead away in handcuffs, I hope he squeals on the people who really stood to benefit from this scheme.
15
When I would take care of my weekly food shopping I would glance at the cover of the National Enquirer while on the checkout line. In 2015-16 it became obvious to me what it was. Less in the way of its usual celebrity near death and diet secrets. Full on with its Trump hype disparaging his opponents with full on Hillary hatred as if he and the RNC had them in their wheelhouse.
If Pecker and AMI ever turned on Trump you could imagine the headlines:
“Trump has late stage syphilis, White House can’t control him!” “Ivanka wants to be president!”
Melania ready to leave for Slovenia!”
“Don junior cries for dad!” “I colluded to please you!”
23
The National Enquirer, the richest man on the planet and Donald Trump, the serial philanderer, alleged rapist and sociopath-in-chief, fraudulent businessman and garish, cheap television personality.
This is what we've come to as a country.
On the front page of the New York Times no less.
27
When I read the actual blog post, I loved the Kafka-esque first lines. And also the powerful yet simple prose Bezos used. It wasn't written by lawyers or PR flacks - it was written by a very smart and strong person talking to a very weak and compromised moron (not the President, at least directly in this instance.)
19
@Anonymous He had me at “no thank you Mr. Pecker.”
2
Go get em' Jeff!
15
Trump, in all his classy manner, positively danced on the announcement Bezos and his wife were divorcing following the publication of his affair. He could not help himself but say that it made Bezos unfit to own Wash Po. The man is imperious to irony
11
This is another version of the Enquirer’s catch and kill operation. If Bezos shuts up, the Enquirer will kill the story.
Mr. Pecker—Jeff Bezos is not a naive ingenue that can be bought off for a couple hundred thousand. Considering that the Enquirer is already in legal jeopardy, it’s obvious how dumb this attempted blackmail is.
Thank you, Mr. Bezos. What we need more of is people standing up to Trump and his enablers. What this administration fears most, and works overtime at achieving, is stopping the truth from coming out.
33
First, anyone stupid enough to send nude pictures of themselves over the internet or any mobile device is asking for trouble;
Second, I find it interesting that suddenly today being a billionaire is a good thing;
Third, I applaud Mr. Bezos for turning the tables on an organization that has no purpose other than the the exploitation of others for profit.
19
@M. Winchester
He didn't send nude pictures of himself over the internet. The most probable cause was a hidden camera that took a picture of Bezo coming out of the shower with a towel around his waist and talking on the phone. The camera focused on his ring finger to show the evidence that he was still married at the time.
Does this look like a selfie to you?
What's all this fuss about?. Jeff, just buy AMI , then liquidate it!.
14
Trumps smarmy swamp seems to have no borders.
3
Prosecute AMI to the fullest. They did not live up to their agreement. The National Enquirer is nothing but a rag for bird cages, and it is high time they are made to pay for their blackmailing schemes and political charades!! Kudos to Bezos!! Go get 'em!!
8
Saudi Arabia, MBS, Khashoggi, National Enquirer, Trump, Cohen, Stone versus Bezos, Amazon, the Washington Post, freedom of the press? Beats Super Bowl! The Wicked Witch is DEAD!
5
It seems Putin has been after Bezos for a while.
https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/amazon/wikileaks-publishes-what-it-says-list-amazon-data-centers
4
Crime, non fiction, smacked hard, James Ellroy style.
Off the record, on the QT, and very hush-hush...
the Enquirer has a very checkered past, including sedition charges during WWII. Politics is not new territory for the Enquirer... celebrities, the occult and UFOs draw you in, but the real agenda is now coming back to the forefront. The Enquirer made a decision to strong arm the richest man alive, who also just so happens to own the Washington Post, 7th largest circulating newspaper in the USA.
Now the POTUSA, Saudi Prince, eventually Russia, most likely the NRA, and just maybe the Republican Senate are involved in a "Kiss and No Tell" story.
The feds/AG/ are freaking out right around now too.
Trump disparaged Amazon pretty hard during the first half of 2018, and Bezos kept his cool, but now the bullying was ramped up again, here in 2019. And this time they got personal. And stupid. Dang, they misjudged an avalanche for a snowflake.
Absolutely love this story.
16
When pseudo news media outlet like AMI and the Enquirer shake down individuals, blackmailing them to avoid publication of any material, those outlets cross the line into a criminal enterprise. Federal prosecutors should take every action at their disposal to prosecute this criminal activity. Mr. Pecker should be in jail and his lawyer should be disbarred. Thank you Mr. Bezos for revealing this crime.
9
Nobody interested in the "blackmail" they're interested in what the" Bez duz".
Tumescence Dies in Darkness.
3
Erections, like elections, have consequences.
19
This singular tweet from President Trump is stunning, given the fact David Pecker is a cooperating witness in an ongoing investigation on the president:
"So sorry to hear the news about Jeff Bozo being taken down by a competitor whose reporting, I understand, is far more accurate than the reporting in his lobbyist newspaper, the Amazon Washington Post. Hopefully the paper will soon be placed in better & more responsible hands."
Every day we are stunned and shocked. I long for the tranquility, normalcy --and honesty --of the Obama presidency.
394
@One More Realist in the Age of Trump Agreed, Obama was "honest" compared to Trump. But that's not saying much. Let's not whitewash recent history and pretend that our former president did not lie, repeatedly, to the American public.
4
@One More: another example of how the POTUS spends “executive time”. It is really not possible to fully comprehend what his character consists of. Middle school kids at their worst are not as pathetic as trump. SAD.
31
@Cam
Please delineate concrete examples from reputable sources. Go ahead...we'll wait.
56
How is this not a crime or is right to black-mail one of the fundamental rights conferred by the constitution ??
How is not the police and law enforcement involved ??
3
Whoops.........Mr. pecker (really?) has finally poked a hornets nest that will ultimately cause him (and his surrogate sugar daddy, individual-1) MUCH pain, expense and unwanted scrutiny. The hornets nest, otherwise known as Jeff Bezos, has enough money, smarts and tenacity to make pecker's life miserable.....and more power to ya Mr. B., go get 'em. Especially individual-1!
22
If AMI went after Jeff Bezos (a man of immense power and wealth) in an attempt to extort and blackmail him, you have to wonder how many other individuals and entities were targeted by Pecker and his nefarious brethren in an attempt to silence them. I have more than a sneaking feeling that the rancid crumbs lead right to the Oval Office. Follow the money, and the stench.
11
"Spare no expense"? Wouldn't the easiest solution be for Bezos to buy AMI and fold the NE for good? He'd be doing us all a favor and teach Pecker a lesson at the same time. He could do it out of pocket change.
6
@Jim it might be easier, but buying AMI would just make Pecker and his cronies rich (who all have significant personal net worth held in the company) - he'd be essentially paying them off, just in a different fashion. His chosen method is much smarter, and more ruthless. Go Bezos!
The national enquirer is an extortion enterprise that is working on behalf of the president if the United States and foreign governments who want to do lots of business with the US or need US support. Perhaps this explains republican complicity and capitulation. Maybe this explains some senators strange behavior and outsized support of Donald Trump.
649
@Deirdre
Wonder what they have on Lindsay Graham and Devin Nunes.
145
It should be a more interesting election in 2020 if this tabloid is no longer publishing its lies on behalf of Trump or buying silence from others making accusations against him. Bravo Mr. Bezos!
48
@Deirdre
Very bright connecting of the dots. Makes complete sense.
19
our family is going to start telling every grocery store where we shop that if they carry the national enquirer, they will no longer get our business. fed up with Pecker and his sleeze as well as what clearly appear to be criminal acts in protecting trump.
9
@savks
I turn the NE around at every check out I see them at. No one needs to see that rag screaming at them at the check out. Good luck with the boycott, I support you!
Is it possible that Pecker is dumber than Trump?
9
The non-prosecution agreement should be torn up and AMI, Pecker, and the entire board indicted. If they can do this to the world's richest man they can do it to anyone.
8
Re:
"The inciting event in this battle of American titans ...."
-from the article.
Since when has Pecker been a "titan" - other than a titan of smut and lies. Placing Pecker on the same level as Mr Bezos is not just a mistake - it is obscene!
5
I’m no fan of the Amazon monopoly but I really, really hope Bezos can bust American Media and the aptly named, Mr. Pecker, on this. How AMI was allowed to continue operations despite engaging in proven extortion and bribery schemes is beyond me. But as with everything in this country justice usually isn’t served unless the wronged have more money than the criminals. In this case, trying to bring down the world’s richest legitimate businessman probably wasn’t a good idea. Please let this be the last of Pecker and the national disgrace, the Enquirer.
8
National Enquirer was the only “newspaper” to endorse the Trump candidacy - this smells bad - Bezos should call it a “Witch Hunt”, Trump’s favorite term. On the other hand, what the hell was Bezos thinking running off with this lady - she seems like a cheap substitute to his current wife
3
Bravo to Mr Bezos for turning blackmail and extortion into a brilliant hard-hitting example of how to shut down not only one, but two of the biggest bullies in our country today.
And wouldn't it be the height of poetic justice for Trump's long and sordid relationship with (Mr) Pecker to cause his ultimate demise?
8
I have little to no sympathy for Jeff Bezos for a variety of reasons, but what’s upsetting is that the National Enquirer was blackmailing him, not for money, but because they want Bezos to make the Washington Post stop their investigation into the assassination of Jamal Kashoggi!! Seriously. The trash tabloid wants the Washington Post to cover up the murder of a real journalist! With their ties to Trump and their role in paying off women who he’s cheated on his wives with, they want a responsible media outlet silenced. Everyone should be outraged about this!
14
It is my fervent hope that Mr. Bezos uses his considerable clout — financial and otherwise — to crush the despicable urchins (who happen to be Trump's evil henchmen) who run AMI and its hideous yellow rag, The National Enquirer. Mr. Bezos is to be commended for standing up to this evil cohort, and I look forward to the day when AMI is referred to as 'the former AMI.'
9
Billionaire tries to out-best another billionaire.
Include the Russian billionaires and you'll see that it's been going on for decades.
Yawn.
Where is US democracy in the midst of all of these billionaire's dealings?
Yawn.
Let be clear.
I have always been a fan of Mr. Bezos, from the time Amazon was just a bookseller, and all the big brick competition, trying so hard to destroy his nascent business.
Back then, Mr. Bezos was a very shy, lanky and skinny young man.
When we saw him again, he had become a muscle bound hunk of a man. He became totally masculine and as hot looking as a red chili pepper. Even his droopy Eye became sexy.
In the interim, he became one of the richest man in the galaxy, who could count Movies, and Rocketry as his hobbies.
I bet you that those are some great pictures of a hot looking Genius Billionaire.
What is not to like. I hope for a Mr. Bezos Christmas calendar exclusively sold to Amazon Prime members. That would be a fabulous stocking stuffer to get.
From an admiring fan.
All of the Laundry is out in the open, I say, Jeff Bezos in 2020. We will have a self made Billionaire, one with a spine and a high IQ, go Jeff.
1
Trump's partner is evil, as he is.
3
Amusing to see how the owner of a once great newspaper that itself became a tabloid has accused another tabloid of behaving like a tabloid.
2
The Inquirer is Trump's mainline into folks who are too dumb to go online. It needs to be brought down.
Trump should be afraid also Bezos is a much worse enemy than the FBI.
