The Enquirer extortion ring exposed by Jeff Besos! Hopefully he can take down this squalid institution. Hopefully its tentacles will be fully exposed before this is over. The Enquirer's dark underbelly is vulnerable! Thank you, Jeff.
41
Ironic that Bezos used the platform Medium to defend himself was founded by the same guy who started Twitter. One format is for those who covfefe their spelling and bumper sticker thoughts while the other is for long essays based mostly on reason and logic.
14
Please. A man with 4 children behaving like this hardly makes him a good person.
16
Bezos is the guy who was able to give the bully a bloody nose and set him back on his heels. Just like the #MeToo movement, his actions make it safer for other victims of AMIs tactics to come forward with their stories. It also strikes me that the readers of the Enquirer are just like the crowd that gathers and cheers on the bully too. They totally enjoy watching the pain he causes.
30
As the old saying goes -- You don't pick a fight with anyone who buys ink by the barrel.
23
My one hope is that Pecker will be in jail for violating the terms of his agreement with prosecutors and that Bezos will sue the Enquirer out of business. And should a Trump connection be found with this we will know how Trump operates: play the victim when investigated and the aggressor with threats of lawsuits, NDA's, and sleazy investigations of people he wants to "hit back" at. Mr. Bezos, I applaud you and let the facts fall where they may.
48
Jeff Bezos is a hero. Plain and simple.
24
This situation is resonant of David Letterman's response to extortion. Similar to Bezos, he decided to accept the ignominy, rather than be blackmailed. It's shows character in both men. Unlike our president, they are willing to be accountable.
For years, AMI has facilitated Donald Trump hiding his sexual peccadilloes and corruption. With immunity from the Southern District of New York, AMI and Pecker have been more forthright. Their extortion of Jeff Bezos may cost them their immunity. Because the National Inquirer has been emboldened by it's association with the POTUS, hubris may bring them all down.
36
Kara, IMHO, this battle Royal between “a person of means”, and an Emperor of ‘any means’ (including the use of the military/intelligence sector of this Disguised Global Capitalist Empire) is going to come down Jeff’s legacy and character being revealed more than merely his money and privacy?
As the creator of Amazon, Bezos achieved wealth and power beyond most American’s wildest dream, and their ability to handle power.
As the owner of one of the two most renowned and ‘opinion setting’ ethical media sources on earth, which daily rallies under the mast-head banner, “Democracy Dies In Darkness” (by the hidden hand of some other dark & demonic power), Bezos has the opportunity to build a fortunate legacy beyond mere fortune, by ‘exposing’ the metastasizing, but hidden and virtual cancer that is the seminal meta-cause of our American democracy now dying in darkness.
Bezos has his unique legacy-opportunity in this sordid ‘exposure’ of his own faults to far more significately and progressively ‘expose’ the malevolent powers of a petty and pompous faux-Emperor, (and more significantly the actual disguised global capitalist Empire itself, behind this expendable ‘patsy-president’), and which Empire employs ‘Quiet American’ powers soft and hard to suborn and abort our democracy for “Evil Empire” — aren’t they all Ronnie?
So, Jeff, does democracy mean more than privacy and money?
4
In one the Times' related articles, there was this passage, "Mr. de Becker is also the author of “The Gift of Fear,” a 1998 book that offers advice for dealing with threats (available on Amazon in paperback for $7.19)."
"Available on Amazon..." That made me chuckle.
AMI might have made a grave tactical error in going after the biggest fish in the sea.
10
Who cares about Jeff Bezos being exposed?
Bezos is a corrupt crony capitalist corporate plutocrat oligarch welfare king. His life matters much more than most of his 320 million fellow Americans and his 7.4 billion fellow Earthlings.
Bezos fighting David Pecker and Donald Trump is like watching a duel between centipedes, scorpions and spiders.
9
Hopefully, Bezos will inspire a #smearedtoo movement where people have the courage of their convictions and are willing, nay proud, to stand up and fight back against these disgusting and mendacious purveyors of smear.
14
Bravo bravo I say! What a brave and truly patriotic thing Bezos has done. He said his own embarrassment was nothing compared to the blackmail being perpetrated (and probably trump is behind it). I think this represents an important modus operandi that the evil forces of trump use. It's one of the most powerful ways to keep people quiet and Bezos has exposed it.
20
"He should use the opportunity to reflect on how he can lead the fight to protect everyone’s privacy and digital dignity, even as he takes back his own."
I guess I am extremely cynical about this. Bezos is clearly the victim here, but what he does in his own business (I am thinking of how he treats his warehouse workers) is just as evil as what the National Enquirer is doing with their blackmail.
Invasion of privacy is part of his business model and that will not change.
7
I applaud Jeff Bezos. AMI, Trump and the religious right feed on darkness. Democracy dies in darkness. The truth sets us free.
17
I would be proud of Mr. Bezos' guts, if he were acting less manic depressive. A man willing to let people see the selfies he took of his genitals, and that, hard working, sober, a down home family man his entire life, he suddenly has a mistress, probably shouldn't be jumped on too hard for the weird art interest and the mistress, except, that it's scarily too consistent with the way he's handling this whole thing. Specifically, the man is acting more like he has bipolar disorder than like he's the victim of criminal activity
Bezos is really doing far more ranting and accusing about these photos, than he is anything at all that he WOULD do if he were sane, serious, and genuinely wronged.
Where is the criminal charges? Particulary since it seems the Enquirer is under a previous criminal sentence to do non more of exactly this kind of thing, they would seem to be a house of cards waiting to fall - but all Bezos does is RANT at them? I do not think so! And Bezos' performance in this is worthy of Donald Trump, ranting and carrying on in the middle of the night.
I'll even BELIEVE the whole thing when he files a criminal complaint!
1
"Mr. Bezos is clearly winning". That may be true, but we also know who is losing: his wife, his kids and Amazon folks who must be wondering what kind of leader they have. Mr. Bezos brought all of this on himself. Is he courageous? I'd argue he is arrogant, narcissistic and selfish.
12
why has no one been able to go after the NE the way Peter Thiel went after Gawker? Sue them into the ground and put them out of business.
19
Hasn’t anyone considered the possibility that it was Sanchez who sent them to someone (her brother) knowing they would get published and knowing it would force Jeff’s hand in moving forward with a divorce from his wife.
19
Interesting that right-wing drudge report has published a headline linking a progressive article about the Orwellian side of Bezo's Amazon and other business entities. Among the scary enterprises Bezos encompasses are facial recognition AI systems deployed by police in Orlando, that is capable of being used like China's draconian use of similar tech to track "enemies of the People," and everyone else in the country. "Enemies of the People," for anyone who just arrived from another planet, is a quote of Trump's frequent use of a totalitarian epithet describing media that is not kind to him. Bezos is also supplying rockets for Trump's space militarizing program, another step away from a safe, sane Planet Earth.
4
What's so wonderful about this story is that the lewd, lascivious and salacious perp is not the protagonist Bezos, it's the Enquirer and its antagonist editor, Pecker. For the latter to have made such a great miscalculation and gotten the story so wrong is malpractice, and the AMI board should fire him.
6
The hubris of Mr. Pecker, to believe he can blackmail a man whose wealth exceeds most nation's, makes one wonder just how many times he has successfully blackmailed other powerful people, on behalf of himself or his friends? And then the mind wanders, from a sycophant who saw his wife insulted for her looks and his father accused of conspiracy to assassinate, to another who has been the subject of whispers for decades.
And then it all makes sense.
An eerie, filthy, disgusting sort of sense.
11
So Mr. Bezos, as expected, has fully functioning human genitalia. No big deal. He is right to stand up to AMI and to be unafraid of the consequences.
15
Jeff Bezos is standing by his Washington Post's motto:
Democracy Dies In Darkness
He is shining a light on the Darkness of AMI. I hope that this gives courage to any others who may have been blackmailed by David Pecker and AMI.
10
Any bets as to whether Trump requested that "Pecker" find something to embarrass Bezos with? This has his name all over it. Why else would they insist that he say politics had nothing to do with it?
11
If I were Pecker ( I'm not so thank you, sweet Jesus), I would have changed my name long ago.
7
BRAVO Mr. Bezos!!
And shame on anyone who buys the garbage that AMI publishes why AMI plays in the cesspool that is President Trumps world.
As the Super bowl ad and slogan from the Washington Post notes democracy dies in darkness!! Let the light Mr. Bezos has lit, shine brighter and brighter and brighter. Since sunlight kills germs!!
8
I am reminded of the Englishman who was threatened with blackmail and extortion. His reply: "publish and be damned!".
7
I know I'm not the only one who sees the profound hypocrisy displayed by the liberal media powerhouses of the NYT and the Washington Post when they make a hero out of a rich, newspaper owning adulterer who apparently has little respect for his wife, marriage and family. No, this is all forgotten, minimized and white washed as an innocent little peccadillo of a respectable, white, corporate giant. He's entitled to his private fun, isn't he? This is how the establishment protects and supports white privilege.
Of course it's Jeff's personally owned Washington Post who is leading the charge in protecting their master with unsubstantiated allegations that the government was responsible for obtaining the compromising and embarrassing sext messages between Bezos and his lover. Of course if the government did it then they can claim that Trump ordered it, which fuels their hateful fantasy of impeaching a political opponent. It's incredible that they have so little regard for our intelligence agencies.
Bezos is like Huey Long who published his own newspaper to push his political messages. If Bezos isn't deducting money for his newspaper from Amazon employees the WaPo has been sure to place a link to Amazon.com for every book or author that is mentioned in a Washington Post article.
It's amazing to watch America's pillars of the Fourth Estate commit professional suicide by hacking away at their integrity and credibility.
10
Hi I just sent a post through which had a mistake. Instead of acronym it meant to say aptonym.
1
GO, JEFF, GO!
3
That headline deserves a Pulitzer.
7
The light, pseudo humorous tone of this editorial is more than unwarranted. What were talking about here is a slam-dunk, prima facie case of criminal extortion and blackmail. Only a fool would take seriously the specious--now hopelessly outdated--concept that such crimes must involve demands for something *tangible* that is of value. We're living in an ever advancing digital age. So a demand--from Pecker's lawyer yet--that he *not* promulgate the likelihood that AMI's attack is politically motivated is, in actual reality *more* valuable to Pecker than any bars of gold. Why? Because when prosecutors determine, as the must, that Pecker has authorized a crime, he completely loses the protection of his NY Justice Department 3-year immunity-from-prosecution agreement, signed just last year. An agreement that remains in force *only* if he and AMI commit no crimes during its term of application. Having committed one, or possibly even two *obvious * crimes, Pecker, as soon as he is indicted and convicted is then liable for exactly the same penalties under law for which Michael Cohen is now sentenced to *three years*in jail! Further, I'd guess the Saudi connection is not only real, but also *provable* via the resources of Jeff Bezos. I wonder if Pecker might be losing any sleep over the "bullet" MBS intended for Jamal Kashoggi?
6
It is often wondered if Trump is compromised by Russia. But with Pecker now caught in the SDNY's Trump probe, one wonders how badly compromised Trump is by AMI's trove of buried stories. But also, once again, we see that Donald Trump surrounds himself with the lowest of the low. I cannot fathom how anyone, let alone the "Christian" Right, can believe that, despite that fact, Trump himself is pure and good and righteous as the driven snow. Bizarroworld.
10
Maybe he shouldn't have cheated on his spouse in the first place......no, I'm just old fashioned........he's a victim.
5
I hope I'm not the only one that's concerned about a man that's willing to use blackmail having a 'trove' of compromising information about our ersatz president.
Frankly, I think Pecker should be criminally prosecuted and exposed to the world. That might just give the Feds probably cause to seize the legendary safe.
8
Is Roger Stone involved in this?
3
If NT publuished the photos - would it be pornography? In the grocery store check out line?
1
this feels like more one sided reporting. how is it better?
3
Hilarious cover. The NYPost isn't my favorite paper but they got this headline right.
5
Rarely does the NY Post beat the News on headlines but...
4
Agree, but ...
"The National Enquirer makes absolutely no contribution to society ... "
I once discussed the NE with the checkout person at my local grocery store. I speculated that nobody ever actually bought it; they just read it while they were waiting in the checkout line (as I occasionally do). She corrected me: "Oh, you'd be surprised. Many people buy it; some even have subscriptions."
More important here: Why in the world would Bezos take selfies of his penis in the first place? Who does that sort of thing?
2
What people should do is complain to the stores that carry the garbage that is the National Enquirer and place all that filth and flat out lies (Hillary has a fatal illness, an example) right in your face when you go out to buy bread and milk. Junk it or put it somewhere where it does not offend and scandalize particularly children who can't dodge it. We once got rid of Confidential magazine by public disgust. We should toss the Enquirer in the same trash heap.
6
My goodness, must we?
2
Decent people do not have someone blackmailing them.
Did you hear someone trying to blackmail Barack Obama?
7
The Post certainly knows how to grab a headline and make a point. I wonder how Stormy Daniels feels about this front page?
Give that headline writer a raise.
4
And the National Enquirer has what on Lindsay Graham?
12
My bank account was hacked. It wasn’t because of anything I did, but because of the leaks through Experian and Equifax. I hope Bezos’s actions will start a new age for internet safety and private information security. He has the means to make all that happen.