5
In the UK a Murdoch owned rag called The News of the World was forced out of publication after 100+ years by unscrupulous "investigations" and salacious accusations primarily about celebrities.
Sound familiar?
Lets hope AMI and the Enquirer go the same way.
Go get 'em Jeff!!
10
Good for you, Jeff Bezos!
Condolences to what your family is having to endure because of these lowlifes, but you are helping America, too! It is obvious to most people who think for themselves and who use discernment.
3
The irony is just too rich. Bezos gets caught spying on his customers, runs the largest private cloud for US spymasters, and on top of all that, nationalenquirer.com is a customer of AWS.
Boo hoo, Jeff.
3
In addition to the many comments on Mr. Bezos, who I am otherwise not a big fan of, I have two questions: One, can any more serious journalist do a deep and exhaustive dive into the professional and personal life of Mr. Pecker, and publish it, with as many attributed sources as possible? Sunlight being the best disinfectant and all that.
Two, if a publication uses a person's writing to make money, and does so without permission, isn't that a violation of copyright? Maybe not as criminal as extortion, but potentially subject to civil suits for author's royalties and damages. Clearly, AMI ( the National Inquirer) did so knowingly and with intend, and made money off it.
5
Trump and the NE Work together to blackmail .. just another reason trump needs to go
3
People that live in billion dollar glass houses, should keep their mouth shut.
1
@Mike
Yessir! And keep their towels tied around their waist when they exit the shower taking a selfie. That should be in The Cloud now, according to Mr. Pecker.
Two competing events: alleged extortion and over the top hubris. If only they both lived in Virginia could this be any better.
2
Odd that Mr. Bezos cares not a whit that his Amazon is the ONLY major advertiser left on Breitbart... the same Breitbart that engages in the same lies and smears that he now is a victim of... Alexa "When is my delivery of "I don't care do you" arriving?
2
This is as much about freedom of the Press as it is about Government Corruption.
What the National Inquirer did here has nothing to do with reporting, does it? It reads like a skunk operation to tarnish and stink a perceived enemy of the President.
Is it possible that the birth of conservative media is more about corrupting our government for the benefit of fascistic tendencies that have always existed in the USA?
7
How can the richest man on earth who also happens to own a newspaper (and so can fight back in print) be blackmailed, and why would people be so stupid to try to Blackmail him? But then how could Bezos be so stupid to be 1 philandering, and 2 doing it publically enough that the inquirer would find out? Lesson: you can be a genius in your business life and still be stupid in every other regard.
5
After #MeToo, I don't judge relationship behavior unless abuse is alleged, and nobody here is complaining of abuse by Bezos. The Enquirer is the one abusing him.
1
1) I hope Bezos digs all the way down in this.
2) The public has no idea how common blackmail and cover-up is. (a) Look at Lindsey Graham who has suddenly become Trump's little puppet. Something happened that is not pretty. Graham is afraid. (b) Look at how the racist and segregationist Strom Thurmond covered up all of his affairs and covered up his half-black family with his long-time black mistress until his death.
3) There are many Congressional districts in which no one gets elected until the big interests both have the goods to destroy him/her and have the cover-up under control -- and thus they control the elected official. This is why we need to (a) stop being hypocrites and/or stop acting like buyers of the National Enquirer in our reactions to personal lives (remember how many children out of wedlock our Founding Fathers had) and (b) er need to expand Congress to one per 100,000 people (it was 30,000 at the founding) so there are too many to corrupt.
4) It is unlikely that our president is not taking actions driven by fear of disclosures. Sometimes he is just stupid. Sometimes he has good intuitions but too little knowledge and discipline to sharpen the intuition into good policy. And sometimes he just looks scared and manipulated.
5) The National Enquirer has gone around the bend from gossip-porn to a totally corrupt and criminal enterprise.
Sleaze merchants....what a shock they're friends of trump's.
4
Do you suppose Pecker’s relationship with Donny Trump has anything to do with this?
1
Good for Jeff Bezos! He has shown a great deal of courage in not bowing before men like Pecker who appear to have zero moral compunction.
Perhaps Graham, Nunes, McConnell, Falwell, even the Republican Party could learn something from Bezos' example. It is possible to be a flawed human being and still subscribe to values more important than always looking good. The ultimate degradation of morality and ethics appears first in extreme hypocrisy.
Mr. Trump's grip on his party is due primarily to the fact that he lacks the minimal decency required to be hypocritical, but he knows so many others in the GOP still maintain the illusion they are moral and ethical.
3
I think the Enquirer has finally messed with the wrong guy. The world's richest man (pre-divorce). I hope he sues AMI into bankruptcy oblivion. That paper has been blackmailing and ruining peoples' lives for far too long.
4
But no one has ever considered that these folks may have pulled the same shenanigans with Trump, or anyone else ?
Investigative reporting has gone way downhill.
1
If we are a nation of adults, why does anyone read the National Enquirer?
Why does the National Enquirer still exist?
4
@Gustav, I've spent much of my career in the media and communications, from ad agencies and TV to the major MSM and corporations. It's important to keep focused, and ignore all of the carnivals of blood-lust and treacly sentimentality out there, and especially phony, ephemeral 'reality TV.'
Guilty as charged. We all are.
1
Sounds to me like Ms. Sanchez may have had a heavy hand in this (no pun intended). Interesting her brother has ties to trump. I hope Bezos dumped her.
7
I hope this is not the end of The Enquirer.
How else are we going to know where the Martians and four headed cats are hiding.
7
Why doesn't he just buy the Enquirer, fire all the liars there and turn it into an information source? He could buy Fox too and do the same. Take away the pensions and benefits from all the executives and ban them from Amazon for life.
4
Mr. Bezos, I am with you.
4
Flashlight please.
There are plenty of lawyers in the Federal Southern District with enough experience and training to decide if there is a case to be made AMI violated its agreement. One way or the other a decision will be announced soon. D Pecker et al deploying threats of extortion and blackmail to publish embarassing stories is the flip side of their practice of buying for a few thousand dollars other stories and then burying them. These practices must have worked for a long time and with many other (less) wealthy targets otherwise D Pecker et al must be very stupid people to intentionally put themselves and AMI back into the sights of Federal law enforcement.
4
The Reynolds Papers...
1
AMI has met their match. Go get them Jeff!
3
Mr. Bezos could easily lead and finance a huge drive to protect the privacy of ordinary citizens from predators big and small (from Google and Facebook to teenage bullies). As a major civilization shift, such an achievement would secure his place in history as something more than just another ego-crazed billionaire.
3
If Bezos keeps middle aged men from taking "below the belt" selfies, he will have performed an invaluable service to humankind.
10
Mr. Bezos has the financial capability to exact revenge on Trump and the inept Republican Senators who have enabled him for two years. Let us hope he uses that capability to get these sleazy people out of the Congress. Vote them out in 2020!!
4
“You don’t tug on Superman’s cape.”
The NE will now get the treatment it has given to everyone else with too few resources to fight back.
If Mr. B started a Go-Fund-Me operation to fight the NE, I’d donate for sure.
6
Private photos of Jeff Bezos is not a matter of national security or public interest. No one should be allowed to publish or share them without his consent.
I hope The Enquirer and those publications like it disappear.
7
"That agreement, signed in September, stipulated that A.M.I. “shall commit no crimes whatsoever” for three years, and that if it did, “A.M.I. shall thereafter be subject to prosecution for any federal criminal violation of which this office has knowledge.”'
"...“shall commit no crimes whatsoever” for three years..."' And after three years, it's fine? Wow. Corporate 'punishment' would be an absolute miracle and a blessing for those poor people serving time for some very minor offenses...
9
Jeff Bezos could probably add AMI to his portfolio with what amounts to walking around money for him. Problem solved.
1
Having intimate photos of yourself be exposed is not something anyone can take lightly. Its the new phone sex of the past 10 years (imagine having a leaked recording of a phone sex phone call exposed).
I think when you're Jeff Bezos, maybe you'll hide under a rock for a bit, but really, who hasn't had nudes exposed of themself? Orlando Bloom, Justin Bieber, Harry styles... And you're worried about Jeff Bezos's nudes? He'll be okay.
Good for you Jeff Bezos!
Your refusal to bow to blackmail and extortion is a valuable lesson to everyone.
Once everyone understands the concept that exchanging racy texts with your girlfriend is really no big deal (much less any of anyone's business), what will the conservative stiffs clutch find to their pearls about next?
2
@Davey Dunno about that. Here's the raciest dialogue I ever exchanged in such a situation:
Busy?
Could be.
Usual.
K.
And that's it. Nothing else needed. And these silly photos are just imprudent these days, with all of the censorious employers and nosy neighbors around.
1
What does it say about us that so many accept the corrupt notion that the man is the business?
In this situation El Trumpo has his first legit excuse. Since he has never been involved in anything he or his father did not personally control it is just possible he cannot conceive of owning a thing but not actually controlling it.
Sure Bezos might be able to direct the Post but wouldn't that mean all the employees were willing to go along with having no dignity or standards of behavior?
That response line of AMI is working, NBC just ran it as if it weren't the diversion and subject change that it is.
I do not like Bezos, you cannot honestly run a business and lose money for 20 years and still hang on to investors and get more. Investors are famously greedy, especially since deregulation 5 years is the max I have ever heard of s business running w/o profit before closing.
Then there is the intentional destruction of brick and mortar book stores with shady dealings using money he never should have had since he was not making a profit....
Finally now that he has destroyed the independent bookstore he is building his own brick and mortar stores!!!
BTW I had not been to a Whole Paycheck in years and they built one where I live after Bezos bought them. The last one I was in was the Berkley one on Telegraph. I liked that one a lot. This new one is the physical manifestation of a bad and manipulative website.
This may be the first respectable thing he has done in public.
2
This is the end of the National Enquirer. Single copy sales are already down by 90% from its 1980s heyday. Celebrity gossip is now available in multiple, more accessible forms.
Other, similar AMI titles are in the same downward spiral (Globe, Nat'l Examiner, etc.). Soon the supermarket display space they occupy will be filled with energy drinks.
David Pecker presides over a near-worthless empire, I believe.
2
Maybe the National Enquirer did this simply because sex....sells.
Regardless will be interesting to find out what Mr. Bezos finds out from his investigation.
21
@EC. Maybe. But if so it sure is strange that they decided to engage in blackmail to stop the investigation. If they had nothing to hide and “ sex sells” why not just print the pics and texts.
21
@EC
Read the link the purpose was explicitly to stop Bezos investigating AMI.
https://medium.com/@jeffreypbezos/no-thank-you-mr-pecker-146e3922310f
6
@EC "Maybe the National Enquirer did this simply because sex....sells."
Does anyone actually buy the National Enquirer? I would like to see the data. We could see via analytics weather or not this story, in the Enquirer "sold" lots of copies. I doubt it though. Nobody I know is particularly interested in Jeff Bezos' love life.
5
Mr. Bezos is well known as a bully. He deserves respect for his journey with Amazon but to pit this story as good versus evil is laughable. No one in this story should be teaching a business ethics class anytime soon.
3
Why does anyone buy the National Enquirer? Why does anyone buy groceries at a store that sells that rag?
6
Because one has to buy other groceries, even if it sells other things that we vegans cannot eat.
Mr. Bezos: I salute you! Well done. And keep on trucking.
8
It turns out that The National Enquirer has also acted in a similar matter to other reporters.*
*https://nationalpost.com/news/ronan-farrow-says-he-also-received-blackmail-threat-after-reporting-on-the-national-enquirer-and-trump
5
I can only hope the NE will be closed down for good and take its entire “media empire” with it...preferably to jail. There must be consequences to bad acts or we won’t survive.
13
Jeff just walked up to the schoolyard bully and punched them straight in the nose.
Well played, Jeff. Well played.
51
@Charles Davis. Be Best
4
@Bashh hahah your comic timing is impeccable!
1
AMI is a useless media organization adding no value to society .Hope Bezos takes them for everything they have. AMI would not be missed by most people
21
People! Pay attention and take notice. Freedom of speech and all of our liberties are being attacked from within. They want us to focus on things like darkening our faces 20 years ago, instead who of is doing good things today.
There is so much noise it is hard to know where it is coming from. Keep your eyes and mind focused on the big picture. Don’t get distracted by these side shows. I commend Jeff Bezos for coming forward.
11
@Dr. Girl
Who is “they?”
This is one more episode in the Theater of the Absurd, nothing else. In any other universe this would be characterized as good versus evil with no clear view of who is good and who is evil, the tabloid or the philanderer. In today's Trump driven world nothing is as simple as it seems, everything becomes a cloak and dagger event. How will this episode impact the Trump investigation by Mueller? Cable News is filled with pundits growing this ridiculous story, offering opinions on every aspect. And the public gobbles it up.
This episodic maelstrom documents the very sorry state of affairs into which the country has descended. SO SAD!
4
This is like a Medieval morality play. I love it. The evil "catch and kill" blackmail demon runs into a billionaire with unlimited wealth and a spine made of titanium. Hopefully, others who have been bullied by this organization come out and put them out of business. Sweet. Bezos could be my first and only billionaire hero.
19
Who in this country besides the Federal government has the ability to target, intercept, and record cell phone communications and text - even without a court order? And how did that information then get passed to the Enquirer? And how do they publish it without breaking the law?
36
Who cares???.. another very wealthy man with a mistress and a fortune which he chooses to use for "look at me" moments. Let's continue to pay attention to Bill and Melinda Gates who spread their vast fortune on the greater good!!!
6
@susan Blanchard
Gates is the worst of them. He is like Carnegie going around building libraries hoping to buy his way into heaven for all the evil he did to gain that wealth.
American Media decides to stand by its actions, but then begins an investigation? It would be so much better to have the investigation precede the decision rather than follow it.
6
@Jonathan Pollard
They fooled you. That is what that statement is meant to do.
They stand by something that is not the topic here. You see? They did not address the topic which is their attempt at blackmail, they pretend the topic is the article they did revealing Bezos affair.
But Bezos outplayed them he posted the letters and emails they sent him revealing the facts of what they are doing.
1
@Jonathan Pollard
The statement that indicated they would begin an internal investigation is simply the beginnings of what will become an effort to deflect blame associated with this event to lower-level individuals. Very typical and will be part of what Bezos must prove; that is, it goes all the way up the chain of command.
Jeff Bezos couldn’t have been smarter than accusing National Enquirer owner, David Pecker, Trump’s longtime ally, of extortion and blackmail. Going public with the tabloid’s threat to publish his intimate photos is the best strategy to corner Pecker’s company, the American Media Inc. (AMI).
Bezos must have known about AMI’s vulnerable situation. It has been found guilty of paying hush money to Karen McDougal on Trump’s behalf weeks before the 2016 election. To avoid charges it signed an agreement with federal prosecutors last September, and stipulated that it “shall commit no crimes whatsoever” for three years.
AMI has totally underestimated its opponent. It expected Bezos to be quiet about the publication in January about his extramarital affair. When he decided to find out the motives for the many unusual actions taken by the Enquirer, the parent company emailed threats to Bezos’s lawyer that intimate pictures of him would be released, unless he backed off an investigation of the tabloid.
AMI demanded from the Bezos parties to affirm that “they have no knowledge or basis for suggesting that AM’s coverage was politically motivated or influenced by political forces”. Its chief content officer, Dylan Howard wrote: “It would give no editor pleasure to send this email. I hope common sense can prevail – and quickly”.
Who would put up with such a haughty self-assurance?
30
While plenty of legitimate criticism can be leveled against Amazon's workplace practices, as revealed in recent articles, I think the majority of us who have taken advantage of the amazing convenience of it's services, would be real hypocrites if they were to say they wanted it to go out of business. I, for one, as a retired single woman on a fixed income and without a car, could not imagine how much time and money I would need to spend shopping for household items, groceries, books, gifts etc. in my increasingly more expensive neighborhood, if I did not rely on Amazon to deliver all these to my front door in a very timely fashion, in exchange for a very reasonable charge on my Amazon Prime account. For this, I probably need to thank Mr. Bezos and his vision for what he wanted this company to accomplish when he founded it. His private life is none of my concern.
The National Enquirer and other publications of the same ilk, offer nothing to society except the ability to satisfy it's most prurient impulses and not-so-secret feelings of Schadenfreude at seeing the rich and the famous brought down or humiliated. The problem here is not so much the seedy content of their product but the selectiveness of their targets and their readiness to use blackmail and extortion on behalf of one individual or group against another.
I applaud Jeff Bezos for his stand in this matter. It took a lot of guts.
55
So Bezos decides he's going to make a huge, unending deal out of these pics.
How smart is he? Not smart enough, I guess, to grasp the Streisand Effect.
But, in his case, unlike Streisand's, it isn't a picture of his mansion that the public will be antsy to see.
4
@frankly0
The "Streisand Effect" can't be that bad as I have never heard of it
4
@frankly0 Disagree. The tawdry pics of Bezos will come and go, and are of little interest to most of us. The fall of American Media, and whomever will be taken down with it, will last forever- and will be oh so much fun to watch.
6
@frankly0
He's not making a big deal out of the pics. He's making a big deal out of the extortion attempt.
I don't think the public is dying to see the pics though. I can't imagine very many people care. AIM only wanted them to try to blackmail Bezos.
5
“Of course I don’t want personal photos published, but I also won’t participate in their well-known practice of blackmail, political favors, political attacks and corruption,” Mr. Bezos wrote. “I prefer to stand up, roll this log over and see what crawls out.”
That Trump hates Bezos and his Washington Post is obvious, because his entire life doesn't withstand any scrutiny. If he has no skeletons in his closet, he has no reason to fear and stop Robert Mueller's investigations. "Roll this log over and see what crawls out."
41
....I've lost all respect for Mr. Bezos .
4
Why?
Because he had an affair? Because he would not pay blackmail (hush) money? Because Trump did both those things, and covered it up with Peckers help, so it must be ok?
7
@JMS And I just gained massive respect for him. How'd you like all your dirty laundry, that's not illegal, to be aired in public and then threatened on top of that? Answer that question honestly to yourself.
7
@JMS Huh?
3
I really don’t care, which immediately disarms Pecker’s offense. But I do hope that Pecker has finally picked on the wrong pickle and that Bezos will be able to dunally exterminate this trash heap forever. Consider it a public mental health campaign, Jeff. The country’s collective I.Q. could rise a point with the demise of the Enquirer.
62
Did they get the pictures and conversations from his Alexa? It would serve Jeff Bezos right. JB and Amazon have been pushing Alexa into everything and everywhere. Do you really need Amazon to know what you said in your car and where your car has been? Do you really want Amazon to know what hotels you stayed at and what you ordered for room service?
6
The vulgarity, the soulless urge to invade people's privacy and destroy their lives make me gag. I hope Bezos nails these people, for good.
71
I love the irony here. Bezos came out against Hulk Hogan's lawsuit against Gawker and the funding by Peter Thiel. His quote - "The best defense against speech you don't like is a thick skin. If you can't tolerate the critics, then don't do anything new or interesting." He followed it up by saying "How do you want to spend your energy?"
Bezos' text messages to his girlfriend should be private but as a tech entrepreneur he should have known this could happen and he should have thought about the embarrassment it would cause his ex-wife and children.
#badjudgment
9
@Vincent Freeman - how does your comment have any bearing on AMI's attempted extortion. Bezos literally put it all out there and said let the chips fall where they may. There is no attempt to cover up free speech - this is literally the opposite.
9
@Vincent Freeman
But he's not trying to stop the publishing of these things. He's refusing to be blackmailed, which is the exact opposite.
As to his needing to have thought about embarrassment, I would rather that he thought about his marriage vows and his obligation to keep them.
3
@Laura
I think the blackmail accusation is just an attempt to change the narrative. So what? He looks like a buffoon.
"How do you want to spend your energy"?
He should focus on running Amazon.
Aren't the principles of this same kind of behavior (if you do this, I'll ruin you with that) at the core of our current president's relationship with the Republicans in Congress? Republicans are so afraid of what will be said about them on Twitter that they cow to whatever this administration wants. Since when did blackmail become the norm and truth and honesty only for suckers? I commend Bezos for coming forward with this.
20
Carve up my Washington Post employee with a bone saw and I’ll be quiet. Publish pictures and texts between me and my mistress and I’ll scream.
It’s all about Jeff Bezos.
6
@Jim Neal
Washington Post wasn't quiet about the Khashoggi death. Not at all.
He was not Bezos employee.
8
Not true. The Post was relentless in keeping the Khashoggi murder story in the media for a long time, to their credit.
5
@Jim Neal
FTA: "The Post has been reporting determinedly on intelligence assessments that the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, ordered the grisly murder of the Saudi dissident — and Post global opinion contributor — Jamal Khashoggi."
3
Never thought I’d be taking the side of Jeff Bezos on anything, but such are these times...good for him for standing up to the disgusting tactics of AMI.
27
He doesn’t seem to be denying anything. He might want to look at his ex wife as the source. Of course, it’s okay for WaPo to publish reports from unnamed sources.
5
I have a love-hate relationship with Amazon. I do find it fishy that AMI devotes enormous amount of resource going after Bezos. I think AMI won’t publish anything more for fear of being prosecuted by the federal government. I am with Bezos on this one and it will be interesting to know how AMI got the texts.
24
AMI definitely needs more lawyers who can read legal agreements.They were given immunity for cooperating with the investigation of Trump paying hush money to kill stories and then they turn around and dig up information on the richest man in the world and have the temerity to publish it and assume he will simply oblige the bad publicity.They have now broken their immunity agreement and tried to extort favorable behavior from Jeff Bezos.Congratulations to him for not capitulating and here”s hoping that we hear from the court in the Southern District of New York.Too many in Trump’s orbit think that the law applies to others and that they are above it!
23
This affair is right up there with Hulk Hogan vs. Gawker. Hard to determine which side is more odious.
3
AMI, in my opinion was trying to take advantage of a few things here:
One, Trump hates the real multi-billionaire Bezos because of just that, he's a real multi-billionaire and he owns a world class newspaper that has never stopped short of investigating corruption in the Trump Campaign and Presidency. So therefore, Trumps supporters hate Bezos and will scoop the Enquirer up hungrily. Would this scandal bring these two wilting love birds, Trump and Pecker, together again?
And two, I think Pecker believes that there is enough ambivalence towards Bezos by moderates and liberals due to how Bezos spends his money and his outsize role in platforms that may cause privacy concerns as well as the corner that Amazon seems to have on the market of bringing goods to the world. And all that would bring a certain type of public support for his trashy tale cloaked in exposé.