16
Perhaps Bezos's investigators can also figure out how Pecker invented the stories that Hillary Clinton:
* had lung cancer
* had six months to live
* had gained 103 lbs.
* has Alzheimer's
* was going to jail for life
https://qz.com/1369399/david-peckers-national-enquirer-ami-trashed-hillary-clinton-to-help-trump/
36
If Mr. Bezos is not "afraid of total exposure", the LA Times story about Amazon using customer tips as part of some driver's base pay will hopefully encourage him to change that policy and pay his drivers out of his own very big pockets.
https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-amazon-drivers-tips-20190207-story.html
13
I think the intrusion into this guys personal life is creepy puerile trash. I literally felt like I needed to scrub myself after reading the first couple paragraphs of this article.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/18/opinion/amazon-jeff-bezos-affair.html
The guy isn’t a criminal.
Leave him and his intimacy’s alone.
8
bezos is complaining about the same thing he is doing to NY.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2019-02-08/amazon-is-extorting-ny-over-hq2-state-senator-gianaris-says-video
7
I don't feel sorry for him at all, he's a very bad employer who treats his workers badly. I feel sorry for the people who have to work in his warehouses. I have to agree with what Bernie Sanders said about Jeff Bezos' business practices. He underpays his workers and the taxpayer is subsidizing his business.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGdMbI6ZCTY
14
It's good to fight back against the invasion of privacy so yes Bezos is right there. Will it convince him to jettison the weapons of mass invasion of privacy that Amazon develops, like the facial recognition app Rekognition? Amazon is the one the companies building the vast surveillance state so Bezos presides over the global invasion of privacy of "surveillance capitalism" (Zuboff). I doubt whether this disgusting invasion of his privacy will encourage him to stop promoting surveillance.
See: https://theintercept.com/2019/02/08/jeff-bezos-protests-the-invasion-of-his-privacy-as-amazon-builds-a-sprawling-surveillance-state-for-everyone-else/
6
Best headline since "Ford to NY: Drop Dead!"
6
Just wait, the headline read ‘round the world - Wednesday November 4, 2020 — YOU’RE FIRED !
4
Dont worry, AMI staffers, when it's over you can all get jobs at Gawker.......
4
If everybody was required to submit photos of their genitals for public record, they could never be used for blackmail.
15
Amen. Take them down Jeff.
19
So Bezos says to Pecker:
"Go ahead and publish those photos!"
Guess who took the photos. Guess who put them on the Internet.
5
Good job. Mr. Bezos. This sheds new light and brings even greater credibility about Pecker's bullying, and his influence on the 2016 election.
It's good to see Pecker put in his place. Finally.
22
@NYCtoMalibu, Perker’s bullying? Since I joined Amazon Prime, ads for anything remotely related to anything I ever clicked past on Amazon floods my email inbox for months such that I don’t even dare open it anymore, it’s all just one big junk file. Who’s the real bully here? I’m glad someone is getting a taste of their own medicine.
7
“Russier, (sp) if you’re listening...”
AMI, if you’re listening...
Who else might be caught in this web of deceit and blackmail?
Looking at recent strange behaviors: Cruz, Graham, and other newly spawned devotees of the current resident? Who else can no longer see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil of our Dear Leader?
Thank you, Mr. Bezos!
15
It will give me great pleasure to see these purveyors of trash and filth brought up on felony charges.
16
May I suggest that Bezos do a Gawker on Pecker. Just sue them into oblivion (after he takes them over/down he could merge them with Washington Post). Just the whole discovery process in such a lawsuit would be worth gold - and enough to get every lawyer who ever worked for them disbarred. It is amazing how much stinky stuff comes up when you start dredging the Trump swamp.
24
@Ivan - Money might not be able to buy happiness (a questionable premise that I'll never be able to test), however $136 Billion (!) sure can buy one big honkin' legal smackdown on dime-a-dozen Millionaires.
OTOH - Tax The Rich!!
3
The papers overflow with allegations all relating to America's heterosexual and racist problems this week.
Swisher expresses discomfort over the media power wielded nowadays.
She forgets how in the good ole days the press and the heterosexuals at the top of press and politics enjoyed open season on homosexuals and homosexuality and African Americans.
Things are worse now? More dangerous? More biased?
2
"BEZOS EXPOSES PECKER" defines life in the present moment just as New York's financial crisis was defined by the October 30, 1975 Daily News headline: “FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD."
2
Proud to be an Amazon prime member!!!! Jeff Bezos is a brave and really smart guy . Pecker should be quaking in his boots! As for me I will continue to turn the National Enquirer backwards on every news rack I see it on.
18
I don't see the compelling need to descend into this abyss the way the writer has. Surely this is an unseemly story but it seems the author couldn't wait into wade into this with relish. Totally unwarranted. NYT needs to be able to report without tawdry photos of the cover of the National Enquirer.
7
Jeff Bezos is the tip of the iceberg who has the courage to put the devious actions of AMI/National Enquirer's Pecker into the center stage spot light. Unfortunately this is not an isolated incident The Washington Post Feb. 8, 2019 published the following news story Ronan Farrow says he also faced 'blackmail efforts from AMI' for reporting on the National Enquirer, Trump "a prominent journalist (Ronan) who published an article in the New Yorker about the Enquirer’s “catch and kill” practice — in which stories are buried by paying off sources — that benefited Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign." Former Associated Press editor Ted Bridis shared a similar story. We were warned explicitly by insiders that AMI had hired private investigators to dig into backgrounds of Associated Press journalists looking into the tabloid’s efforts on behalf of Trump. AMI, the Enquirer and its lawyers “tried to shut down public interest reporting on tabloid’s work on behalf of Trump.” There is more, "The Daily Beast also reported that attorneys for AMI responded aggressively to two reports published last week that detailed Bezos’s investigation into the Enquirer. In its article about Thursday’s Medium (the website) post, the Daily Beast disclosed that during the process of that reporting, the publication 'and a member of its staff were threatened by AMI’s attorneys.' ” Let's subtitle the Post article, Fake News vs. Truth, Justice and the American Way (Jeff Bezos as Superman).
17
Oh Praise WWW.
2
Fantasy is that Mr. Bezos buys the rag, buys the building the rag works in, starts to renovates the building while the rag is operating and then fires everybody.
But because he's a good guy he offers severance to the worker-bees and hires pecker as the janitor.
One can dream
9
If the news is that the world's richest man has a penis and does many of the dumb things most men do when besotted, why is anyone interested, unless for the irony of a prime invader of privacy getting the other end of the stick? But of course we live in a world where an entire tribe of Kardashians have become multi-millionaires as the result of a leaked sex tape between a couple of nobodies. Amazon is an exploitative company; Bezos has willfully positioned himself as a part of the media via the WP. And he is shocked, shocked, that the intimate personal details of his life are now public because he was dumb enough to have them on a cell phone?
87
@Eli I don't think you even begin to get it. You may not like Bezos but he's done something very brave, putting aside his own embarrassment to expose this extortion which will probably be traced right back to trump himself.
60
@Eli What do you have against intimate sexual partners sharing photos with each other? It sounds like normal human sexual behavior to me and not something to be shamed.
20
Can't wait to see Bezos catch and kill the Enquirer. And if Pecker and his lawyers are charged with extortion, and flip to tell who may have hacked Bezos' IMs, that would be brilliant. Team Bezos!
14
The New York Times with what is perhaps one of the best headlines ever by The New York Post on its front page! Is the grey lady winking approval or perhaps even blushing?
13
"Bezos Exposes Pecker" is the best headline ever. Well done Jeff
14
NYT has headline envy!
18
Pecker should be the last guy trying to expose anyone at this point.
8
The failing National Enquirer...still losing money and circulation.
Let's get AMI bankrupted by lawsuits, and it's Pecker in jail.
19
Am I missing something here?
The richest guy in the world takes selfies of his penis and emails them over the Internet to his girlfriend (while both of them are married, of course), some guy named Pecker threatens to exploit those selfies, the selfie-taker gets upset about that and threatens to sue Pecker, and we're supposed to applaud the selfie-taker because he stood up to Pecker?
Do I have that right?
How about calling BOTH the selfie-taker AND Pecker bad guys? Do people supporting Bezos really understand what it is he did?
10
The NYT can’t top the Post’s headline writers.
6
I wonder if the editorial staff at the Times wishes that they could pull off a front page like that once in a while.
9
It's a pity Mr Bezos doesn't apply the same standards of privacy protection to his customers.
10
A lot of these comments are lauding Bezos as a superhero taking on the Luthers and Vaders of our time. I like it. It fits.
He could well be styled as a proto Batman/Iron Man sort of hero. I say we go with it!
3
I don't understand. Why doesn't Bezos just buy AMI and fire Pecker and the rest of the staff, then burn the paper to the ground?
P.S. Kudos to the Post for one of the all time great headlines!
15
What I want to know is how long has the New York Post been waiting to use that headline?!
12
Just wait til the day Trump is dumped from office to read the boldest headlines imaginable.
3
"Mr. Bezos, too, has the ability to use his huge digital reach in all kinds of ways, and he may someday be tempted to do so in situations where the villains are not as obvious as Mr. Pecker and his band of media thugs. I doubt he would, but he certainly could."
Whether you realize it, or are willing to publicly state it, Bezos is already using his Washington Post as his partisan and personal media mouthpiece. Look at the Post's coverage of his affair and the followup damage control coverage of his "heroic" response to the publisher of the Inquirer.
If the Inquirer's publication of the lurid details of his illicit, immoral affair with a "happily" married woman can be alleged to have political motivations, the coverage of the developing story by the NYT and the Washington Post certainly is, because the publisher of the Inquirer is a friend of Trump and the NYT and Washing Post are vehemently anti-Trump.
Now Bezos is a folk hero, according to the moral high ground declared by the liberal media. "Mr. Bezos clearly is winning here." Says the NYT opinion writer. This is a battle he didn't have to fight if he didn't have the affair in the first place.
When is the NYT going to write about the woman's perspective on this story, that of his wife? Does she think he is a hero? She will own half of his controlling interest in Amazon.
7
As Peter Thiel is to gawker, Jeff Bezos is to the National Enquirer. Works for me.
8
Give that headline writer a bonus!
9
Mr. Bezos and Ms. Sanchez ought to individually sue Mr. Pecker and the Inquirer (with Mr. Bezos banks rolling Ms. Sanchez lawyers fee, of course) for invasion of privacy.
Win or lose with Mr. Bezos wealth and two lawsuits he bankrolling, he maybe able to protract the lawsuit long enough to bankrupt Mr. Pecker and the Inquire.
5
"Bezos Exposes Pecker" has to be the best title...due to the double-entendre.
Why do americans worship rich people? Americans need to realize that rich people are you with more money, nothing more and certainly many times far less. I ain't gonna worship someone because they lie, cheat and steal their way into more money. But Americans do, and sadly that will be the end of Democracy in America.
8
It's because many Americans 'think' that they too can be billionaires. Instead of trying to make everyone's life better, which will benefit them individually too, they were brainwashed to believe that they can make it better each on their own. While the billionaires profit from their division. Sad!
4
Was Jeff Bezos targetted by AMI on the orders of Mr. Trump because Bezos owns Washington Post?
11
Praised be Bezos, newly anointed Saint of MSM.
4
enough of the details of this..everybody is so clever and giddy trying to make fun of this and work in references to packages, pecker, exposure, junk. Ha ha ha but it has NOTHING to do with Trump or really anything except Bezos little billion dollar fling
1
Bezos has made billions from government contracts expanding our worldwide surveillance machinery. He has zero credibility in complaining about the National Enquirer having some pictures confirming his extramarital indiscretions. Karma, Jeffy.
10
AMI blows up a guy's life costing him a marriage, billions of dollars and weeks of embarrassing headlines. THEN, they try to threaten him? I thought they were good at this blackmail journalism. Guess not.
13
I think we can all agree that no matter how poor their journalism is, the NYPost is absolutely killer at writing headlines.
14
I don't want to make light of this but, if this were a game of international "CLUE" you'd have to guess Mr. Pecker with the Saudi's in the Oval Office.
18
See what happens when you live in your own little bubble, think you're all that, and feel you can attempt to blackmail a guy with +$100B in the bank? A guy who build all of it "from scratch?" What, you think he's just going to roll over for you? Really? Stupid is as stupid does.
14
Mr. Bezos has hired Gavin de Becker, a security consultant to the stars, to investigate how AMI got his private texts and photos. So, it will come down to Becker vs. Pecker, brought to you by Amazon Prime.
13
I would suggest Bezos hire Jason Bourne to break into Pecker's office with a voice recording of a phone being answered "David Pecker" and with a piece of scotch tape bearing a fingerprint of Pecker's. I would pay to be in the room when Pecker calls Trump and says: "Bourne broke into the safe. He has everything".
4
This scandalous situation could bring down Mr. Pecker for violating deal he made with Mueller team, Derail MSB from taking over the kingdom of Saudi Arabia when his father passes on ,and the presidency of Trump himself closely aligned with the Enquirer 's CEO could become involved. This situation could clear the decks of a few sleazy folks who have too much power and no morals.