I think Pecker gambled wrong. I for one, although concerned that Amazon is too important in our lives for most of the wrong reasons, admire the company and I read the WaPo religiously. Always have.
Pecker, be afraid. Be very afraid.
17
Perhaps some good might come out of this disastrous Trump debacle:
1 The death of the National Enquirer
2 The death of the National Rifle Association
3 The death of the Republican Party in its current iteration
4 An unending shame spiral for the Trump family and their minions
Let us pray
60
@Posslq, While we're praying let's add the death of the Evangelical movement. They, like the others you mention, are all morally bankrupt.
6
@Posslq From your keyboard to God's ears.
3
@Posslq
Amen!
Deflection and red herrings. Mr. Bezos is really really mad that his affair was disclosed and his wife found out. He can no longer have his cake and eat it too. Aww.
8
His wife already knew about the affair. I can’t imagine that she’s behind this. Her Trump-supporting brother? Who knows...
1
I can hear the dominoes falling, one by one. It's too bad it took the world's richest man to catalyze reaching a tipping point, but so be it. Better late than never. We need to know what AMI has on Trump, the Russians, the Saudis and let some sunlight disinfect this area of political filth and disease. Now, if they could take down that Murdock propaganda machine along with all its snakes and cockroaches, we could get on to some semblance of justice for everyone. (I'm sorry to impugn real snakes and cockroaches, for the ecologists in the audience.) We have a long way to go but maybe, just maybe, there's momentum building against these creepy ghouls feeding in the filth and slime of darkness, where democracy dies.
17
I remember well the line said to me don't ever put something in an email or text that you would not want to see on the front page of the NY Times. The wiki leaks and Ed Snowden lessons are no matter who you are or how powerful you can be snooped on by Big Brother.
11
@Robert
Except that Bezos isn't being "snooped on by Big Brother"; he's being threatened with exposure of some embarrassing photos and texts by a tabloid newspaper conglomerate that has ties to the President. Big dif.
2
"If you have an extortion lasting than more than 4 hours, you should see your lawyer immediately."
6
Is it only me who can look beyond this obvious blackmail case?
Jeff Bezos, owner of the Washington Post will set an example that you don't mess with Jeff. Journalists will notice and they will think twice about writing critical about Amazon's practices.
Democracy dies in darkness.
5
@Two in Memphis - really, is that the lesson you took from this. I think the real lesson is that AMI has engaged in a bold faced attempted extortion and been called out in public. Extortion is not free speech. Times editors may comments on this, but I suspect they never go to a potential news subject and offer to pull coverage in exchange for favors.
3
“American Media believes fervently that it acted lawfully in the reporting of the story of Mr. Bezos,” the statement said. “Nonetheless, in light of the nature of the allegations published by Mr. Bezos, the Board has convened and determined that it should promptly and thoroughly investigate the claims. Upon completion of that investigation, the Board will take whatever appropriate action is necessary.”
or
You caught us, but we will not admit guilt and will continue pretending that something else is the story. If we cannot create a story to hide behind we will sacrifice one of our peons and wash our hands of the matter.
Future topics for NYT
1. What does the irrationally exorbitant expense of a lawsuit for slander or libel cost society?
1a. Why do press outlets not admit that Peter Theil did the nation and the world a service by funding Terry Bollea's lawsuit against Gawker? Gawker was infamous for using this expense to get away with libel, slander and propaganda among other things.
2. How many unconstitutional laws are on the books and being used, mainly agianst the poor and people of color only because those people cannot afford to fight back in court and show they are unconstitutional or legally suspect laws?
2a. What about the "civil asset forfeiture" con game?
4
A boring billionaire version of a bar fight.
1
The suggestion that this operation may have been politically motivated, is very serious and unbelievably short sighted.
Why on earth would anybody be so stupid as to approve this operation, and possibly engage a government entity, to attack and defame someone whom the President defames and attacks constantly as well?
Did AMI really think that Jeff Bezos would not try to defend himself? Just imagine the ire of Mr. Bezos as he sees his marriage dissolved because of it.
I don’t think any of them ever saw Jeff Bezos coming by to set up a dumpster fire for them, did they?
3
@Truth Is True -- Dear Truth-Is-True: The "something of value" was getting the Post to "back off" an investigation. Commentators are losing track of the point: BLACKMAIL. Sure we can go back and forth on the (non) value of private lives being exposed, but "freedom of the press" is not at issue. BLACKMAIL by what appears to be the nation's top black-mailer (the National Enquirer) is the issue.
2
@Craig Mason. I agree with you that it is all about blackmail. I was trying to point out how clumsy the blackmail attempt was and, how Mr. Bezos made it blow up in their faces. There is humor in Mr. Bezos response. Mr. Bezos didn’t cowed. Instead, went on the defense in a very creative and effective way. That was my reference to the dumpster fire metaphor.
Extortion requires receiving something of value . When publishing a factual, accurate story becomes something of value, that would also mean that any political articles would be considered a political contribution. Does anybody see the irony that the person who owns the WaPost could actually be fighting the freedom his paper currently has
2
Bezos tilts his lance.
Economic feudalists
with honor at stake.
I know that it isn't Haiku Friday at The Times, but I couldn't resist.
1
I have a whole new respect for Mr Bezos.
8
Shouldn't the news be about the children taken at the border, poverty, education, gun control, etc?
1
Anyone that doesn't think trump is behind this is just plain nuts. Vengeance is trumps MO. And sleazy is his lifestyle. It would not surprise me one little bit that he thinks he is so powerful that he can use other governments to do his dirty work. Imagine his surprise when Jeff Bezos called his bluff. When it comes to Jeff Bezos trump goes from orange to green with envy. trumps whole life is nothing but supermarket, tabloid sleaze.
14
I recommend everyone interested in this story to read in its entirety the Medium blog post by Jeff Bezos that is at the heart of this article. I'm not a lawyer but it sure looks like extortion/blackmail to me. You do what we want or we will make public compromising pictures of you. AMI's and Mr. Pecker's defense of doing this as news reporting would seem to me blown away after their attorney sends e-mails with this demand that of course they want to be in the form of a confidential agreement. Wow! Sleazy to the nth degree.
8
Well done Mr. Bezos. Buy the National Enquirer and put them out of business. Catch and kill would be appreciated by all of us.
11
@Jacquie
No. Buying it would imply that it had value to begin with.
1
Sad how many folks here are fine with crimes when committed against people they don't like.
7
Wow! The “successful” people, the “powerful” people, the Americans “titans” at it, on display to show us and the rest of world ... well, just about everything ... American? And then, added to this, there’s American justice with free passes. Beneath the sordid stories here there’s another story ... and it’s about us, including what so many of us have let happen.
Regardless of any other details, this whole story obviously caused and causes Jeff Bezos a lot of personal angst, which he has bravely set aside to reveal to our country the brutal mob tactics we have come to fear with Trump and his cronies.
This may actually end up being an important revelation of crimes and thug, self-enriching behavior suspected of this Administration and Trump's henchmen.
THANK YOU, JEFF BEZOS, FOR YOUR PATRIOTISM.
11
There are more tiny Trump / Saudi fingerprints on this thing than on there are on Trump's Twitter screen.
13
A dream of Justice: that certain tabloid gossips, politicians, and legal parasites could all end up sharing close quarters in prison for a long time.
6
So am I the only guy in America who has never taken a “below the belt selfie” and sent it to someone? Guys... seriously... what’s wrong with you? I think I need to take a poll of my friends and see how deep this bizarre behavior runs.
14
Why was the theme song from "The Benny Hill Show" running through my mind while reading this piece?
1
Jeff Bezos' private investigator Gavin de Becker believes the billionaire's texts with his lover Lauren Sanchez (pictured together bottom) were not hacked, but a 'government entity might have gotten hold of the text messages'. The bombshell claim was made by Washington Post reporter Manuel Roig-Franzia on MSNBC Thursday night. Trump? Nah--why would he? One Million Reasons
8
@That's what she said
Let's see if that reporting holds up.....
Good old fashioned scandal mongering drama. Jeff Bezos' is far from a likeable guy but the National Enquirer has raised Bezos to hero status. Amazing work NE! And they say that NE is a fake newspaper no one takes seriously, except aliens! Also it is amazing how Trump is a magnet for sleazy and or sycophantic characters.
5
Bezos is awesome. Spies on America with Alexa, gets upset when other Americans spy back.
3
@West Coast Best Coast
Don't have an Alexa device if you feel that way.
If you do, you've essentially consented.
No spying involved.
1
Good for Bezos on this; his decision showed some courage and integrity.
I suspect that at the end of this digusting criminal behavior, there is a trump name, followed by a Russian name.
It reads like a bad suspense novel--the heavy handed blackmail threats--unless there is more calculation here: e.g., Pecker gets out of the cooperation deal at the expense of the NE folding, protecting this "president," as well as Pecker's personal fortune. Protecting some low-life tabloid from accusations that it's a political mouth-piece seems rather thin (it's not going to bother its readers), but protecting a low-life worm who cheated his way to the White House has some potential pay-offs.
6
Sanchez works for the FOX corporation. Her brother is close with the Trumpists. Any further questions?
Only question I have, is how could they be so stupid as to take on the richest man in the world (other than Putin, that is)? No way to hurt Bezos. He is immune with all his funds.
5
He should just buy it, shut it all down and put them all out of work.
1
@Brian
No. Buying it would imply that it had value to begin with.
1
He is mad he got caught, nothing more, nothing less!
1
Many commenters express a “so what” disinterest in people having affairs. But the exposes are not personal (while having personal consequences, like embarrassing a man in underwear or less, slitting the new mistress for showing cleavage, and of course hurting that other person, the wife). But the real thing is always about the money: does infidelity “while wearing a wedding ring” matter to the divorce itself? The answer is not really; The courts, like many commenters, could care less about marriage vows and hurt parties. All it does is oversee division of assets which the lawyers hash out.
The purpose of ami’s blackmail is to undermine bezos as a business leader -and owner of a msm newspaper that looked unfavorably on the butchering of a journalist.
6
World's richest narcissist vs a tabloid publisher. Why are we supposed to care about this?
6
I was struck that for once he isn't thinking nearly big enough. "I prefer to stand up, roll this log over and see what crawls out.” Jeff, fund10,000 investigative journalists every year with no agenda, no restraints, and ROLL ALL THE LOGS.
5
Jon Fine, AMI attorney, would seem to be vulnerable. What could he have been thinking? As an attorney, I cringe at these sort of activities. It reinforces the public's opinion that "Legal Ethics" is an oxymoron. It is not.
125
@Zev
It's like most things especially since deregulation, those who know generally get good service. Those who don't generally get taken for a ride. That would be by the same person.
3
The trashiest paper of them all and originator of fake news, Trump and cohort David Pecker going after Bezos is almost laughable. What's the big deal about an extramarital affair with photos, when Trump has had affairs played the field with porno stars, beauty contestants, starlets his whole life? That Trump's buddy Pecker has suppressed Trump's daliances with his babes, but is going after Bezos is obviously politically motivated. Can't wait to see what sort of luscious photos and messages Putin has on Trump.
12
Great. A billionaire attacks the free press and all the Liberals are cheering. What's wrong with this picture?
5
Extortion and blackmail are now conservative values?
Acting as a foreign agent (for Saudi Arabia) without registering is fine with the Republicans?
I would have thought that a right winger would have been the first to say that with rights come responsibilities.
5
@Carl Hultberg
What's wrong?
That you believe The National Enquirer is "the free press."
They admitted to paying money to quash a story critical of the president.
The free press PUBLISHES stories . . . much like the one you seem to have a problem with.
4
@Carl Hultberg
Free press =/blackmail
1
We have two points of data:
(i) AMI blackmails people and promises to spike embarrassing stories only if the victim does whatever they say.
(ii) AMI spiked embarrassing stories for Donald Trump.
26
There is an elegant symmetry to all this.
I am so glad to see Mr. Bezos stand up to these small time bullies.
It is past time for someone to do so.
Shine a very bright light on these thugs and their criminal behavior, Mr. Bezos. Yes, kick the log hard and let's see ALL of what and whom crawl out.
Thank you.
14
Wow! What a battle Royal, eh?
The ‘real news’ (and analysis of this Empire) by “The Post” vs. the ‘fake news’ (and ‘division’, distraction, and delusion of many Americans) by the faux-Inquiring print and TV ‘fake media’.
“The Post” mast-head slogan educates ‘we the people’ that “Democracy Dies in Darkness” (under Empire), while “the INQUIRER” covers-up the deceits, crimes, and arrogance of America’s first Emperor.
What America really needs, IMHO, is the TV equivalent of “The Post” and the NY “Times”, rather than the over-advertised swamp of corporate network TV, delivering more millions of cans of ‘dog food’, in a “fair and balanced” faux-choice of neocon and neoliberal-con brands which just ‘divide’ the voters, and make trillions for that giant corporation, “Universal Dog Food, Inc.” — while the CEO and Board of this Empire laugh all the way to their off-shore banks.
“But wait, there’s more” — as the Aussie pitchmen say — in that vast “Wasteland” that TV was called in the 50s and 60s, even BEFORE the ADs started stealing more time than the senseless ‘content’, the people’s airwaves could have been used to tell truth to ‘we the American people’ and educate us for democracy, rather than ‘sell us’ into a “New and Improved” flavor of this disguised global capitalist Empire.
1
Is not posting an accurate article considered extortion? That would mean publishing positive, as well as negative articles are items of value. That would mean articles in this, and every other publication would qualify as a contribution to one party, or another. If any court puts a value on accurate reporting, the freedom of press will be lost. A threat to publish the truth should never be considered illegal.
@Jay
Unless it's blackmail. And there's a quid pro quo offer.
2
Hell must have frozen over because I'm rooting for Jeff Bezos. Go get 'em Jeff!!
13
How long until the Trump crime family crawls out from underneath the sewer that is Pecker and the AMI? Just start counting. Somebody already has the evidence...
13
Blackmail? Extortion?
Enquirering minds want to know.
9
Karma for what you did to Woody Allen.
Say goodbye to half your money Jeffrey.
3
How can you applaud Bezos for going after the Enquirer and hate Peter Thiel for going after Gawker? A lot of posts here happy about a billionaire flexing his financial muscle to put down a publication which is the same thing Thiel did. The difference? Thiel is more "right wing". Bezos had an extramarital affair and got caught. Peter Thiel was ousted as a gay man against his will. The hypocrisy is mind numbing.
3
I feel...boring.
1
What goes on between consenting adults really isn’t our business (although it may be of concern for stock holders).
I suspect Jeff and McKenzie have been drifting apart for a while now and there really isn’t much of anything new. But that does not let the NE and Pecker off the hook. I hope Bezos is able to turn the tables on them. I congratulate him on fighting back. I wish him luck.
13
The national media, and the Times, publish stolen documents on a regular basis so long as they determine them to be newsworthy. The "morality" of this seems to swing back and forth with the winds. Having said that, I hope that the Enquirer and its owners go down in flames over this. They've been pulling this kind of stuff long enough.
3
You go Jeff! First AMI and then FOX, and then... It is time for America to clean up its act.
6
It is not uncommon for official spooks to retire and become private dicks. I suspect Bezos is signaling Trump that he and Pecker will not be walking away from their data theft issues as Murdoch did in the UK. Murdoch handed over his reporters' email server in exchange for the US ignoring his FCPA violations. Had we seen what was in his CEO's e-mail server between she and Cameron's crew, BLIMEY!
At least tell me ya'll gonna make this a docudramedy, Amazon.
3
The National Enquirer has Trump and his entourage of bonkers billionaires behind it. These folks run a nationwide blitzkrieg propaganda operation that makes the Washington Post look like a village weekly. So the battles is not as unequal as Bezos’ billions might make it seem. If Bezos can manage to dent their armor, it will be a national service.
10
Civil libertarians everywhere owe Jeff Bezos a big thanks for spotlighting the ethical issue of stolen personal documents and whether or not they should be published in the national press.
As was the case with both Sony Pictures and the Clinton campaign/DNC "Wikileaks" documents, Bezos's texts and emails were physically stolen, not "leaked" or "hacked" in the traditional journalistic sense (a critical legal and ethical distinction).
Thus they should be treated as crimes by both law enforcement and the press and therefore the materials, as stolen goods, should not be accorded any special First Amendment "right to publish". Otherwise what is legally to prevent a news entity from simply breaking into an office and stealing documents and publishing them?
Moreover the Sony and Clinton/DNC thefts were also done by foreign governments, who also have no First Amendment rights. The Bezos camp is also hinting that there may have been some foreign involvement here.
Thus ethically news outlets should not be publishing stolen documents. Lawrence O'Donnell on his MSNBC show last night excoriated the press for publishing stolen materials in each of these cases.
As we saw in 2016, the news media deceptively refused to properly label the Wikileaks documents as "stolen by the Russian government", in order to avoid ethical scrutiny over publishing stolen goods.
Hopefully the Bezos matter will encourage a discussion of media ethics as to publishing stolen documents.
329
@John M
What about the Pentagon Papers? Or publishing the stolen listings of account holders in tax paradises? Both examples of "stolen" documents. Where does morality and public interest lie here? Not sure of the answer myself.
26
@John M
What about Trump’s stolen tax returns? Is The Times exempt from publishing stolen documents?
7
@Jay
Maybe we have to discern between skullduggery and national security. I fail to see how Mr. Bezo's affair would come under national security as he does not hold any government office and his being black mailed only affects his business and himself, but, if a foreign hostile power, and this, in my opinion, is the caveat, has the goods on our current POTUS, which can be revealed through his hidden tax returns, he is subject to black mail at our peril, and that is a completely different matter.
18
Gawker? Remember that? We have doubled standards in this country. One for famous Republicans and the other for the rest. Hopefully Mr. Bezos sue The National Enquirer for damages. Hogan was able to do it with Gawker and won, in the process destroying the progressive publication. Trump is already protecting Pecker of any investigation. Sad that the legal system in the USA works only for the rich Republicans.
6
Can we hope that Jeff Bezos will destroy AMI and the National Enquirer once and for all?
Can we hope that Mr. Pecker goes to prison?
MAGA!
13
Private text messages should be exactly that, private.
We need a law to protect that privacy, with severe criminal penalties for using illegal means to obtain that private information.
293
@Dr. Mark Agree, but will that apply to a woman running for office, or just to wealthy businessmen? That's the test of what America is.
14
@Dr. Mark
The law is clear. It is illegal to steal communications and documents, but legal to publish illegally obtained information. When NSA documents were stolen and made available through Wikileaks, newspapers rushed to print the top secret information. Public awareness caused public outcry, which changed laws. This whistle blower is living in exile, in Russia, to stay out of prison. So stealing is bad, publishing is good, get it?
6
@Dr. Mark. If Mr. de Becker thinks large here, privacy could take a huge leap forward. It’s already extortion, and given trump’s hate for WaPo/jealousy over Bezos, it could also be termed “revenge porn”. Yes, tongue-in-cheek, but not really. Your comment here is the gold.
5
I read much of the texts sent by Bezos. Except for a few semi-salacious bits, they are mostly what you'd expect- boring. Even the semi-salacious bits were boring. Just two people talking to each other.
The National Enquirer used to be fun. They had stories about Bat boy, Hillary's alien love child, the last days of a beloved celebrity. Now it's plainly a political organ, stories that try to put Trump in a good light. Translation- BORING. And tabloids don't last if they're boring.
4
I think you mean The Weekly World News, not the NE.
1
@Jack from Saint Loo Weekly World News was the Batboy publication, and I, for one, miss having Batboy to giggle over while standing in the checkout lane.
If I were Mr. Pecker, I would be very worried that AMI will go the way of Gawker Media. Wouldn't that be a shame.
6
Uh Oh....If "The Enquirer" shuts down or is put out of business, where ever will Trump supporters get thier facts from?!?!??!?
You KNOW they stay away from "fake news" outlets like the NY Times ( remember Trump calling it "the failing NY Times"? We don't hear that much anymore do we?)
I wonder if Trump will now have to assign that description to The Enquirer?
Imagine, Trump on the stage, fake tan and racoon eyes bulging, lips in full rosebud, thumb and pinky in a circle, braying......"Blah Blah Blah...the "failing Enquirer" has printed "Fake news" about me and is going out of business....I never really knew David Pecker...."
Why would Pecker think there isn't room under the bus that ALL Trump's "friends and allies" finally end up underneath of? And actually, there must be a garage FULL of busses by this time......
8
I think Mr. Bezos should 'catch and kill' American Media, Inc. Buy the company and shut it down
7
Once again, an elite self-implodes through hubris and hypocrisy and tries to put the blame on some bizarre and convoluted Trumpian conspiracy. And because millions of other mentally unstable Americans hate Trump too, they go along for the ride.
Clinton was probably the first to exhibit the pattern. Ran a horrible campaign, lost, and blamed Russian Facebook trolls.
Then the media went. Shocked by her loss, credibility blown for not seeing it coming, they too went with the Russian-Trump conspiracy angle.
Now we have Bezos. He cheated on his wife, got caught, is about to be exposed, and his response is probably the best - task some goofball who protected various Reagan family crack-pots and Michale J Fox and Olivia Newton John to get to the bottom of it (lol - really?), release a rambling blog post positing a grand unified theory of Trump conspiracies, and then put the paper he owns on it too. The same paper mind you that had time for Blasey-Ford’s baseless accusations, but no time for Dr. Taylor’s valid accusations against the VA AG.
The Big Meltdown is going to come sometime around Sep 2020 though. I think this is when it’ll become ever clearer that that “genius” ticket of Harris/Brown or Warren/Booker (it covers all of the right racial, gender, regional, and ideological bases!) is going to go down Mondale/Ferraro style. Maybe not as big as that because of blue state lock in, but big.
And at this point, the left will really lose it. Bezos and the rest are a preview.
4
@Kale
There is no "Russian conspiracy angle" except on faux news.
At least 34 people and three Russian companies have been charged so far as a result of the special counsel’s investigation into 2016 election tampering.
But hey, those folks like Manfort, they just plead Guilty for the heck of it?
5
This all just makes me want to go to a cabin in the woods and stay there for a few years, reading the classics by lamplight.
I'd check the classics out of the local library, shop at the farmer's market, and stay way clear of the supermarket checkout.
178
@Jan
Already there.
7
@Jan
I know what you mean. On the other hand, as you know, for evil to prosper it's enough for good men and good women to do nothing.
10
@Jan I'm with you. Am cutting way back on media time until a few months before the election, when I'll jump back in and volunteer for our Democratic candidate. Enough.