13
Ladies and gentlemen: The Era of Trump!
8
Who else is the Enquirer blackmailing?
15
“...I’m not entirely sanguine about the ability of powerful people like Mr. Bezos to use digital tools for their own private aims...
If he was aiming to be private – he missed...
At least in parts...
And – you know what they say...
Huge digital reach...
Huge digital...
(you know the rest – don’t make me say it or put it in a URL)
PS
Am dead serious, Kara – you’re talking as if Mackenzie’s not in the conference room...
Took Steve several attempts – but he got being a family guy, in the end...Thought now it’s me ignoring the better half of things...
PPS
If Bill Gates had made his online search as accurate and reasoned as his spousal one, we’d all be Windowing instead of Googling, if we wanted to know something...
There is only one person hanging out in the breeze now, and that is Mr. Pecker. Should the National Enquirer publish any salicious photos or further texts, it will be clear that they actually are trying to blackmail and extort Mr. Bezos. Such shady business practices, while a field day for the punstocracy and the tabloids, will lay Mr. Pecker open for legal remedy that Mr. Bezos is well funded to pursue. When it comes to 'deep pockets', Mr. Bezo's are the deepest... so Mr. Pecker should move carefully. He's got a lot of risk exposure here. It seems to me that it would be very prudent of AMI to 'buy and kill' this story, before the company is the one being bought and killed.
6
Do couple,whose love to each other has faded,have to pretend that they are still items?.One side or the other decided it is time to move on and they ended their relationship amicably and that is the end of it.It is quite a low culture to lurk around couples who passionately love each other and try to suck the pleasure from other people's life.Usually those who get red eye when they see other people enjoying life are real brutes.How come The enquirer has resources and man power to poke around where it should have no business but unearthed nothing on potential terrorists, mass shooters, notorious addictive drug peddlers,etc. to preempt mass innocents' casualty?.When it comes to rare high achieving personalities like Mr.JB the World would rather read or hear about what made them who they are and how they did it not about what Enquirer's like editors and reporters were salivating by looking at or imagining the amorous moments of JB and his love interest.TMD.
1
"Fearless Head in Topless Text"?
So now I'm glad that Amazon refused to accept my Prime Membership cancellation request (in protest of their online weapons sales). My position was understood, they had said, but they also were concerned that I would be losing out on an invaluable service ---so the solution was to refund a month's payment but continue my membership. What chutzpah, I thought at the time. My saying 'No' was ignored.. But now I suppose some forgiveness is due. Now I feel I'm part of a good-guy team in the fight against media sleaze. Go Bezos.
9
AMI is about to get Gawkered, they just don't know it yet.
152
Great warm-up match before moving on Fox.
7
"The Washington Post, owned by Mr. Bezos, is reporting that his investigators think he could have been hacked by a government agency, which would be extremely troubling..."
Really? You going with this story? How about this story, it's better than yours: "Bezos' personal investigators, led by his security consultant Gavin de Becker, have been focusing on Sanchez's brother... Michael Sanchez is his sister’s manager, [and] a Trump supporter..." While you can fantasize that it was the CIA helping Trump out, more likely its old faishioned sibling rivalry...
5
Jeff Bezos' action of calling out the National Enquirer finally pushed me to sign up for a subscription to The Washington Post.
I'm already a ceaseless reader of the New York Times both digitally and hard copy.
8
Personally, I'm sure Bezos knew that his response was the only way he could keep the pictures from being published. With the S.D.N.Y. breathing down their necks, there's no way A.M.I. is going to publish and guarantee prosecution.
2
Jeff Bezos for president.
No, seriously.
6
@Joe
How about just "no".
3
I never thought I'd be pleased by anybody from the Billy Club doing anything, but Mr. Bezos did, what one would not expect the richest man in the world to do; that is, smash someone from the bottom of his club.
Nice going!
5
Classic NYPost headline, for sure! Hilarious!
3
That Post headline is so perfect. Hah!
3
Memo to AMI: Please call in the bankruptcy lawyers.
9
David Pecker and his National Enquirer may have gotten the dirt on Jeff Bezos in their own tawdry version of "the emperor has no clothes," but it's they who've been exposed. After getting caught in a conspiracy with Donald Trump to prevent his salacious, year-long affair with a former Playmate from being exposed, Pecker has violated his agreement with the Southern District of New York not to commit any criminal acts for three years. Hopefully, that will result in his immunity from prosecution being revoked and joining his co-conspirator, Michael Cohen, in jail.
6
My favorite NY Post headline was from October 1988, when Gene Pope Jr. died. He had been the owner of the National Enquirer & the Post's headline on Page 3, was "Publisher of National Enquirer goes to interview Elvis"
7
Jeff Bezos ranks second only to God in watching people around the United States.
His creepy love affair with government facial recognition gets him lots of friends - UNTIL it is revealed that he has been watching THEM, too.
The ACLU has writtn the final word on this man's predilections on watching every place people go. Does his name translate to ''Geoge Orwell'' in some other language?
So HE gets tattled on? Forgive my lack of outrage. May the lawyers feast on him.
8
Men.
Maybe the richest one in the world with the most to lose in the world but still thinking with the little head.
4
Thank you, Jeff Bezos.
6
funny you should call bezos a "winner", you took the words (and the moral compass) straight from #45. winner???
the richer and the more liberal the person, the lower the nytimes sets the "winning" bar.
very bizarre "times" indeed...
6
When the divorce was announced I said McKenzie wasn't really losing anything. Now that we know Jeff was dumb and besotted enough to sext the things he did I'm even more convinced she is well rid of him. Remember when it was revealed that Prince Charles texted Camilla that he wish he was her tampon? Some men never grow up and certainly don't really know how to express themselves romantically!
9
The Old vs. The New. The Slime vs. The Creative. The Cowardly vs. The Brave. The Bankrupt vs. The Job Creator.
KO from my perspective...
3
It's his weird left eye that's the real problem. But who cares--the dude is like any other guy fooling around on his wife--just has more money to do it. Same, same.
8
The real story here is the connection between Trump and the House of Suad that WaPo has been uncovering and why AMI wants this buried.
8
Bezos for President 2020!
4
Mr. Bezos, isn’t it time that you buy out The National Enquirer?
3
Bravo Bezos!
6
Quick Trumps, nationalize the National Enquirer, then News Corp., then sell them off to yourselves before ditching D.C.
1
"Mr. Bezos, too, has the ability to use his huge digital reach in all kinds of ways, and he may someday be tempted to do so in situations where the villains are not as obvious as Mr. Pecker and his band of media thugs. I doubt he would, but he certainly could.
This is a great point that has the most subtle darker implication. A grown man with Bezos' tech aptitude sending pics of his penis to anyone shows a concerning lack of judgment. For a person who by all means should have presumably gained incredible wisdom that enabled him to become so wealthy, this seems very naive and juvenile. And yet, there is the obvious Trump theoretical contradiction. It may be that the very same lack of emotional maturity occurring in the context of great personal wealth and power may have ultimately triggered this revelation and "heroic" action. If you are wealthy, you are apparently above the law. This is dangerous when the basic emotions are not well controlled. In that case, you can use existing law as a tool to vanquish your enemies, independent of the usual legal avenues available to lesser mortals.
2
"But now the news is about something bigger." Nice. No puns, eh?
1
Many men feel inadequate below the belt, but since Bezos took a
picture of his family jewels, he might be heightening his popularity.
It's hilarious that AMI is claiming to figure out what happened.
If Pecker didn't turn on Trump completely after the "catch and kill" story, this time he will.
Trump is poisonous.
3
Jeff Bezos for president.
2
Does anyone care anymore if married Mr. Bezos and married girlfriend found each other and want to be together? In what century is the Nat'l Enquirer living?
5
Well at least one of the billionaires dealing with the National Enquirer can attest that his manhood is, in fact a "big deal."
3
Jeff Bezos, Tear Down That Rag!
I find it so invigorating that the 1960's free-love and personal freedoms expressed in the raw were not in vain, and that the world's wealthiest man can be rich and groovy and put a bit of stick about all at the same time. Far beyond just taking one for the team, he's batting cleanup, and when he's done, maybe these filthy rags will be hung to dry.
3
Here are two questions I have: How do you hack information contained in a smartphone? I would never send a photo or text that I woud never want the world to see. And. why didn’t he exercise that same amount of caution?
No matter what information the Enquirer had, I’m glad to see Bezos calling out Pecker.
3
Bezos is disarming the power of weaponized ‘compromising ‘ material. If he doesn’t care if the world sees his selfies, if he and his wife had already decided on divorce, and if his customers won’t judge him, then this blackmail has no power Seems like mr pecker seriously misjudged his audience - pecker is clearly now a has-been. Hopefully other targets of Pecker’s slime can have such confidence to call his bluff.
3
Jeff Bezos is right, if he can’t take on the inquirer who can??? Kudos and gratitude to him for taking on cleaning up this malevolent slime that is a danger to Our Democracy.
7
Pecker treats Trump's adversaries as his own personal enemies. The evidence continues to accumulate.
3
i do not have a single thought about this guy!
2
Six feet under for A.M.I. isn’t deep enough!
1
Wow! The National Enquirer versus Godzilla. My money is on Godzilla.
4
Go get em Jeff. Kudos to you for all you're doing to advertise what a slimy group of folks run the show at National Enquirer.
Hopefully, National Enquirer pays through the nose and loses readership due to their underhanded, bullying ways.
2
Yes, a supethero emerges! Standing up to a digital media bully takes courage and in this case a great deal of financial resources. I read this article and related links with a smile on my face while thinking... "King Saul thought the Philistine was too big to fight ... David thought he was too big to miss." Mr Pecker aka Goliath meet David aka Mr. Benzos. The story we know goes on to say that David cut off Goliath's head.
1
The lead story in today’s Times was misplaced, the headline “A Sea Of Mud” should have been applied to the Bezos story
4
The great irony is that Amazon is probably the second-biggest personal-data bank after Google. That gives Bezos his fortune more than anything, because the goods-relay business is a no-margin business, while the info biz is worth lots.
I have no sympathy for Bezos' claims to privacy. Keep it in your pants and off the internet if you want privacy, and don't make your billions by playing around with other people's privacy.
Another thing. Don't confiscate other people's taxes, Mr. Bezos. I'm not ordinarily an AOC fan, but when she blew off Amazon's "favor" to come to Queens, she was dead on.
10
Of course, billionaires are human and we sympathize with one who stands up the bully. The troubling thing is that a "person of means" can take action where one of us can not. For good or ill. Bezos against sleaze, Thiel against journalism.
2
As we are constantly reminded every time Bezos's name appears it the Washington Post. I'm impressed that rather than break the purported wall between news and editorial writing, Bezos put the story out himself on Medium, a site that virtually everyone can access.
Did Pecker and AMI expect him to issue the statement they wanted -- or confirm President Trump's suspicions that the WP IS Bezos, by quietly setting the Post on them? He didn't.
Nicely played, Mr. Bezos.
That may have been the way THEY would have done it -- e.g., quietly buying and killing adverse stories about President Trump. Bad call on their part.
1
Good for him! I don't really need anything at the moment, but I think I'm gonna buy something off of Amazon just for the heck of it.
6
Trump has been after Bezos from Day 1 mainly because of the Washington Post and his apparent jealousy of having less money. Is it possible he ordered a "government agency" to electronically snoop on Bezos and then to turn findings over to Pecker & Company? Would he stoop that low?
With the ring of shady characters around Trump (e.g. Roger Stone, Steve Bannon) it is not implausible to think this may have been the case.
6
Once again the Post deserves an award for that headline. It's almost as good as my all-time favorite: "Headless Man In Topless Bar"
3
trump and his crew are like terrorists who blow themselves up while making a bomb.
It is going to be a long, long weekend in the White House as The trump Meltdown Weekend follows the trump Shutdown.
4
Is it true that the photos and texts came from Ms. Saanchez’s brother as reported by foreign news sources? The Clinton affair with Monica was leaked by her roommate. What do these people gain? The sordid affair is definitely “alive”. I always pity the families of infidelity.
4
The most important thing to me is that the Enquirer promised in its plea deal related to the hush money paid to the porn star and the Playboy model that it would not commit any crimes for the next three years, or else prosecutors would come after it for the new crime, as well as for any crime related to said hush money. Extortion and blackmailing, it seems to me, are crimes. I used to enjoy magazines such as the Enquirer while standing in queues at the grocery store, but I will not shed a tear if this scandal brings it down, just as am not shedding any tears at all about the fact that the scandal appears to be destroying the National Rifle Association. Good riddance!
4
It’s interesting that with the passing of privacy the grip shame has on us may have been loosened. I guess if we are all exposed there isn’t any reason to fear a pointed finger or a mocking whisper.
If this is the beginning of the end of shame I’m not sure if it’s a good thing or not, however if it means I don’t have to see another screaming tabloid rack while paying for groceries I might be all for it.
Who buys those rags anyway? Enquiring minds want to know.
1
I always thought it would take a sex scandal to bring down trump but one involving the richest man in the world was way outside my imagination.
Stay tuned for the series on Amazon video next year.
1
Just a quick question, for white collar crime, when found guilty, the criminals go to different prisons. But for extortion, what sort of prison do they go to ? Is there any chance that Trump’s friend could be sent to a prison with all types of criminals ? You know, like violent ones ?