1
Blackmail and extortion are the tactics of bullies and cowards. Bezos called the hand of AMI/NE. I tip my hat to him.
11
Who knew that the AMI legal team got their law degrees from Trump University? Hubris seems to be the defining character quality required for entrance into TrumpWorld. Trump's cronies are all leaving evidence of their crimes in plain sight. What are we going to do when criminals with actual skill get elected into office?
13
Now THAT'S how you talk a skeptic into accepting Amazon Prime's directives. What a girl wants is to be left alone when she shops!
But seriously, Jeff, how do you log out when I'm so done with you? Even the NYTs makes it easy to leave them behind.
Fix that. THEN I will sign up for free shipping AND your silly credit cord.
1
The Enquirer used to be a supermarket rag known only for headlines like "Escaped Leopard Believed Spotted." Now apparently it's doing hit jobs on Trump's enemies. Time for David Pecker to be locked up with the rest of the White House cabal.
11
Hopefully the noose is finally closing around pecker and american media inc.; it's way overdue. This man is personally responsible for the invasion of privacy, and unfair destruction of many careers and marriages, of many celebrities and political figures. My sincere hope is that Bezos' complaint will morph into a class action suit that will finally take down the odious david pecker.
11
It's probably inadvisable to try to blackmail the world's richest person. Not that The National Enquirer is renowned for its sound judgment.
Why does The National Enquirer even exist? Who is buying such complete rubbish? Its content is plainly just a bunch of made up nonsense.
8
If David Pecker has some evidence to trade he and AMI may still avoid criminal charges. Perhaps Mr Pecker taped his conversations with the President in which Trump tells him to undermine Bezos in order to wreak revenge on WaPo for stories critical of his administration.
3
Bravo to Jeff Bezos for calling out the sleaziest man in publishing. I hope Mr. Bezos breaks him like a twig. This guy Pecker is a threat to the republic and needs to have his wagon fixed.
6
AMI is Trump’s and the Saudi Royal Family’s “Anthony Pellicano”. It’s time to turn this one over to Robert Mueller and federal criminal authorities. In the words of Bezos, “let’s roll this log over and see what crawls out.”
6
You would think the richest person on the planet would be smart enough, in this day and age, to forego taking nude pictures of himself and his girlfriend.
1
@Chamisal
Particularly considering that the National Enquirer hosts their web site on Amazon Web Service as well as various US Govt Spy Agencies, and he sells Alexa, his ultimate in-home spy machine. These all contributed to his billions.
How can anyone be so stupid?
Wow! What a battle Royal, eh?
The ‘real news’ (and analysis of this Empire) by “The Post” vs. the ‘fake news’ (and ‘division’, distraction, and delusion of many Americans) by the faux-National Enquiring print and TV ‘fake media’.
“The Post” mast-head slogan educates ‘we the people’ that “Democracy Dies in Darkness” (under Empire), while the “National ENQUIRER” covers-up the deceits, crimes, and arrogance of America’s first Emperor.
What America really needs, IMHO, is the TV equivalent of “The Post” and the NY “Times”, rather than the over-advertised swamp of corporate network TV, delivering more millions of cans of ‘dog food’, in a “fair and balanced” faux-choice of neocon and neoliberal-con brands which just ‘divide’ the voters, and make trillions for that giant corporation, “Universal Dog Food, Inc.” — while the CEO and Board of this Empire laugh all the way to their off-shore banks.
“But wait, there’s more” — as the Aussie pitchmen say — in that vast “Wasteland” that TV was called in the 50s and 60s, even BEFORE the ADs started stealing more time than the senseless ‘content’, the people’s airwaves could have been used to tell truth to ‘we the American people’ and educate us for democracy, rather than ‘sell us’ into a “New and Improved” flavor of this disguised global capitalist Empire.
2
This is why we need a 90% tax on people with too much money.. 2 jerks; 3 when you add in trump
1
They have clearly underestimated Mr.Bezos he is his own Robert Mueller. This extremely detailed man who is a master of creative and systematic work ethic with infinite resources will have no mercy on the enquirer. You can guarantee that he has instructed Mr.Gavin de Becker to give "No quarter." The end is coming for this paper and the person who runs it obviously lives up to his name.
558
@Thomas : The last sentence in your reply is brilliant!
13
@Thomas If he's such a detailed man, why did he take pictures, share them, all while married and running a large corporation. He couldn't even keep his lying and deceitful personal life private.
4
@Thomas Bezos is just another juvenile who took selfies of his privates and then somehow lost them to the internet. If this was the behavior of a 15 year old I'd understand, but as the major shareholder of a giant company he really needs to be kicked off the board for bad behavior. Anyone else would be for this.
BTW, his extortion of various states and cities for tax breaks to locate his campus there seemed to be just fine. I guess its only OK when he's doing it.
2
Many commenting here and elsewhere seem to take glee in Bezos’ exposure. They miss the point: he is defusing the Enquirer’s bomb of intimidation so a legitimate news organization can expose the truly egregious wrongdoing of those selling our democracy for a buck. Those are the grubby rich. Don’t confuse them with a man who, however flawed, is willing to take a few punches in order to fight the good fight. I prefer to read, and choose to trust, a newspaper owned by a man who built a real business rather than one, the Enquirer, that markets sleaze and appears to have been bankrolled at some point by the murderous Saudi Crown Prince in exchange for glowing portraits.
15
Jeff Bezos
Thank you. You are a courageous man. President "bone spurs" would do well take note of what "right" looks like.
9
The whole thing is disgusting, but I guess what really struck me is, “we have a president who uses the word Bozo“. That’s not impeachable ?
4
Thank you Mr Bezos.
Mr.Pecker and American Media, Inc. were always symptoms of how sick and bizarre our society has become. It is reassuring that there is someone who is willing to take on the task of "catch and kill" with Mr. Pecker and what he and his Media organization stands for, namely blackmail, misinformation and criminal conduct.
It is appropriate that The Washington Post, a real newspaper, will hopefully be instrumental in exposing this American tabloid, a stain on American journalism.
Perhaps the absence of junk journalism at the check-out will make room for products from real news outlets that will inform rather than inflame.
Inquirer headline; "Trump Catches Russia's White House Spy".
Possible headlines;
Supreme Court reveals what they wear under those robes! (And what was in their heads during deliberations.)
Two headed snake tries to eat self!
(The real cost of climate change in species reproduction)
and so on...
6
I'm going to the Supermarket today just so I can read this story in the Tabloids.
2
It is not a stretch to think that Trump and Pecker cooked up this expose on Bezos. Trump's tawdry tweet delight in Bezos' troubles were just what we have come to expect from this mean and very vengeful man.
Looks like Mr. Pecker could be in trouble with the SDNY. They should investigate the letter from Mr. Fine. Did AMI violate the terms of their no prosecution deal?
Sleazy doings are what we expect from Mr. Pecker and unfortunately that extends to his friend, our president, Donald Trump. Trump's character is not above retribution. He loves to denigrate and smear. This incident has little fingerprints all over it.
Come on, how clumsy was Mr. Fine's letter? It draws a big arrow to Trump.
With Trump under tremendous pressure now due to new House investigations and oversight, he could be lashing out in all directions.
8
@Elizabeth
Let him lash out. He only digs his hole deeper.
SDNY has been waiting for him and his friends for years, and it looks like their going to get an Amazon Prime delivery.
3
This is pretty absurd. The mistress showed the texts and pictures to her friends and allowed the “leaking” to force the issue with Bezos’ wife and get the divorce going. Jeff Bezos should lie low before he looks even more ridiculous than he does right now. All I can hope is that no one publishes his nude photos - I would pay not to see that. I promise you the government isn’t interested in his middle aged “prowess”.
The only person in this story with any dignity is his wife.
44
@Me Wrong. Bezos should not lay low. Bezos stood up to bully blackmailers; punched back. He did the exactly right thing. Trump could be involved in this extortion and blackmail; this has his MO written all over it. Ray Sipe
51
THIS is absurd? The President of the United States of America is in bed (literally) with playboy bunnies and porn stars (and god knows who or maybe even what else)that he has bribed to remain silent, and in bed, (figuratively) and he says "in love", with murderers, extortionists and Anti- American Dictators who have threatened to kill us all and THIS is absurd?
44
Sleazy, but showing someone your phone texts is different than someone removing them from a device and spreading them. If she forwarded the materials, there would be a record. According to the reports I’ve heard, this would have been a done deal if his girlfriend forwarded the messages and photos.
13
I hope Bezos sues AMI into oblivion, and Pecker ends up in jail for blackmail. It appears to be a open and closed case.
8
You should have kept your pants up pal.
Spare me your self-serving charade.
1
Bezos should buy them out, and shut them down. He would be doing us all a favor.
8
Finally someone really draining the swamp!
7
This what America really needs NYT! Stories about the nasty world of media publishers their friends and the media’s unchecked power!
The Washington Post's owner is using his publication to make writers write stories diverting attention from his adulterous affair.
Now the NYtimes is also complicit in this.
3
@MPA
The AMI issue broke a long time before the affair. Also, Bezos posted this personally on medium, not in the WaPo. Also, he is actually providing more press about his affair but he is willing to do so in order to get to the bottom of this.
Nice try.
2
@MPA, so AMI didn't really publish private stuff? The writers were made to invent stories?
It's difficult to make the National Enquirer look virtuous, but you folks are definitely trying!
Soon you will tell us that FBI director Comey was actually fired by Jeff Bezos, abetted by Maduro of Venezuela. They conspired to put an evil clone of trump on that Hollywood Access bus to make the real president look bad cuz socialism. There will be republican Senate hearings about the plot for the next 8 years....
1
Never start a bar fight with the guy with an eye patch and a hook for an arm,............... or the richest man in the world.
8
Thank you for standing up JB
3
I don’t care how they got them, from what source nor under whatever circumstances. Bezos is a corporate criminal and a robber-barron of such immorality as to make the first Rockefeller blush with self-pity. Public, relentless and yes, merciless exposure of this...person...is long overdue and merely a drop in the bucket of the scorn and derison he deserves. Jobs murderer, middle class assassin, plutocratic, wage-slave-zillionaire. Hope he enjoys his well-earned infamy.
2
Sleaze is the Enquirer's raison d'etre, so there's no surprise that Pecker would stoop to blackmail. Here's hoping Bezos has enough proof to sue the paper out of its slimy existence.
7
The best outcome would be for Pecker to be convicted for attempted extortion and blackmail, sent to prison for a minimum of 10 years, and A.M.I. forced into bankruptcy by awarding M. Bezos double the total "worth" of that filthy company.
Ridding the world of The Enquirer would go a long way to reducing pollution.
Donald Trump's friends are the worst people.
8
Just goes off to show that David Pecker and the Enquirer, and by association Trump and the GOP, are bottom feeders in every sense of the word!!!
4
My respect for Bezos just went up 10000000x.
....I hope Robert Mueller goes down in AMI like a hammer.
2
I'd be proud of Mr. Bezos, if I were less skeptical. I'm not a friend of Trump; I just don't think Bezos is acting as if he was really blackmailed. If Bezos believes the National Enquirer blackmailed him, and particularly if he has the evidence to prove it, he should have filed criminal charges. Any reasonable person would have done that, and THEN talked about it.
Jeff Bezos, once my employer who I was proud of, has lately acted very out of character. The very rich have an obligation to live in decorous and responsible ways that downplay their wealth. Until a few months ago, Jeff Bezos and his wife played the role perfectly.