That would be funny, one of Trump’s friends in a real, genuine prison.
2
There will come a time when we return to competent and trustworthy leadership, when our President is hard working, talented, and working for the benefit of all Americans, including the very poor and powerless.
I find myself wondering if I will miss this insanity, of not just daily, but hourly mischief and lying, deceitful leadership from the White House.
Maybe I am being conditioned to be like the Russians are, just impervious to crooks in high places.
Anyway, thanks to Kara Swisher and those like her who are working to help the rest of us understand what the heck is going on under the rocks and in the dark halls of Power.
Hugh Massengill, Eugene Oregon
2
bezos is the best.
1
Kara,
Jeff Bezos is a brilliant computer science graduate of Princeton. He knows how to think. His first job was in a firm that still makes money by thinking hard. DE Shaw was a computer science professor at Columbia. Bezos worked there. No coincidence that he knows what he is doing.
He will have the wonderful people at the National Enquirer for breakfast. I hope his ire will cause serious damage for the Trump administration. If it does, I will absolve him of all the evil he did as Amazon’s founder and CEO.
4
I wish the New York Times would let her hair down once in a while. A good laugh, even if "working class" humor, is good for the soul.
3
I meant "Mr. Bezos's stand," of course, but my computer overrode me.
Let's not overgeneralize. As Bezos's blog post points out, he has resources others don't.
During the first 20 years of the 19th century, Hariette Wilson was a very successful high-priced prostitute in London. When she aged out of that career, her retirement plan was to write her memoirs and have her lawyer send sections to her former clients, with the suggestion that there might be editorial changes in return for sufficient payment. The Duke of Wellington got one of these letters and, the story goes, sent it back with "publish and be damned" written across it in red ink. But some of Wilson's other clients came across. Bezos is in the same untouchable position as the Iron Duke.
2
I think the point we're missing here is Bezos probably could handle the tech breach privately. As far as we know, he is handling the tech breach "privately" in a company sense of the word. Would you ask the US government for assistance in identifying a hacker when you suspect the US government is the hacker? Neither would I. Publicity is a form of protection in this case.
The other point we're missing is Pecker has a legal liability. His immunity with Mueller is conditional on a three year probation. No crimes in three years. Otherwise, the immunity disappears. Bezos is exploiting that liability. You better believe there is a whole new investigation into American Media just beginning. I think Bezos is out to destroy AMI and he has a very good chance of succeeding.
It's a billionaire's revenge but so is our current presidency. Trump has it coming anyway. The disturbing part is Jeff Bezos has the potential and resources to take down not just Pecker but the Trump administration acting as an NGO. In hindsight, we might all prefer he just stayed out of this one.
1
It amazes me that AMI could be so stupid to release information that led to the destruction of Bezos' marriage, and then trying to use a couple of revealing photographs as a way of trying to keep him from making allegations against the company. I can think of few things as foolhardy as to try to blackmail a billionaire with nothing to lose.
2
Bezos strikes a direct blow at one of the sources magnifying the worst elements of modern day media in America. JB is willing to air his “dirty laundry” (private, legal exchanges between consenting adults that no one cares about), can AMI survive the spotlight on their “dirty laundry” (potential blackmail, etc)?
Is unfortunate that it takes the resources of the wealthiest American to stand-up to the tactics of AMI.
Cheers to Jeff for taking on this bully... pin the gas pedal of discovery and transparency to the floor for the silent majority that is with you.
Thank you.
1
Outing abusive and unethical and in this case, potentially illegal treatment is the correct response to abusive dysfunctional behavior. I applaud Mr. Bezos' backbone and his refusal to play the ridiculous archaic game of pretending shame about his sex life. Mr. Pecker of the National Enquirer is a Trump collaborator in conspiracy to win the 2016 presidential election and many other nefarious schemes to aid in the drive to transition the USA into totalitarianism and lock in our oligarchy. Blackmail is illegal and I'd like to see Mr. Pecker as a defendant in court. Bravo to Mr. Bezos!
3
Bezos is a successful creative businessman made lots of money providing useful services, first books, then everything else, now even good food, and gave us one of the best news organizations in the world.
His enemy Trump a racist misogynist and xenophobe, who is a serial bankruptster who lost money even when he tried fraud with his fake university, gambling casinos, and stiffing workers not paying them.
What a study in contracts!
One good the other rotten.
5
In other Bezos news, he is ready to bail on bringing 25,000 jobs to New York thanks to those liberals opposed to job growth.
Does this yet qualify as peckergate? Good for Jeff Bezos.
3
Gotta love the Post's headline writer. Then again, totally irresistible.
2
War of Exposures!
I would expect the NYP to join the fun with its cousin publication in slamming Bezos. Whodathunk? Maybe the NYP is trying to reclaim its long gone self respect. That said the headline is classic NYP.
1
Regretfully, I can't agree that "Bezos exposes Pecker" is a great headline. It is like Babe Ruth taking batting practice against a six -year old, or Lebron James playing 1 on 1 against Angel Cardero.
It should have read "Bezos etc, etc."
1
Headline on front page of NY Post," Bezos exposes Pecker" made me laugh, and author deserves credit for his wit and talent.NY Post is what the Daily NEWS used to be under Patterson:witty, irreverent,which is why folks would line up at their local news stands Saturday night to get the early edition of the News. Then Mort Zuckerman bought it and gave it a more liberal slant, whereas the NY Post, under Murcdoch's stewardship, became what the News once once had been! A few years ago Post ran a story on a crazy real estate dealer in Houston who walked into a pharmacy and took a leak on the candy counter before being reprimanded and chased out, and headline was "Urine no more!"Must give those journos at that tabloid credit for their spirituality!
1
Though I have zero respect for the man’s business practices, I absolutely respect Bezos’ staunch position in the face of truly horrid blackmailing attempts by the greasiest hypocrites in recent memory. Well done.
1
I wonder if Trump ever said, "Dave, buddy, if you're watching, I hope you find the dirty sexts...", before heading off to bow his head and close his eyes and look oh-so-prayerful (actually, looking like we all did as children in church - trying to act profound and deeply religious because that was what everyone around us was doing) at the National Prayer Breakfast.
1
"When you shoot at the king, you best not miss."
---Omar Little
4
Is there a Nobel Prize for headlines?
132
Three cheers to whoever writes headlines for the Post.
1
The interesting question is, will this attempt at extortion be interpreted as breaking the law and thereby a violation of the agreement made with Mueller's prosecutors to in effect pardon Pecker and the Nat Enq. from their conspiracy with Cohen and Trump to silence women our POTUS has "enjoyed"?
I'm sure Bezos has the wherewithal to obtain the digital records he needs to provide prosecutors with what they need to get an indictment. I truly hope that line of inquiry is in the works as I write this.
1
“No Thank You, Mr. Pecker.”
No Pecker, Mister. Thank you.
1
The author is trying hard to find something different to say or look like she is taking the long term view of the possible downsides of what Mr Bezos did. She fails miserably. The guy had guts to do what he did and I strongly applaud him. I challenge any of us to think what we would have done had we been in his place. Every action we can ever imagine could have a downside, especially in time.
2
I was nodding along until the article suggested Bezos could ‘save us all from future data breaches!’ The end note for this story is still huge with potential connections to the White House. While it’s fun to think of a billionaire sinking resources into exposing Trump; let’s not forget that Bezos will never stand up for the everyday person (like his workers).
3
I have grown to despise Amazon. The last straw was the Whole Foods Prime debacle, making me feel second-class in my own grocery store. But having to see photos of Bezos' full bag of groceries is going too far. I think he did the right thing. Expose them before they expose him. We need the National Enquire to run entertaining stories about two-headed babies not bald-headed billionaire's organic mushroom.
2
The incident is a good example of digital era social system challenges - what is “privacy”, what is legitimate “business practices”, what is “theft of others “digital property”, what is the meaning of “digital threat and extortion”, and many more. Thanks to Mr. Bezos to take these issues up front and challenge our legal and social culture to address this loopholes in the society. So long other people tried to avoid these questions in fear of their personal shame. Bezos has overcome that fear and he has sufficient resources to peruse this gap in our system. I hope Congress will wake up and address the loopholes in our laws and make the protection of digital property a fundamental right of Americans. In digital era it is surprising that we do not have any definition of digital property and no protection of digital property rights.
1
I asked myself why a multitude of readers continue to support such heinous actions of attempted blackmail and extortion of Mr. Bezos performed by Becker and AMI. Why do such evil acts with the intent of tearing his life remain to be so alluring? When did 'doing the right thing' become so dull and boring? It is evident to me that the Emotional I.Q. of our human race has "not come a long way Baby."
I place my bet on Mr. Bezos that he will "use the opportunity to reflect on how he can lead the fight to protect everyone’s privacy and digital dignity, even as he takes back his own."
1
Great finish to a good column.
We need full transparency on what went on here.
Just as we need full transparency on the bipartisan corruption.
Bad leadership joins corruption on both sides of the aisle.
The sooner media and the fringe join the majority in the middle on this fact, the sooner we begin to realize the full potential of our great nation.
Go for it, Bezos.
2
I admire the guy for fighting sleaze. Ut should be evidente he had on flaw, which is crucial in this internet age: once you transmit something, it can be made public. It is utterly foolish to expose your "equipment" and send it into the internet cloud. It will be there forever.
Many teenagers who think sexting is cool and grownup need to realize that it is one thing for a world's richest man to expose himself, versus someone who has not finished their education, do not have a career, or secure position in society. Such foolishness can affect their lives in a very negative way.
Mr. Bell's stand is most admiral. Maybe Trump should use the same tack with the Russians and reveal whatever it is many suspect they are blackmailing him with. If it's embarrassing video, Trump is held to such a low bar, especially by his rapturous base, it probably wouldn't hurt. If it's money laundering for oligarchs, that's a different matter.
2
The National Enquirer should change their
name to the National Destroyer.
Unfortunately they met their rival and kudos to
Jeff Bezos who is not afraid to fight them
despite consequences of being “ exposed.”
The National Enquirer has a reputation of
exposing the most intimate human frailties.
I can’t wait for the next news of the break up
of this Bezos affair.
3
This is an example of why it is infuriating when Democrats and Sanders supporters, or anyone, use the content of hacked DNC emails to bash the Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton, etc. For one thing, do they really believe the RNC doesn't also have its choice of candidate? How naive! But mostly, extortion and blackmail only work if there are people willing to overlook the crimes of hacking, blackmail and extortion in order to use the fruit from the poisoned tree for their own agendas. One legitimizes, and rewards, hacking, blackmail and extortion when they fly past those things and instead further the crime by using the illegally gotten gains. There is a reason courts toss evidence gotten by illegal means, illegal searches and seizures, for example. Imagine if they didn't and police knew they could bust into people's homes w/o court orders or probable cause and attorneys and judges allowed embarrassing or even illegal materials into evidence. What a mess. We can never give credence to these tactics, even if what is found might help us. Good for Bezos. Now, let's really support him by not rewarding AMI/Trump/the Saudis by publishing the pics and sexts.
1
Some men wake up when their wives say “enough”.
The awakening just takes various forms. But the National Enquirer?
Bezos has the means to announce and pursue his awakening. There’s got to be a lesson here. Will it be long lasting? Time will tell. That would be nice.
1
I love your reference to "strongmen". Everyone alive knows that is the way trump wants to be seen. In reality we also all know he is very weak person. He had an obsequios congress for 2 years and still could not get his vanity "Wall" built. There are no caravans of terrorists coming to invade America. All a lie. The GOP Congress knew it we all know it. Watch that disappear as the Democratic House reveals his crimes. Not even gonna mention mueller.
8
When hit, hit back ten times harder... sound familiar?
There are those who have crafted a self image in full view of the public and will protect that illusion at all costs.
Then there is Bezos and the rest of us.... the public.
4
The emails from the Nat. Enquirer hit men make it clear that this was an attempt to silence Bezos and, by extension, the Washington Post.
This requires more than just joking.
And, Mr. Bezos is right. He can afford the fight. How many people without his wealth have endured this blackmail tactic from the thugs at the National Enquirer or other less than savory organizations or individuals?
13
"Mr. Bezos clearly is winning here. He should use the opportunity to reflect on how he can lead the fight to protect everyone’s privacy and digital dignity, even as he takes back his own.
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He should also use the opportunity to ask himself why he is taking selfies of his private parts. While I agree with Ms. Swisher's analysis of Mr. Bezos' stance, I had hoped to gain some insight into why a powerful man, like Mr. B, would feel a need to do such a thing. Alas, I was disappointed on that score.
SIGN UP
5
Good for Mr. Bezos! But I wonder whether Bezos was set up in this affair.
8
A bit of an aside: Wouldn't it be nice if Bezos, Google Execs, et al, could learn from this pivotal (hopefully) moment, that treating people, including your employees well and with respect, dignity, and care, rather than with brutality, really is important.
8
A few months back, I was in line at the supermarket and was amazed that two women were reading TNE and commenting - clearly they believed the fantastic story about Tom Cruise or what have you. I asked them if they were serious and they said yes, indicating they were regular readers. Better than all the fake news out there, they claimed. So there you have it.
18
I would love it if Jeff Bezos brings down American Media over this. They deserve it. Kudos to Mr. Bezos.
24
if the administration helped AMI in hacking to get the emails--or somehow directed that it be done--then this could bring down Trump too
2
The ultra-conservatives grip on this nation will not end until their propaganda machine is exposed and dismantled. Thank you Mr. Bezos, this is a huge first step in that process.
38
They aren’t conservatives.
1
Jeff Bezos floods the swamp with the Amazon.
18
Americans and their ridiculous Puritanical dramas. What adult uses this nonsense as legitimate leverage? So a couple of selfies come out of Bezos wrapped in a towel. Unless that towel cost $135 billion I think he'll be okay.
13
I hope he also stands up for the photographs and texts. Sharing things like that between lovers can be very sweet and it is only our weird attitudes toward sex that get us so riled up about that
9
But let me explain....Nowadays folks, including Jeff Bezos, no longer have a sense of shame about things that, a generation ago, would have caused someone, similarly situated, to a) be ashamed and b) likely attempt to prevent the matter from coming to public attention. For good or ill, it's no longer the case that evidence of an affair and intimate photos thereof are "a biggie" in the age when peeps who are "in transition," rush into print or into the media to publicize their "change of heart." Having an affair and its consequences - small change. Jeff deserves no kudos for the blackmail gig; he knows no one cares and probs wouldn't bother to look at the pics.
3
@heyomania
Let me explain . . . Jeff Bezos is standing up to an odious media conglomerate that is apparently trying to blackmail and extort him because a newspaper that M. Bezos owns is reporting the news. Said media conglomerate is part of an investigation into campaign violations by the current President of the United States. Blackmail and extortion and are illegal; adultery is not. Hopefully, more people care about the possibility of rampant corruption in the Trump Administration than about Jeff Bezos' personal life. I know I do.
13
The blackmailing starts with putting foolish pictures and text on the web To fight it having all the money in the world doesn’t make Mr. Vetos a Hero. A hero would avoid these things in the first place.
5
How stupid are these people?
A) Here's what they were asking: They wanted Bezos to say reporting on his affair wasn't politically motivated. Just asking that screams that it WAS politically motivated. Anyone with half of a discerning intellect would realize that.
B) They're going to threaten the richest man on the planet? Jaw-dropping hubris. Nobody gets to be the richest man on earth without also being one of the smartest and someone who stops at nothing to get what he wants - envisions in Jeff's case.
C) The Feds are now investigating AMI for blackmail. "Under the deal (Between the Southern District of NY and AMI), the company would not be prosecuted for its Trump-related efforts as long as it stayed out of legal trouble for the next three years." Now, they've exposed themselves (Speaking of exposed) to prosecution in their Trump cover-ups."
Is it just me, or does the world seem to be getting dumber by leaps and bounds?
46
No, it’s not just you.
2
Bezos could also fight back by losing any packages addressed to Enquirer employees.
14
I also thought back to the 'Headless - Topless' headline.
But there is something serious going on here. I am an admirer of Mr. Bezos, with qualifications. Like Henry Ford, he pays his employees well and otherwise treats them like excrement. But Ford's assembly line can't compare to the monitors some of Mr. Bezos' warehouse employees are forced to wear. His current situation will hopefully cause him to reflect on this. If the minute-by-minute details of his relationship with his girlfriend should be off-limits, so should the second-by-second details of his warehouse employees work.
Gates, Buffett, and maybe soon Jack Ma are among those in the 11-to-12 figure club who have earned respect by pledging much of their wealth to charity. Mr. Bezos can do more... he is already headed that way with his health care plan in tandem with Buffett and Dimon. If he will reconsider the work policies in his warehouses, he could leave a legacy far more important than his charity donations and his tech visions. A legacy maybe even more important than his standing up to internet mob shaming.
Dan Kravitz
13
We have seen the extensive damage a rich man (Rupert Murdoch) can do to our democracy ever since Newt Gingrich made him a citizen.
Now we have an even richer man (Jeff Bezos) who owns a major newspaper take a stand. Fortunately, his values look like they might restore some balance.
19
It seems only natural that a dirty tabloid like the National Enquirer, with its salacious interest in blackmail and nude selfies and public humiliation, would be the chosen vessel for a man like Donald Trump to go after a perceived enemy.
I have a feeling this is going to blow up into something absolutely huge. A man of means and intelligence like Bezos would not have rolled over that log without knowing something of interest would scurry out.
16
The NYP headline is one for the ages. I can't stop laughing.
11
Cancerous or toxic media like National Enquirer and Fox News should be held accountable. When American values and democracy are threatened this much, the Congress should enact laws to charge such blatant abuse of the Constitution.
14
Mr. Bezos is my hero!
12
When Bezos runs for President will he have to arrange some kind of Amazon divestiture?
2
It’s nice to see Bezos get a taste of his own medicine. He’s been stealing and profiting off of the world’s personal info for years.
He is also trying to spin this story. It’s pretty simple to me: powerful man cheats, gets caught with his pants down (literally), refuses to blame himself, seeks revenge on others. We’ve seen it before, and we’ll see it again.
6
@KD, NY
Your comment suggests you didn’t entirely read the details of the story.
Jeff Bezos may not be a saint but he isn’t the villain here.
4
You see it every day with the Trump family, on top of the criminal enterprise they have been running in the shadows.
2
It is uncertain whether President Trump considers the Washington Post his enemy. He has called the Washington Post a fake news outlet.
What is less doubtful, based on the Washington Post coverage of the President, is that editors blindingly hate President Trump and consider him an enemy. Undermining not only journalistic integrity but democratic principles - free press. This is blindingly clear for all to see. Strange position to take considering the Post's claims Democracy Dies in Darkness.
2
if Trump would do something worthy and respectable thus befitting the office he holds, well then, maybe he wouldn't get bad press. the man is an incompetent and the Post and others (that are not fox news,) just call it like they see it.
3
The emphasis on male anatomy is quite overblown. All males know what their anatomy is. Every lover and wife knows male anatomy. Every mother of sons knows male anatomy. Perhaps it is reassuring that Mr. Bezos has male anatomy since he is male. That Mr. Bezos has male anatomy is not remarkable.
12
@albeaumont
Another sensible comment from our neighbor up north. Bezos did an intelligent thing, and published it. We know what male anatomy looks like; this might be news if Bezos had a penis covered with big blue polka dots. He doesn't; nothing to see here, move on.
1
People are comparing this to the Anthony Weiner situation, but a better example is the guy who tried to blackmail David Letterman over his relationship with a woman on his staff. Letterman talked about it openly during his show. People cheered. Goodbye scandal. Hello jail for blackmailer, Robert Halderman, who pleaded guilty and served four months in Rikers Island.
23
Bezos cheated on his wife and took nude pictures to send to his mistress. Great that he’s going after AMI but seriously this guy is NOT a hero. Also it’s fairly stupid for him - who owns AWS - to think that his private pictures wouldn’t get hacked. He should know security vulnerabilities are everywhere. I hope he puts AMI out of business and I hope people see him for who he is - an adulterer.
9
@Louise
Trump is an adulterer and people voted for him. Most of are not interested if it isn't a member of our immediate family.
Given the president’s past fandom and WWE announcing career, I am sure he would agree that Jeff (The Amazon) Bezos may have executed the best reversal in WWE (mud) wrestling history.
By stealing Mr. Pecker’s journalistic cross and potentially nailing him to it, this move is going to need a name - maybe the NYP editorial staff have not even hit their stride with this story yet.
8
I'm so proud of Bezos. The deems need to take a lesson from his and get a spine. I hope this cripples AMI et al. including trump.These dirty, nasty tricks are distracting from important bread and butter issues. I hope Bezos sues the heck out of AMI.
13
Nobody cares about seeing Mr. Bezos's naked body parts. Sending selfies of genitalia is done as a matter of course among young people these days, so such photos have lost any shock value they might once have had. And if he cheated on his wife, it is none of our business.
Nonetheless, I can't see how anyone could view the National Enquirer threat to Mr. Bezos as anything OTHER than criminal blackmail. I hope Bezos pursues it long enough to close down their nasty racket.
17
Take AMI (National Enquirer) to the cleaners!!!
1
Well, one thing to ponder is this: As much as all of this nonsense may be embarrassing for Ms. Bezos and the Bezoses' children, I can't help but suspect that Mr. Bezos himself is reveling in all this sort of attention. Sure, he's a gazillionaire and sure, he has a right to privacy. But he also is a guy. So, as a guy myself (who is definitely not an anything-aire), my bet is that Mr. Bezos -- who does not appear to be in the least bit attractive -- but who is a man who otherwise has everything -- finally has what money couldn't buy if he remained in his otherwise-married, pedestrian home life: He now has a reputation as a lady's man (in a non-sordid way, i.e., NOT in the way that a certain President does) with a hot chick on his arm. So Ms. Swisher, the phallacy (sorry) in your argument is that though Mr. Bezos is displaying righteous outrage, there is no doubt that a part of him -- the guy part -- is very, very flattered with this new public image that the Enquirer has portrayed. Perhaps his texts "accidentally" became available!
4
isn't it time to hold the drugstores and grocery stores accountable for profiting off the blackmailing, lying National Inquirer that they sell at every check-out register?
11
I am amazed that intelligent, experienced adults still send such emails and pictures by email. Heard of Hillary and Podesta?
6
Finally! An adult in the room...
7
It is about time to have some regulations to protect the people of all the tech capabilities of some businesses in the digital world...The EU is doing something; it is a jungle and we have to react.
7
Good for Bezos. His private life is his own, as is his wife's, and any & all of his aquaintences. He's simply rich enough to fight back - hard.
7
Of course!
"... Russian hackers were involved and provided the content of the texts to Kushner."
Everyone knows that. I heard the Illuminati were in on it too. And those Bilderberg guys -- I almost forgot!
Ayatollah Khomeini too, and Moammar Qaddafi. I know they're dead and all, but I'm pretty sure they still had a hand in it.
And let's not forget acid rain! Not a person, to be sure, but acid rain used to do some pretty bad things, and I doubt it's changed all that much.
3
I’ve long lamented the devolution of Alexander Hamilfon’s “New York Post” into a Murdoch-owned rag best known for its outlandish headlines. But I am pretty sure that today the ghost of Alexander is laughing harder than anyone.
8
I also can’t believe that you are! Get a life - there are major social issues world wide and yet we focus on adults who act like adolescents. Sexual overload - some guy asks you to his room - you can say no. I weary of all the old men ditching the wives that gave them prosperity and a family. No sympathy for the old men.
4
Good for him. Ultimately, it's all about money and power and he has both regardless of jow much Drumpf and his minions try to drag Bezos down.
8
@East youCoaster in the Heartland
Please do not encourage Trump to publish pics of his stuff. He already bragged about it once, yuck.
1
Cleavage, beauties in bathing suits, men in boxer-briefs and towel wrapped hips? Such images are used daily to sell everything from the mundane to the extravagant. Mark Wahlberg in white Calvin Klein. The clan Kardashian. Please. I just hope Mr. Bezos damages AMI as they have damaged so many. Now that would be worth the ticket to see.
8
You, Ms. Swisher, are on the verge of leading a crusade to protect privacy. While I go looking for my pitchfork, I've decided I'd rather follow you than get behind Jeff Bezos.
2
REALLY?
I am amazed at how Mr. Bezos is turning his extramarital affair into a political conspiracy, probably causing more pain to his family and his company. When you enjoy being on the cover of Times magazine unfortunately your private life becomes public and you should act accordingly. You don’t need to go to an ivy league school to teach your children not to sextext, never the less to do it yourself. So where do we leave good judgement and common sense. Who had the most to win from this story going public? Maybe the lover, who by the way received the text. Maybe Mr. Bezos should take his losses, learn his lesson and take a crash course from President Trump on divorce101, 102, 103
4
Jeff is embodying Be Best! Melania should be pleased.
6
This smells of a poorly executed political hit of somebody who’s not going to take it laying down.
Putin’s disappointed. In addition to everything else, Trump’s a bad student.
4
Bravo Jeff Bezos. In a time of shape shifting reality driven by the digital ravings of powerful men Mr. Bezos has turned their own weapons against them in a very effective manner. Maybe, just maybe this will be the long needed tipping point which turns the tide against this lunacy. We can only hope.
This afternoon a powerful elected official walked into his MD’s office for his annual physical clearly looking unsettled, wearing cling wrap underwear, and tapping away on his phones twitter feed. “Doc what’s wrong with me,” he asks? “I can clearly see your nuts,” answers the MD.
4
Just wonder: Did the Enquirer ever reported all those blackmail money in their tax return?
4
I think this situation is pretty complicated. I applaud that Jeff Bezos stood up to this thick headed extortion attempt. Like seemingly all things related to Trump that there are more questions than answers. What I’m concerned about is it only billionaires who can stand up to Mr Pecker and Pecker’s attempts to prevent people from speaking out?
I think the Trump/Pecker relationship goes back a long time. It would be worth looking into to see if they had tried this sort of thing in the past
9
It looks like a Lohengrin has appeared to save the honor of our Lady Liberty. Go Jeff.