Now suddenly Trump is behaving like a spoiled playboy with awful judgement, and making angry rants that sound like they should have come from Trump. Having an affair. It was POSSIBLE to get steaming photos; how long did he think it would take his enemies to find out. Divorce. Selfies of his penis! Is this man bipolar and coming unstuck?!!
To me, it would be a terrible shame if this man's antics now tear down his remarkable accomplishments.
Welcome to the sleepy world of Trump-Pecker.
1
How many people besides Jeff Bezos have David Pecker and his National Enquirer attempted to blackmail with success? Does this manybe explain Lindsey Graham?
6
This story sounds like Nixon’s era. I’d be real surprised if Trump wasn’t involved.
3
@Pb of DC
This is who the GOP has been since Ike left office. I would not be surprised if some DEM's will have used similar bullying tactics.
Poor Jeff. It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. We should give him even more money so he can cope.
2
Rules for modern life:
1) don't do stupid things
2) if you do, don't make them permanent and irretrievable by sending them electronically to anyone.
Just plain stupid (Anthony Weiner 2.0) but also glad he is taking Pecker on for the obvious blackmail attempt.
If you had pitched the political news of the past 3-4 years as an idea for a novel, you'd have been laughed out of the office.
I wish it were all fiction.
2
Bezos outs Trump’s payments to Stormy and the other woman and now the tables are turned. The hypocritical moral low ground of the left is exposed daily, whether it be dirty tricks or black face.
1
Given the well publicised confessions by American Media Inc. to illegal activity of this nature and the consequent deal with the FBI
Mr Bezos' accusations have a lot of credibility.
4
Bezos’ resolution to “to stand up, roll this log over and see what crawls out” makes me think twice about canceling my Amazon Prime subscription.
172
@Kelly
Absolutely. Bezos has the means, the moxie and the tenacity to drill down and find the slimy centipedes scurrying in the light. Given the relationship between Mr. Pecker and Trump, it is quite possible (probable?) that Bezos will find that the Enquirer was used as a weapon against him. Directed by you know who.
10
Well done Mr. Bezos.
9
Mssterful.
Besos moves the conversation from his extra-marital affair to blackmail on the part of the NE. He flipped the switch.
6
Nude photos and amorous texts make the news. What’s wrong with these people? Apparently they are too busy making money to read about how compromised data is in the world today. As for the photos get a Polaroid camera.
1
I like Amazon and also Mr. Bezo's business acumen coupled with his politics and the way The WP has not retreated from the Khashoggi murder. Hope his investigator unearths something meaningful. But taking photos/selfies of one's sexual life seems to be juvenile to me. Mid-life crisis?
4
This story has Trump's odor all over it. This has to do with Trump, no doubt about it. It's his playbook, but it's also his impetuous nature and inability to control his rage at people who don't do his bidding. Now it's looking like the Saudis are involved, so we have the Trump, Kushner, Saudi triangle of sleaze yet again. And what paper does Bezos own? The paper for which Khashoggi worked. This situation calls for its own special prosecutor or at least investigation. Trump looks more and more like a crime boss every day. Still, how sad to see that his cult-like base continues to twist themselves into pretzels to defend him (meaning, they know he's involved) by attacking Bezos, the press, etc. Amazes me how far gone they are. Good for Bezos for his courage (and smarts) to turn a spotlight on AMI and all of its criminal corruption. No wonder it's Trump's choice of publication.
9
The Washington Post's slogan, "Democracy Dies in Darkness," was taken to heart by Mr. Bezos. He owns that newspaper and by going public with threats, he is defending that newspaper's core belief and journalism. He wants to see where this all leads, and whether it extends into the president's circle. I'm very very impressed with Mr. Bezos.
10
The new world we live in with Trump as president: The Washington Post is 'fake news' while the National Enquirer is the president's best friend.
The joker has taken over city hall and conscience is no longer in charge.
3
You can accuse anyone of anything these days? YOU MUST HAVE EVIDENCE. Still waiting on the Russian Collusion.
@Franklin Noblet
At least 34 people and three Russian companies have been charged so far as a result of the special counsel’s investigation into 2016 election tampering.
That "proof" enough for you?
1
If he wins this thing — whatever “wins” turns out to mean — he should just own American Media, lock, stock, and worthless barrel pens. Then he can own a reputable paper and, well, whatever the National Enquirer is. Being the entrepreneur he is, I am sure he would not just close it; too many people buy it while standing in line at the supermarket.
Perhaps it could become the new Sears Catalogue, geared to all-things-Amazon with a hint of WaPo news filler...
2
This stuff is crazy, everyone should read this. So much respect to Jeff Bezos to come out and expose this publicly.
5
What’s wonderful about America is venerating our billionaires and then squealing in delight when watching them be taken down a notch. If we could just all gather around the warm glow of a screen and hard focus on this instead of wasting time on ‘identity politics’ and ‘inequality’ our nation would be all kumbaya again overnight!!
Bezos has turned the Washington Post into a complete joke, for that alone I have zero sympathy. Then there is the possibility that a married man his age was sending nude photos. Maybe he should ask his experienced girlfriend about the leak.
All these rich people are behaving like residents of a meth camp. I am glad they aren't my friends, neighbors or peers. Being one of the masses can sometimes have its rewards.
3
Jeff Bezos is to be congratulated for standing firm against the criminal attempt at extortion by the National Enquirer which helped elect our sleaziest president. The Enquirer has already cost him his marriage by exposing his affair after it conspired with Donald Trump to conceal his. Let's hope Rachel Maddow was right when she pointed out that they are now in violation of the cooperation arrangement the made with the Southern District of New York that granted them immunity IF they avoided criminal activity for three years. David Pecker and his company American Media Inc. participated in a conspiracy to elect Donald Trump and now have engaged in another conspiracy to silence one of his major critics in Mr. Bezos, the publisher and owner of The Washington Post. It is they that need to be silenced.
2
This story is somewhat reminiscent of the infamous phone hacking scandal that took place in Britain 10 years ago. Rupert Murdoch, himself no stranger to sleazy tabloid journalism, was up to his eyeballs in the hacking of phones of the rich and famous, and as I recall there was a political angle to the hacking also.
The big question here is how was Bezos' phone hacked? The richest guy in the world would presumably have pretty good security. But I can't believe the Trump administration would be dumb enough to get involved in such a thing. In any event this is another instance of people in the Trump orbit being a few notches down on the ethics scale.
You can't really blame Jeff Bezos. American Media cost him a marriage along with $60 billion dollars. MacKenzie Bezos deserves all that and more. However, Jeff Bezos is justifiably upset about the situation. I think American Media poked the wrong bear this time. Sometimes the bear eats you.
8
Bring it all out Jeff Bezos. Even if I do not support the way you go about a "new relationship" I emphatically support your courage in showing just what slimy Management and Politics Donald Trump has befriended and stands for. Dirty tricks and blackmail on a scale I do not remember since tricky Dick Nixon...and then how can this President stand there and blame Cohen or anyone else who has been brought up similarly and has ended up lying and supporting people such as the President himself. For the first time we have seen people like Roger Stone out of the woodwork, not working behind the scenes, lying and perverting to get to the top. Very clear indeed. And then when this President is shown by association to be one of these people, he openly turns on those who he used to accomplish his rotten games. Yes, the only games he is capable of. From real estate to banking to the Presidency. Supported by rotten scoundrels and comfortable with them, only.
3
Bezos is a crybaby billionaire. In this world, you get as good as you give, and Bezos has given through Amazon infinite products that track us, record us, and know everything about us. Why he ever thought his life was going to stay private is a mystery to me.
He is the richest man in the world, whose livelihood and life would be totally unaffected by these photos. Nobody thinks this is journalism; it's just the paparazzi trying to share something lewd about a celebrity. But this man, who has everything he wants, can't stand the idea that someone would publish photos making him look just as hungry for attention and validation as the rest of us. Not sure why anyone cares about his supposedly noble quest to...oh wait, there is no noble point to any of this. It's just an all-powerful man living a perfect life complaining about the *one* potential blemish.
In my opinion, he lost this fight. Look how upset his delicate male ego got over this entire issue. And for anyone who read his Medium post, it should be noted: he writes that he basically founded Amazon alone, mailing packages, when we know his wife was helping him out significantly. In fact, his wife was 100% absent from his complaint about this privacy breach. As always with rich people, it's all about him.
3
The enemy of my enemy is NOT my friend. I would love to see both parties here go down.
1
One would think in this day and age, that taking nude selfies or whatever the case may be here is just not very smart. Just about everything and everybody is hackable. If you do not have that mindset, well, perhaps this can be a teachable moment. As for mr Bezos, you may be the richest man on earth for now, but what you just did, was and is, priceless.
1
So Bezos is upset about leaked photos and emails. So what? The photos and emails are real - not fake - or he’d not be so upset. He is an oligarch. The Russians use AWS for Wikileaks. Amazon records and keeps every - repeat, every - household conversation using Alexa. Balderdash. Amazon must be broken-up with anti-trust action.
2
This story sounds so much like the reasons Jared Kushner's father ended up in jail. Coincidence? If it turns out there's a link to Saudia Arabia obtaining the photos and emails, I wonder if anyone in the Kushner family gave them the idea of what to do with them...
5
Would have been better if the Enquirer focused on investigating doggy guests of the Trump Tower.
Somehow they selected a guy disliked by Trump - raises a lot of questions indeed.
I suspect Trump took some advice from his friend Vladimir.
1
Good for him and for us!
6
You don’t personally attack the richest person in the world. The National Enquire and it’s sister company’s are toast. It will be nice to see this tabloid of the supermarket shelves. Take them down Mr. Bezos!
4
Jeff Bezos did not inherit his wealth. He was the first person to figure out how to make money from the Internet, and he has not stopped innovating. He is smart and he is fearless. And if the child president and his sycophantic enablers think that can intimidate this man, the have another think coming.
4
Even with the high political connections each possess, this is still at root a story of the "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" . . . yawn.
Kudos to Bezos for fighting back against the immoral, shady AMI organization! And, most likely by extension, this immoral and shady *president.
Oh, what a tangled web between the *president, AMI and MBS. The attempt to blackmail Bezos may be the demise of these criminals. Didn't imagine this twist to the ongoing criminal activities of *president & co, but nothing should surprise us anymore. The depth of corruption runs deep & wide.
The Wapo journalist investigating Khashoggi's murder stated last night that De Becker believes, through his investigations, that Bezos' texts were hacked by a government agency. Could the *president be so egotistical (and stupid) to direct a loyal FBI or CIA agent to steal Bezos' personal texts? Crazily, the answer may very well be Yes.
5
The "failing enquirer" seems to have bitten off more than they can chew. Go get 'em, Mr. Bezos!
6
Kudos to Jeff Bezos. AMI appears to be a criminal organization altogether. About time someone stand up to it.
7
This is what happens when they all buy the media and use it to slant the news. Now they are getting bitten by their own venomous snakes. This should be fun to watch until Game of Thrones starts again.
If the letter from AMI attorney Martin D. Singer that Bezos quotes from is real, then Singer clearly participated in the blackmail attempt. The ABA should be initiating disbarment proceedings again Martin D. Singer.