4
American Media made the tactical error of falling for its own schtick. The fictional world of moral outrage, scandal and shame it manufactures as content only applies between the covers of its publications. Mr Bezos' action simply popped the bubble.
6
Ridiculous on so many levels. Firstly, Jeff Bezos's private life, online or off, like anyone else's, should be just that - private. Secondly, ridiculous that anyone's private digital communications would be hacked or comprised, and if this tech giant can protect us all by exposing any communication breaches, let's get behind him. Thirdly, if he can take down the sleazy AMI, more power to him. Kudos, Mr. Bezos, for standing tall in the swamp.
4
Bezos did have an affair. Unlike Trump, he admitted to it.
Good question from others: what else does AMI have on Trump?
Oh Saudi Arabia, your corrupt government that Trump admires, we will see your role.
6
“When you’re a star they let you do it,” Trump says in the recording, which was obtained by the Washington Post and released on Friday. “You can do anything.” Remember this? Now an infamous quote about Donald Trump’s attitude towards grabbing women’s genitalia without their consent. These words were spoken by candidate Donald Trump in 2005 and the world heard the audio recording during the 2016 presidential campaign.
3
Oh my god—the headline. Well, it has eclipsed my long time favorite, Headless Body in Topless Bar.
I have deep reservations about Amazon and what the company means for society, how it treats its workers and communities, and on its vast capacity for data gathering. I shop elsewhere. I do subscribe to the Washington Post, another great paper.
On this, I can only say bravo and well done to Mr. Bezos. I absolutely support this move wholeheartedly. He didn’t do anything illegal unless we’ve outlawed stupidity and poor taste. If we have, he’s hardly a big offender.
I think about all the people who suffer in silence and who have done it to avoid public shaming when really, who are we to judge? I think about the many people AMI has probably victimized, those who had much less power and money and who went along because they were afraid. I hope that Bezos will use his vast wealth and privilege to rein AMI in. No one should go through this, it’s an abomination.
3
Best NY Post headline ever! And good for Bezos for taking them down.
5
Kind of ironic. His newspaper writes about anonymous "leaked" information, most of which was planted earlier by Democratic operatives. He's not being noble. He knows the pics will come out.
1
I'm delighted to see Pecker and AMI pick a fight with the wrong guy. And I'm hopeful Bezos will end up as a hero for grinding AMI to dust and exposing and/or disposing of all the garbage it no doubt has in its vaults. Should it involve either the trump regime or a government agency, it too should be exposed for its bad behavior and, perhaps, illegal actions.
4
What on earth was AMI thinking, picking a fight with someone with the very deepest of pockets, not to mention super-intelligent and with a well known vindictive streak? Good lord, they'll be lucky if he doesn't pull a Gawker on them.
4
That Post cover has a mind of its own.
1
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.
6
OK, Jeff is a hero this time, smashing down the National Enquirer, which for weeks leading up to the election ran heds like "(sources say) Hillary's INDICTED" or "Grand Jury Will INDICT HILLARY", and "Docs Call DONALD TRUMP: Healthiest Man in the World". I only read the covers glaring from the supermarket checkouts. If I tried reading it, I'd probably projectile vomit on food and cashier.
At least I know who those folks were , generally it's Brad in trouble with Joan over Freddy or other single-name **stars**, Mona Tells All, Harry's Expecting.
(where do these people come from and why do "Enquiring Minds Want to Know")
But if he was hacked, maybe Jeff will finally understand why I'm mad at him...
Not just for crushing local bookstores (A dealer I know told me selling a book through Amazon can cost him up to a third of what's charged, but customers don't come in to buy anymore)...
Or engaging in monopolistic practices, by becoming The Store Selling Everything.
I'm mad because Amazon engages in infotheft. Instead of keeping business records just for the sake of billing customers, shipping goods, paying taxes and ordering more when supplies get low, I log on and get a list of "Products I might Enjoy" shoved in my face - (the algorithm's usually wrong).
And I suspect Amazon, now renting space on a big anvil thunder-cloud server will be collecting more, from customers of its customers, possibly selling it too.
But, today the publisher of the Washington Post is my hero.
3
Great piece. Balanced, insightful. Thank you.
Brava!, Ms. Swisher.
1
Bezos isn't afraid of exposure, or anything else related to his marital fling(s) - he is impervious to any assault on his person. He is above the law. He is one of the Elites of this current world order - a multi-billionaire who can do whatever he wants, when he wants it, and to whomever he wants. He is powerful and untouchable. He is the media's Weinstein. The Bill Clinton of Amazon. The Hillary Clinton of power politics. His money and power and influence allows him to go, do, say, share, photograph whatever he wants - without recourse to the laws and regulations and societal guidelines that the rest of us have to bow down to. He is untouchable.
His arrogance and imperiousness shine through every image we see of him. Look at me, he says. See my clothes. My cars. My houses. My women. This is what I can do and you can't stop me.
And we,as a society, encourage this behavior, as something that's achievable - if we make enough money and have this unlimited power and connections - you, too, can become the head of a corporate behemoth like Amazon.
You, too, can be a Jeff Bezos.
God save us.
4
OMG, love that Daily News title! Hilarious play on words and coincidentally so apt!
I desperately needed a good laugh, and your (NYT) photo provided that. Thank you!
1
Pressure your local grocery store and drug stores to drop these tabloids owned by AMI. Then - and only then - will we be done with these thugs.
Mr. Bezos, thank you for displaying personal courage and to both women whose permission I know you sought first. I’m sure many others who were successfully threatened by AMI will seek you out. Gather them for class action litigation.
4
"Rather than struggling with his media foes in the quiet back room of a law firm, Mr. Bezos decided to do it the Internet way — much as American Media’s BFF, President Trump, does — and just say it all out loud on Medium and Twitter".
The exception, however, is that Trump would never post anything that hurts his ego (at least knowingly.........his misspellings are things of legend). And he tries to cover up everything, from his relationships with Russia to his taxes, to stories about his affairs.
Trump & AMI can continue along their fake news & lies. I gained a lot of respect for Mr Bezos today.
2
I have no interest in Jeff Bezos' divorce. Generalizing from my stance, I do not understand why anyone thinks it is newsworthy.
4
Take your eye off Bezo's and Trump for a moment.
Just how used to blackmail is The National Enquirer. Their lifeblood is celebrity gossip. Have they ever blackmailed or extorted celebrities (for money) not to publish topless photographs, affairs, etc...
I realize that gossip and celebrities aren't as big of a deal as Trump, but illegal is still illegal. And it would be interesting to find out just how much blackmail that rag has gotten away with over the years.
4
Jeff Bezos is doing the right thing by going public without falling for this kompromat (pun intended). Hopefully, he will prevail and use this very personal experience to take a hard look on the extremely sacred nature of privacy in his Amazon empire.
2
Bezos has opened the doors into dark room and shed some serious light on AMI.
Other journalists who were investigating AMI for stories who were also threatened, are starting to come forward as reported by NBC.
It wasn’t Cohen who dispatched thugs to threatened Stormy Daniels, it was AMI; trump’s personal intimidation hit team.
Is that who threatened Cohen’s family? if Cohen testifies?
4
With soap production like this who needs Lever Bros?
3
Hope his children & soon-to-be-former wife are OK.
4
His actions are patriotic.
1
I can't believe how stupid AMI is, particularly its Deputy General Counsel. The first rule of business emails is that you don't put in writing what you won't be comfortable seeing published on the front page of the NY Times (actually everyone should apply this rule to all their communications). To put in writing a thorough outline of the extortion attempt...boggles the mind.
I for one am perfectly comfortable letting one of the richest men in the world handle the take down of one of the sleaziest publications in America. I don't particularly care about Bezos's private affairs but I do care if a media source is blackmailing people in service of a political agenda.
Am eager to see how this all unravels. As Bezos said, "I prefer to stand up, roll this log over, and see what crawls out"
4
Paging Woodward and Bernstein. This could be Trump's
Watergate.
3
Trump and his cronies (many Republicans and Russians) are stepping into more trouble than they'll be able to remove from their backsides. They need to be caught red-handed, and held to account by local, state, and Federal authorities. I'm sick of Trump.
3
I have no love for Pecker, whose tabloid has brought down media discourse and (given his Bezos takedown attempt) appears to have not turned on Individual-1 after all.
But through creepy products like Echo and Alexa-infected "smart" TVs and appliances, Bezos has contributed to the very snooping culture that bites him now. (The fact that he chose a FOX "NEWS" reporter, of all people, with which to cheat also suggests he's not much better than his foes in the White House and Moscow.) I refuse to cheer him like many are bizarrely doing here; instead I hope his quandary helps him consider apologizing for Alexa and taking it out of the market entirely, so that we can ALL be safe from creeps, tabloid and otherwise.
3
The whole connection of AMI and Saudi MBS is more to think about, intelligence experts, and the legal ones...everyone is sounding an alarm, Andy McCabe book out for release, few excerpts read on the air just confirms everything we already knew.
All of FBI people referring to this cabinet as a gang of organized criminal attempting to run the country.
I the latest saga the dots to connect are: Individual 1, National Enquirer, Roger Stone, MBS Saudi gangster/prince, WAPO, extortion, David Pecker.
Oh boy, so much work for Hollywood girls and boys...feeling a bit jealous they get to work on all these material.
It could touch so many different genre, like film noire, satire, action, paranoid fiction, mob crime,
absurdist/surreal, fantasy...plenty to chose don't forget Netflix series, HBO and the documentaries...
Get creative people, we need it... just about now!
3
Consider me complexified over the question of “what were they thinking” when they thought Bezos would cave.
2
My dream: that Bezos manages to bring Trump down.
On the way, Bezos may also make Amazon a company that will improve people’s lives, by paying proper taxes and using its power to make communities better off
12
by doing what he does, Bezos is making America great AGAIN!. it's been a long time.
14
While the Enquirer deserves no respect, what Bezos has accomplished is shifting the public focus from a true but sleazy story about his behavior, to an unsubstantiated story about Trump. Looks like billionaires really can afford top-notch media advisors.
9
I thought Amazon was awful, but I truly love this man. He is taking an important stand for all of us. I admire him. I don’t need to see the pictures. I know he’s a great man.
13
The author's proposal ,"He should use the opportunity to reflect on how he can lead the fight to protect everyone’s privacy and digital dignity,..." is laughable. Can she seriously believe that the uber-rich ever think about, or would do anything for, the proletariat? If so, I have a bridge in Brooklyn that she might be interested in purchasing.
7
Bill & Melinda Gates, George Soros, others of wealth but slightly less fame offer examples to diminish the futile contempt often fostered and festering among lesser mortals…
1
It's difficult to blackmail when your target just doesn't care about your blackmail material. Bezos was brilliant. Who cares about seeing the pecker of a 55 yo man, or seeing him in a towel, or even seeing him have sex with a mature female cooperating friend? None of this will destroy Bezos or Sanchez. It may have been the final nail in his marriage, but good chance it was already on the rocks. Glad he stood his ground!
44
What people like Pecker and Trump assume is that when they cheat/threaten people, those people will not attack back, since these people do not have the financial means to engage in a lenghty court room battle. With Bezos, they have erred. Bigly. I hope this is the end of Pecker's empire of sleaze. We shall see in due time.
66
Good for Bezos!
Long overdue to have someone, anyone, stand up the disgusting methods Pecker and AMI have used for years to profit from invading privacy and destroying people.
Readers of the Enquirer really need to get a life, or at least ask themselves why they care about someone else's private life.
You go Jeff Bezos, you go!
470
@c During the decline and fall of Richard Nixon the National Enquirer did the best job of reporting the realities. The GOP covered full time and the press could not speak ill of the living powerful.
3
I agree, I admire that he could finally roll over the log and find what's there. I never shop on Amazon, but I do thank him for taking one for the team.
28
Do you mean the President needs to get a life? Seems he not only reads the Enquirer, he believes it’s a better paper than the Washington Post!
12
"No thank you, Mr. Pecker" doesn't quite have the ring of "Publish and be damned", but it seems Mr. Bezos has some of the Iron Duke's steel in his spine.
19
I’m sorry, but a balding, middle-aged husband and father of four who sends pictures of his penis to his girlfriend is a man not to be admired under any circumstances. He is just a pathetic, little creep.
13
@Walter Bruckner
It is none of our business; he was hacked; that should bother you more. He needs to treat his warehouse workers a lot better. That bothers me more.
2
Earth to Jeff Bezos:
If you're the "world's richest man," you probably shouldn't be taking selfies of your penis. They're likely to end up on the Internet, where they're likely to be exploited by a guy named Pecker.
Just some friendly advice, Jeff.
21
What are you all saying to your children and your grandchildren right now? What are you saying to your young daughters? Are you saying this is what love looks like? Are you saying "Well I know it's disgusting but if you want a man you have to tolerate their incessant and disturbing objectification of sexual body parts"? What else do people who text pictures of their vaginas and penises find romantic and intimate? What are their other demonstrations of love and commitment?
Oh, do you wonder why 10 year old children feel pressured to send photos of their private (yes, private, I said it) parts out over the internet?
And not a single moral twinge in sight of what I loosely consider my peer group.
13
So true and it starts with the bragging of the President of the United States. We say the fish starts to smell at the head first.
4
The Duke of Wellington on being faced with attempted blackmail over his sex life said `publish and be damned.` Looks as though maybe Mr Bezos took a leaf out of the Wellington`s book.
14
Think about his children
1
Publish and be damned. Hooray for you Mr. Besos. I promise not to read or look at any photos published by this scandal sheet.
17
Mess with the bull you get the horn. AMI in their arrogance put all the threats,and demands in writing thinking no one would challenge them. Thank you Mr Bezos for being a real stand up dude.
15
How on earth could Pecker/National Enquirer think for even a second that a confident, mature male like Bezos would, in 2019, ever feel threatened by a blackmailer vowing to release "below the belt selfies" if certain demands are not complied with?
Times have changed. People use the F-word casually. We all know what a guy in his 50s without his pants on looks like. And so on.
Most of us don't particularly care one way or the other about these things and don't even notice them much of the time.
Many of us, if in Bezos position, having already lost his marriage possibly over leaked "sexts", would simply say, "Go ahead. Release those pictures. There's nothing new or even interesting to see there."
Then we'd say "Even if you don't release them, I now have all thge evidence needed to nail you hard on blackmail charges. When this is all over, I'll own AMI/National Enquirer lock, stock and barrel. And you, Mr. Pecker, will be in jail for a long, long time."
17
Reminds me of the song: "Don't Mess Around with Jim."
AMI, apparently, did not think through the consequences of tugging on Superman's cape.
14
@Judith Lessler Yeah, well Jim Croce was a humble man who would never agree with Bezos' cutthroat business practices and the lousy way that he treats his warehouse workers so you should probably leave the brilliant singer/songwriter Jim Croce out of this. He would probably be shocked at how badly people are treated today compared to the way the world was in 1973 when he died in a small plane crash. Back in 1973 most people were still being offered health benefits and retirement plans with their jobs, Jeff Bezos doesn't give his warehouse workers health benefits, he is wrongly depending on the taxpayers to pay for their Medicaid benefits. I sure as heck am not looking up to Jeff Bezos. He's a money hungry arrogant little man.
2
Just saying if Trump was involved in directing the NSA or some other agency to acquire the pictures, to help out the National Enquirer it would have leaked by now. That administration leaks like a sieve.
3
@KR. No, the scuttlebutt is that the Saudis did it as a nice gesture to a Trump, in return for his support of them even when they were egregiously wrong.
2
Unfortunately this commentary misses the central point of what happened - what would possess someone to take a photo of "it" in the first place - there must be lots of other issues going on in that there mind. Money can drive bizarre behavior- My cat Guido had much better sense.
8
Hopefully others who have faced blackmail demands from Pecker's company will come forth.
And the American public needs to know precisely how the Inquirer got those emails and materials. Specifically, if it got it through US Government agencies, there are people who need to be brought before a Grand Jury.
If it was Trump's good friends the Russians, we need to slap true sanctions on that nation. My bet is on the Russian hackers.
8
@Pat Choate My bet is on Bezos' wife....a woman scorned. Maybe she had the password to his email account.
1
The National Enquirer makes absolutely no contribution to society at all other than to cause harm and to make money for its owners at the expense of others. It is the original fake news platform. Go for it, Mr. Bezos. You do not need any help with legal fees but if you did, I would contribute.
20
Good heavens, Jeff Bezos' privacy might be compromised! Meanwhile, the man runs a privacy compromising machine of almost universal reach. Maybe everyone in this saga is an extremely flawed individual. No reason to make Bezos a hero because he decided to flaunt his power, where most people would be powerless. 160 billion dollars does remarkable things for a person's self-esteem, and their presumed sex appeal. What's next, we throw him a parade if he pays a parking ticket, just like us mortals?
8
Exactly. We can loathe Pecker even though he (might have) turned on "covfefe", and we can DEEPLY loathe Bezos even though and as he fights both evils. His schemes to serfify his workers, creepify devices, make books remotely deletable, and patent clicking of web pages have driven a cement truck into his karma needle in the direction of Very Bad and I'm glad his Expenses column will finally be charged a mote of that.
The Today show says it might've been the brother of Lauren Sanchez who spilled the secret. I'd be shocked if it wasn't the opportunist Fox News-Entertainment reporter herself, or even one of Bezos' own creepy Alexa devi...oh who am I kidding, marketing-NOT-"tech" peddlers never get high on their own supply.
But I still hope one of them turned on their peddler, and will then tell us how Sanchez and Pecker planned it all.
And I hope Bezos, Amazon Cuomo, and de Blasio don't just "reconsider" New York's piece of HQ2, but apologize for the very ability to have thought of it.
2
Interesting to hear about it, but I sure don't want to see any of it! If this is the best, most wonderful country on Earth that was, is or will ever will be under some deity or another, just how bad are all the others? How can any newspaper ever go under in this country? It’s guaranteed that no comedian will ever run out of material thanks to our congressional members and our fake president.
7
I'm definitely going to buy more from Amazon.
14
Good for him using the resources he has at hand to follow the trail. Now, I wish he and those resources aka Amazon's fraud department could track down how sellers fraudulently send packages addressed to my minor child. From what my average every-day resources that are available to me have uncovered is that so far from my numerous, lengthy email chats with customer service-- they cannot seem to stop the packages from arriving. This has been going on since the summer! NYT's just did an article on these seller scams--I wish the author had been able to contact me. Help Mr. Bezos! Stop your sellers from what amounts to identity theft of minors!
3
@April Why isn't your credit card's fraud department looking into this? Cancel your credit card if they're not getting to the bottom of this. Or if this is a case of identity fraud in that someone stole your child's s.s. number and opened a fraudulent credit account in their name then Amazon should definitely have solved that problem by now. Terrible!
4
"From what my average every-day resources that are available to me have uncovered is that so far from my numerous, lengthy email chats with customer service-- they cannot seem to stop the packages from arriving."
Or would simply rather not stop them by choice.
If they appear in any way to be Alexa-infected, take lots of pictures of the packages and immediately get them far from your house, perhaps to a trusted friend who insists on having all the latest such creepy cans and TVs. It could be a spying attempt by Amazon itself. Seriously!
(I wish I didn't have to add "Seriously!", but, well...Bezos has lots of fans here for some reason. And "covfefe" seized the White House. In this game of tricks, Hearts and hearts have been broken and no card's unplayable...)
1
Oops, meant the NY Post's title. Hilarious and a much-needed reprieve from all of the heaviness in the national air.
9
"Any personal embarrassment AMI could cause me takes a back seat because there’s a much more important matter involved here. If in my position I can’t stand up to this kind of extortion, how many people can?" -- from Jeff Bezos's post.
Powerful Jeff. You are fighting a just fight against an underbelly of society, one that the likes of Trump are old chums with.
16
Dear Mr. Bezos please run for the democratic presidential candidate nomination.
7
@Ivan Absolutely! I'm pretty sure we don't yet have a candidate from either major party who takes selfies of his penis and posts them on the Internet.
1
I totally agree with last bit written here - use this situation to help those that don’t have the “means” to go after hackers and the like...privacy is to be protected, never extorted.
11
This column sums up the situation well.
Bezos has had it coming, but so has National Enquirer (only more).
Next step: impeachment of the twitter gutterer in chief..
3
I noticed the paper is owned by two hedge funds. Maybe Bezos will make them a buyout offer they can’t refuse and once he owns it shut it down. We can only hope.
8
Its good Mr. Bezos is taking on sleazy National Enquirer straight on! Hope it takes down Trump's friend instead. However, I cant imagine how Bezos put himself in this situation. For a smart man, being middle aged does not mean he starts an affair while married and exposes himself to this kind of attack. I think he needs to dump his girlfriend. Sounds like her brother and other links are just too much trouble.
9
Good for Mr. Bezos. There are over 300 million Americans. The exceedingly vast majority of them have flirted, had sex, had a crush, fallen in love, and maybe even had an affair. We’re humans and humans do human-like things. It’s refreshing to learn that Mr. Bezos is ALSO human. I was beginning to wonder.
6
I'd not be the least bit surprised if it turns out that Russian hackers were involved and provided the content of the texts to Kushner. In most instances, you'd expect that these texts would have gone to the mainstream media. The fact they went to the Enquirer in and of itself says a lot. Oh oh, here comes Mueller!!!
5
Well, Mr. Trump is the better man than Jeff Bezos in one very important way - he has many more casino bankruptcies to his credit than his Washington Post owner nemesis!!!
Jeff Bezos, on the other hand, is a highly successful businessman and deal-maker.
3
One wonders how many well-known people, politicians and otherwise, have been forced to acquiesce to such extortion. I'm curious to see how many people might be inspired by Mr. Bezos' decision to fight to come forward.
Also of interest: how much dirt does AMI have on the occupant of the White House himself?
390
@mc
It's all in a secret safe in undisclosed location, could be in a digital space...This whole connection of AMI and Saudi prince MBS is getting creepier by the hour, definitely more dots to connect, more to investigate by intelligence experts, and the legal ones...everyone is sounding an alarm.
Also, Andrew G. McCabe book "The Threat" is out for release, few excerpts read on the air confirm everything we already knew.
All of the FBI and intelligence professional refer to this cabinet as a gang of organized criminal attempting to run the country. Investigation reporters have 24/7 jobs.
And the latest sordid saga dots to connect are: Individual 1, National Enquirer, Roger Stone, MBS Saudi gangster/prince, WAPO, extortion, blackmail, David Pecker who is the king of sleaze.
Last year AMI/David Pecker publish unusual glossy edition of National Enquirer with Saudi prince on its cover, hyping praise to his new vision, pronouncing it 's a Magic Kingdom.
Again, follow the money and Rachel Maddow.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/saudi-media-blitz-could-explain-devotion-of-national-enquirer-ami-1439947331793
Saudi media blitz could explain devotion of National Enquirer/AMI.
26
@mc I hope they all come forward. This is probably a very common tactic for the trump gang to utilize.
10
Ignoring, for the moment, all of the obvious questions and observations about the moral and legal implications of the breathtakingly outrageous misbehavior of the AMI executives and lawyers . . .
. . . what in the world could have been going through the minds of people who sat around and decided to blackmail a guy with $135 billion?
496
@Douglas Spot on. I would suggest arrogance and stupidity, something that is abundant with the bully pulpit these days.
It would be interesting if Trumps attempt - as I suspect in this instance - to bring down Bezos leads to his own downfall.
30
Hubris and vengeance. Also, Jon Fine, the AMI attorney, was Bezos’ media lawyer at Amazon for like 10 years. What’s up with that?
16
@Douglas
And put it in writing??? I'd fire that lawyer in a second.
12
I would not place the onus of digital security for the masses on Jeff Bezos. Instead: Facebook and Instagram.
Let’s be real, most of us in the passion of the moment have said things that if widely disseminated are cringe worthy, and more than likely regrettable.
Bezos is courageous to stand up to tabloids which have always been relegated to the check-out lines, the gutter of grocery stores where there is a captive audience. Unless, that is, your focus is drawn to Skittles or Hershey Bars.
6
I don't understand why the media is not following up on Bezos' belief that the government got hold of the messages and the Trump administration released them in a ham-handed attempt to take down the owner of the hated Washington Post. If so, this is the biggest scandal of all.
18
Jagadeesan, when you say 'the government' may have hacked his phone, don't assume it was our government. I wouldn't rule out the capability of Russian or Saudi intelligence. We already know what havoc Russians can create!
2
Draft Bezos! Bezos for President!
Seriously he could not only take the White House he could bring enough voters to the polls to carry the Senate too.
As President he would be a proven manager. The man has vision. He also is honest based on dealing with Amazon. A man of proven capability. Wouldn't that be a relief?
4
@Federalist No, the country couldn't take four years of Bezos' laugh.
6
No. I prefer my presidents with government experience and no extant dickpics. Set the presidential bar a bit higher please.
2
And free next day shipping for all!
2
It's headlines like this that make one glad to be alive in these times and that journalism teachers, as I once was, will be chortling over with students far into the future. What great fun!
13
I will be interesting to see what happens when it's found out government resources were used to hack Bezo's accounts. I wouldn't be surprised in the least.
32
Paulie, maybe it wasn't US Government, Russians certainly know how to hack and release! We might learn of Saudi hacking expertise now!
1
I don’t necessarily like everything Bezos does, but I admire his position on this situation.
Despite that, he and his family deserve privacy. This is really nobody’s business but the party’s who are involved. Splitting up the company, has nothing to do with why his marriage didn’t work.
28
Ms. Swisher seems to have completely missed the point.
This story is much bigger than someone powerful fighting back against someone else who hacked his/her photos or texts.
"If the emails are authentic, that looks pretty suspect."
The emails that Mr. Bezos received from a lawyer(!) threatened to expose more private photos and texts in an effort to intimidate him into doing something he didn't want to do.
There's a name for that kind of activity.
It's called blackmail and extortion.
That's more than "suspect", it's a crime.
50
@Bob
I agree Bob.
Kara Swisher (independent of her gender) is no match for Bezos’ intellect.
I am no fan of Bezos and Amazon. But having Ms Swisher on the other side of the argument is me fighting with Muhammad Ali. Intentions don’t really count here.