5
Bezos’ reaction was absolutely brilliant. The public has lost its ability to be shocked anymore so, for the most part, we couldn’t care less about the alleged photos. But trust me, we care very much about any sort of distortion or blackmail directed at Bezos - and in turn the free press - from someone so closely connected to Trump. Bravo, Jeff, for standing up for truth and transparency: I can’t emphasize enough just how refreshing that is.
1401
It is with a great deal of pride that I see that a fellow Canadian watching this from outside the border, gets by far and away the most 'Likes' on this post.
42
@LT: Thank you! What happens in international politics is not something that can be contained within borders, so I care very deeply about what happens to our American neighbours. Let's hope Bezos' speaking to truth is just the beginning....
46
@T I agree! There can be NO bargaining with terrorists, ever.
27
Ugh. So now we’re dragged into the tawdry personal life of another billionaire. If high marginal tax rates on these men will reduce their scandals to neighborhood gossip and not national news then make those tax rates 110%.
And then there’s the Enquirer, which makes every supermarket that displays it seem a little more dingy and ensures that Americans are a little dumber whenever they buy groceries. The only thing they have done is show how much money someone needs to have before he’ll stand up to the Enquirer and their odious essence. It’s about $135 Billion.
74
@M
I agree with you about the National Enquirer.
But, I don't think there is anything tawdry about Jeff Bezos' personal life, and I don't feel dragged into it. What I find interesting is the activity of the National Enquirer and Bezos' laudable confrontation of it.
18
@M
Yes, totally pathetic all the way around.
Que mundo!
David Pecker is a blight on the United States. He has engaged in proven criminal activity with Donald Trump, and I was very upset when Mueller cut a deal with him and let him walk in exchange for mere testimony. If there is anyone who belongs in jail, it’s the owner of the National Enquirer.
3
Too bad American Media, Inc. is a private corporation.
Imagine the fun of Bezos buying it and telling Pecker "You're fired"!
Go get'em Jeff.
6
Media, including the Times in the Pentagon Papers case and publishing the names of account holders in tax paradises obtained thru stolen documents, regularly publish documents that are blatantly stolen or of dubious provenance. The "morality" of doing so seems to swing wildly based on the politics of the outlets involved and the relative "urgency" of the story itself. To expect media not to run with such stories is pollyannish in the extreme.
If the Enquirer had simply published the photos, you might have a point. However, the email messages Bezos posted indicated that AMI’s lawyers used the threat of publication to try to obtain from Bezos something of value to the company. That sounds like blackmail to me.
Whataboutism only works when both sides have done similar misdeeds.
@CA Meyeri
Why is it "whataboutism" to point out where stolen documents have been used by media in the past and present? Given that AMI's right hand turn to blackmail is flat out illegal and immoral, where does the morality lie in the examples that you ignored?
Pot, meet Boiler.
I've always been a fan of well-done schlock novels. They're an escape from reality. I just never thought reality would render potboiler schlock obsolete.
2
what Bezos may find out about how his personal photos/texts were made available & by whom, may be of interest to us all.
16
Seriously, with all the tumult going on nationally and worldwide, this is what we need to occupy our attention; two billionaires spending million$ fighting over whose amoral “tabloid” behavior is more appalling. That’s what I find truly offensive about this sordid story.
5
@John Z I would agree but I really think this is bigger than that. This is about a president trying to prevent the press from holding to account, as the Post repeatedly has done. We can't let this kind of thing go.
4
As the Duke of Wellington memorably said
“Publish and be damned.”
Good for Mr Bezos.
Alan Brown
York
UK
16
You have to wonder about the brain trust that is at work here. Why would you want to pick a fight with the wealthiest man in the world. Someone who has the resources to really make your life miserable and can weather any storm. It is almost as nonsensical as a president picking a fight with the intelligence community.
38
@Zinkler You are kidding right? This is not picking a fight. Mr. Bezos may be upset that photos and texts of HIS AFFAIR are all over the map now, but his wealth should not deter anyone from publishing them if their FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS grant them the power to do so. As long as American Media did nothing illegal, it should not matter who you are. You should have the Constitution and the laws of the land to protect you from injustices that could be committed by wealthy people.
1
@Zinkler The NE, like Roger Stone, wants more than anything to be noticed.
@samuel, I am not kidding. Recall Animal farm, all animals are equal, just some are more equal than others. In the real world, you pick fights you can win or agree to martyrdom for the glorious cause. Constitutional rights must be fought for and it may not be fair, but wealthy people have more ammunition and resources to overcome nuisances who wrongly believe they are entitled to equal rights and treatment under the law at no expense. Bezos, whether he is right or wrong, is entitled to use his resources to respond to what he thinks is wrong. Whether he is right or wrong about the motivations, and the characterization of the "negotiation" as extortion is a legal question to be determined by judges and/or juries. Regardless of any outcome, I still think picking a fight with someone you can't hurt and who has more resources with which to hurt you, is bad judgment.
3
This has “Alexa” written all over it, which is what happens when you keep a child imprisoned under slave conditions.
4
@PeterC - I’m confused. Are you suggesting that there is a small child named “Alexa” imprisoned inside your Bluetooth speaker?
Looks like Mr. Pecker (isn't that an interesting name for this character) has taken on the wrong target for his trash talking tabloid. This story could indeed get interesting and not because of Jeff Bezos' sex life. Good for Mr. Bezos for fighting back instead of hunkering down.
Shades of Nixon's dirty tricks.
34
Gavin de Becker to the rescue once again. He is a genius of profiling criminal behavior. I wonder what other information was discovered in this investigation. We can only guess it's what we already suspect-- bribery and blackmail at the highest level. More fuel for the fire to prosecute Trump and Friends.
10
Could not care less about some billionaires fake problems.
3
Thank you Mr. Bezos. The rancid Post has done more harm to America than our country deserves. And the Criminal in Chief is in cahoots with them.
Sadly, the members of MAGA are too full of hate and fear to hear the truth of the Trump Cohorts of Evil.
We need to change the names of Conservatie and Right to the Ridiculous and Wrong Party. And instead of the party of left it should be the Party of Freedom.
3
I read the ups and downs of the Bezos saga, the affair, divorce, and now the extortion plot!!!who needs to watch a soap opera anymore???? For a founder of one of my favorite shopping platforms ( Amazon), and the owner of one of my favorite newspapers, I am sure Bezos is a brilliant guy, maybe even a genius in business. However lately I am reading and reading and every time I keep repeating “HOW STUPID CAN ONE BE”????? AND FOR WHAT????”
That said I am glad he has stood up to the extortion plot, but he has put himself in this mess. There is a big difference between “intelligence” and “wisdom”.
4
American Media is about to get Gawkered.
9
Extortion is the common coin between the National Enquirer attack and the Trump shutdown. The logic is: Do what I want or else bad things will happen to you. But as those who succumb to bullies know, doing what the extortionist wants will only bring more extortion. It’s about time someone broke the business model of Trump, Pecker & Co.
30
I think it can be stated without contradiction that blackmail has become part of our political life. And we , the people of the United States have been groomed to be the perfect useful idiots. A situation of intolerance has been created, a mob mentality of let’s get out the pitchforks and torches, that we have allowed evil men to ply their trade. When you can try and chase a duly elected Governor from his post for making the mistake that comes from youthful exuberance, a mistake from 34 years ago, wearing blackface, something i have seen those darlings of the left our late night comedians do to big laughs on their shows, if such a thing can happen it’s because we the citizens of this country have been groomed to react to certain stimuli from the media. We have created a climate ripe for blackmail and the kind of dirty politics that would have made the Nazis proud. Blackmail is a favorite tools of the Russian government, how odd that it is being used now. We better wake up and realize we are being manipulated and made into dupes by powerful men...before it’s too late.
5
Obviously the richest man in the world is not the most intelligent man in the world.
You would think with all the money this guy has he would know how to use it.
3
@Tom ,Retired Florida Junkman But what a gorgeous opportunity Bezos has presented all of us, to kick the sordid little tabloid bullies in the teeth. Lemons? Sure, but lemonade forthcoming.
1
Perhaps Mr. Bezos should have paid Mr. Pecker to lock all the materials up in his safe. I absolutely, positively don't care what Mr. Bezos does in his private life. Am I surprised? No not at all. That's what rich folks do. They feel invincible or pay someone to make them so. The one aspect of Mr. Bezos' situation that makes it meaningless is he is not running for president. But even that does not really matter either, now does it. As long as you tell your followers what they want to hear. This has Trump's fingerprints all over it. That's another thing rich folks do. They lie for each other. And this is the America 40% of the public voted for.
6
@walking man Rich folk. Naaah. Apparently, taking pictures of yourself cuts across all social classes. Welcome to Democracy 2019. Everybody seems to love their own genitalia far more than I realized. Bemused.
It takes a 1 % to bring down a tabloid nightmare
You go Jeff
Please destroy AMI tabloid empire .
I don't wanna see trumps face staring at me ever again in the grocery check out!!!!
23
Democracy dies in darkness. Publish the photos.
2
More play time in the sand box while the world burns.
5
I must admit that making the remark that I will may signal that I'm insensitive to the devastation that Mr. Bezo's published remarks occasioned. I am not. Because issues of trust and loss and emotional mayhem that spawned the whole matter didn't involve me in any way, that alone (and gingerly, at that) allows me to make any remark:
If the nasty business of being extorted for money befalls anyone, I am THRILLED that happened to someone who finds it abhorrent, but more, befell someone who can presumably hire an army of legal eagles to see it happens to no one by AMI, Mr. Pecker, and their army of legal eagles, again. That Mr. Pecker may well lose his immunity from prosecution by the Mueller and/or SDNY charges against him, could very well be extraordinarily helpful to the entire country, by unearthing more from Enquirer vaults that investigators probably know about already, anyway. It's not as deliciously mischievous as a delivery of 10,000 copies of a first tell-all volume West Wingers enjoyed tripping over, but Mr. Bezos can help all of us laugh again, and stop gulping air through our mouths when hearing, "We have breaking news at this hour ... "
5
So Pecker is a sleazy creep? Big surprise. He might have messed with the wrong person this time, though. Here's hoping that Bezos takes Pecker down. All the way down.
13
The SDNY should utilize these self made revelations by Mr. Peckers’s representatives to cancel the immunity arrangement and to prosecute Mr. Pecker for the crime of extortion. Their MO has been exposed. They can not hide their criminal intent and methods behind the Constitutional protections given to real journalists. I fervently hope other victims of Mr. Pecker’s criminality come forward and join forces with Jeff Bezos in the coming battle, ( are you listening Senator Graham?). I am reminded, again and again, that everything Trump touches, dies.
7
Looks like AMI was emboldened to go after the richest guy on the planet but what made them think Bezos would capitulate?
He had already announced he was divorcing his wife.
He had an affair with another consenting married adult, (not good behavior but not exactly breaking the law or anything considered deviant). He doesn’t even hold public office so he’s not in danger of losing a seat.
He has enough money, power and influence to fight back, (unlike most of us who don’t).
I don’t know Jeff Bezos but I’m guessing to become the richest guy in the world requires healthy intelligence and a generous sense of self or rather, ego. He wasn’t going to submit - especially to a dude named Pecker from a low-brow, sordid, no journalistic ethics whatsoever rag such as The Enquirer.
Let AMI publish the “d*** pics”. It will reveal the depths of their disgusting pursuits and would no doubt catch the attention of the federal prosecutors in light of Bezos’ public allegations. Regardless, I’m going out on a limb and say no one really wants to see Jeff Bezos’ penis anyway!
12