6
How did all this information get out? I can't believe Bezos doesn't know how this info is getting out. As for the details, I could have been spared a few.
7
If this circles back to our commander in chief who has made no secret of his hatred for Bezos, it could be the the Achilles heel that brings him down.
I used to feel a bit uneasy every time I ordered something from Amazon - I'm usually much more of a "buy local" consumer, but sometimes you just don't have that option.
Now I'm glad that I was able to contribute to Bezos' fortune, so he could more aggressively take on these creeps, and I will continue to do so.
27
“But sometimes you just don’t have that option”
Hmmm, really? I wonder why. I think the best idea is to keep funneling money to Amazon with the hope that might change. I’m sure Mr. Bezos has your back, regardless of how much we admire him in this muck. But just know this muck is a symptom of master of the universe warring. They are ALL against us.
5
Put it in the time capsule; for if any story captures the second decade of the 21st century zeitgeist - it is this one.
22
Has anyone else wondered what the consequences would be if the employees and family members of AMI and the law firm representing it suddenly stopped being able to order from Amazon?
11
I'm not a lawyer, but if this doesn't meet the legal definition of extortion then the law needs to be changed. And setting aside the potential criminal aspects of this, one would expect this to end up in civil court. As a rule I am not in the habit of cheering for billionaires in civil cases, but I'm making an exception here. I hope Mr. Bezos sues these people right down to their underwear. But no farther please.
70
@John C. Great post. Very entertaining and I second that.
6
Given that the National Enquirer is the tabloid version of Trump's Pravda, its laudable for Jeff Bezos to make transparent AMI's illegal tactics of extortion.
I would only hope that the people use social media to fight back. Boycott this ugly publication along with all AMI's publications. The same should go for Chatham Asset Management, the private equity owners. Go to grocery stores that put this garbage at their checkout counter and let them know you will shop elsewhere.
19
It's pretty obvious how Mr. Bezos' texts were hacked: Didn't Google and Facebook just admit that they installed spyware on iPhones to take screenshots at key moments under the guise of "market research?" And aren't both firms along with Apple at war with Amazon? I'd look there.
6
@curry favor all of the apps you mentioned require user action to be installed. I.E. you have to know what you are doing to do it.
It is much more likely that someone used a Stringray (a fake cell tower / interception device) and used it to compromise a phone that his girlfriend was using.
4
As wealthy and as exposed to envy as he is, it took more than a usual measure of courage for Mr. Bezos to face down a crowd of criminal extortionists, and slanderers. If what he suffered in this case isn't extortion, it should be, in law. And let's use the word slander, here, in its old, rich context, meaning a deliberate falsification of truth or even the invidious revelation of truth with the intent to destroy reputation and standing in the human community. Mr. Bezos deserves the gratitude of civilized humanity. The would-be killers of his reputation deserve exposure to something much more condign and exemplary.
39
Does this have trump implications? We are truly becoming an oligarchy.
9
Thanks Jeff!
Hope this investigation discloses enough to lower Mr. Pecker's standing.
26
Why is it so difficult to find a public figure who could serve as a role model? I admire Mr. Bezos' business accomplishments, but why would such a person engage in taking puctures of his private parts? And why would anyone be interested to view those pictures even if AMI were to publish them?
17
Thank you for sticking up for Jeff Bezos, a man who might not have otherwise been able to stand himself up. Multibillionaires have enormous forces pressing against them, massaging them for favor and influence - forces that prefer to wield hidden devices; exposing him to pubic ridicule.
I pose for you the fundamental question of justice - given what we know now, given what we have all seen - who among us would trade places with Jeff Bezos?
As an upright member of the Bezos fanboy society, I sincerely hope I can feel he is behind me, all the way.
5
Yeah, but let's put this in some sort of perspective. I agree with just about everything Ms. Swisher said in this piece, but the fact remains that Bezos was able to "pull off" (her words, not mine) what he did precisely because he's Bezos. For the hundreds and thousands who, every day, have to battle all manner of Internet shaming, we have no such recourse.
24
@Mike DePolo
Precisely why it matters that Bezos is doing this!
Aside from various other angles, he's standing up to a bully for the likes of you and me who do not have the $$$$means to do so.
3
If there were ever a double entendres olympics this is it!
1
Unbelievable that we applaud this man for his courage and miss the irony that Amazon tracks very intimate information about our personal lives (and it’s highly arguable whether it does so with full knowledge of the consumer) for profit. The man who put web connected microphones in our homes, near our children, is the champion of privacy rights and business morality?! Am I in another dimension right now?
40
@G
yep, & forced us to buy those web connected microphones..
6
does he steal that info or do people give it? Does he break into homes and force people to take those devices and force them to place them near children? Monster!
2
@G
yeah, but they do not publish it in a rag for the masses to read (and bully you in the process)
1
I read this from Bezos' Blog and I fell a little bit in love with him:
(Even though The Post is a complexifier for me, I do not at all regret my investment. The Post is a critical institution with a critical mission. My stewardship of The Post and my support of its mission, which will remain unswerving, is something I will be most proud of when I’m 90 and reviewing my life, if I’m lucky enough to live that long, regardless of any complexities it creates for me.)
58
@Jet
I read it, too. Wow.
Many here have taken reassurance in the idea that DJT and the Enquirer may have grossly miscalculated in taking on the wealthiest man in the world. I hope they are right. We must remember, however, that Trump earned deep favor with the House of Saud by shrugging off the very brutal murder of a U.S. resident. I don't know how Mr. Bezos' financial resources compare to the Saudi royals, but they have proven their ruthless brutality enumerable times, and may be interested in propping up their friend, DJT, at the expense of our democracy and decency.
30
From his blog: "I was made an offer I couldn’t refuse. Or at least that’s what the top people at the National Enquirer thought. I’m glad they thought that, because it emboldened them to put it all in writing."
Can't you just see the Enquirer brass, snickering, thinking "we've got him now" with that AMI email?
Bravo, Mr. Bezos, for calling their bluff.
80
With apologies to my fellow subway passengers, I actually chuckled--out loud--while reading this piece. In fact, I believe I may have laughed audibly. I'm so sorry.
29
@R Potter
No apology required. Spontaneously laughter on our subways is always an inspiration. Spontaneous cussing is another matter.
19
@R Potter I doubt that anyone heard you over the noise of the NYC subway train, they exceed 90 decibels of sound.
2
Hubris evidenced by both parties not withstanding, we've all been pushed to the limits of common decency by social media either directly or indirectly. More power to Mr. Bezos.
31
I am wondering if some "powers that be" use blackmail a lot more than we know about, drumming up support for victorian sex hangups on the one hand to create an army of "moral" warriors and on the other hand quietly enticing people of power or potential power to compromise themselves so they're generally vulnerable to blackmail if they don't knuckle under to the demands of the kingmakers in the shadows. I wouldn't be surprised if all sorts of legal taboos (child porn, child sex, gay sex) are among the peccadillos exploited by those wanting to control politicians and other officials by threat of exposure. But since such kinks are embarrassing and often illegal, those politicians can't just step forward like Mr. Bezos has and tell the blackmailers to shove it. I wish they could. I'm sure we'd have a much more honest and publicly responsive government that focuses on what the common people need and want.
11
The internet is essentially a data sponge. What it sops up can --and will-- be wrung out of it. Jeff Bezos's potential power should be be terrifying, and not merely because of his wealth.
The old saw that "With great power comes great responsibility" was never more true than it is today. Bezos, so far, has been responsible with his power, as far as we know. Let us hope he keeps it that way.
30
I don't usually have many nice things to say about Mr. Bezos because of his horrendous dash for wealth and the destruciton of so many mainstay instittutions of America because of insatiable greed and, as far as I'm concerned, the total misuse of his interntet power.
However, I applaud him for this action. As he says, "If with all my wealth I do not speak up and do nothing to expose this blackmail and extortion what would people of lesser means do?"
Thank you, Mr. Bezos.
87
Indeed, but I am still boycotting Amazon and Whole Foods, as a current search of Amazon’s site with “Ivanka” yields over 2,000 items. So much for standing up for your principals, right, Mr Bezos?
5
I used to work at a facility that printed the New York Post. I saw their headlines every day. There were never any better than this one. That being said I hope Mr. Bezos finds out exactly how his private life was exposed.
63
His private life was likely exposed using surveillance technology that Amazon sells to government snoops.
4
Do you think it really tops “Headless Body in Topless Bar”?
That headline is a classic which should be saved for posterity.
I am so glad Bezos did this! A hero.
40
Trumps tweet is too funny, "Tabloids are a better source of information." It just depends on what type, fact or fiction.
31
The Feds and Bezos' lawyers are going to dig up a lot of interesting things on discovery. Since AMIs lawyers were involved, their e-mail accounts are not privileged. The IT staff are going to have to dig up backup tapes of old communications. Ergo, AMI is done, and many victims will be exposed and interviewed. Let's hope that this reasons further and deeper than what meets the eye. Thank God for Jeff and Lauren.
68
The NYP finally comes up with a headline to rival "Headless Body in Topless Bar". Never thought I would live to see it.
760
@Alan R Brock
I like The Daily News headline when the tobacco companies testified before Congress.
Smoke Gets In Their Lies.
48
@Alan R Brock Goes hand-in-hand with their 1970s gem, "Ford Tells City 'Drop Dead'." (Dreyer, is this correct usage?)
11
@Alan R Brock or Trump's first wife's response to his divorce settlement "Ivana Better Deal"
23
I can easily see how 45 asked a government agency, such as the FSB, G.U., or SVR, to hack into Bezos' accounts.
28
@Alex
While I agree with you that I can certainly see how Trump wouldn't hesitate to ask federal agencies to do this, I can assure you that it would not have been done just on Trumps word. There are serious laws and penalties for surveilling US citizens with out the required justifications and appropriate authorizations.
Just as it takes a village to raise children it takes many people to run these programs with plenty of oversight. I worked at an intelligence agency and even accidentally collecting data on US citizens is a very big deal.
8
I think you missed his point. The FSB is a Russian government agency. In return for hastily exiting Syria, leaving Afghanistan, shutting down our government, dividing the American public, undermining our free press and other issues too numerous to mention, it seems a small thing for the Russians to agree to Trump’s request to get dirt on Bezos. (I wonder what the lone interpreter in the room thought about that request).
22
@Cheryl,
I can’t believe the Trump presidency has brought the world to a place where the idea of a president asking the FBI to have a look for some compromat of a US citizen is something we can all easily imagine. I don’t think even he is such a fool to think they’d do it though. Is this where the foreign intelligence connection comes in then? My god though - if such a thing were true even the True Trump Believers would recognise the immediate danger he’d pose? And surely, surely if Trump is found to actually have anything to do with this at all the GOP couldn’t turn a blind eye to that? Has he said anything yet? The man only ceases his continual verbal incontinence when he isn’t truely afraid. Most innocent people just say “No. There can be no evidence of that because I didn’t engage in that behaviour.” Never blo*dy does though does he?
My favorite Post headline:
As pornstar Ron Jeremy awoke from an induced coma, "Ron Jeremy Shows Signs of Arousal."
17
You gotta wonder what Pecker was smoking when he thought he could actually push Jeff Bezos around. Jeebus! Talk about a miscalculation!
119
No matter its many faults, ya gotta love The New York Post. Definitely the best front page of 2019.
47
SPOT ON. Crazy great headline.
2
It takes quite a lot to get me to express any strong emotions (Swede.) Being explicitly threatened, however, will bring an instant reaction. What Mr. Bezos did has been my "secret" weapon when dealing with threats - total transparency. Extortionists of all types are like cockroaches; turn the lights on and they scatter. If you threaten to sue me, sue me. If you threaten to spread what you think is dirt, I'll show you a plowed field. It's really simple, and it takes a bit of courage, but it is far better than trying to live under someone's boot.
99
@G Same here. Someone threatened to sue me unless I rolled over to their demands--which I did not--and they did sue in civil court. The case was totally baseless, and they ultimately had to pay all my costs, $150,000, but the two years of torture through the legal system were unbelievably stressful. If I had not had the means to fight back, I would have had to settle or give in. Ordinary people don't have a chance with our legal system the way it is.
15
And the award for the best front page tabloid headline of the 21st century goes too....
24
The Enquirer made a bad choice trying to squeeze Bezos over a penis picture.
He already cool with putting it all out there. The man is a seasoned Burning Man attendee...
43
@Dubblay
Did not know or ever imagine that Bezos went to Burning Man! You got pix ?
Nothing about Bezos, not even his wealth, ever struck me as sexy. But his awesome response to attempted blackmail and extortion? Ooooh, man, you are HOT.
1221
@Sharon Totally agree. I wasn't much of a fan of Mr. Bezos before, but since he bought and WaPo and allowed it to keep its editorial integrity, I've become a fan. This latest makes me even more so.
228
@Sharon I was a fan of Mr. Bezos when he first started out in the 90's and I loved going on his book website looking for rare books. Then he became a cutthroat businessman and I lost respect for him. He let the love of money and power go to his head. I do regret not buying a bunch of Amazon stock when it first went public.
6
@Sharon
Don't mess with Mr. Amazon!
5
And the King mused, 'who will rid me of this troublesome billionaire newspaper owner, um?' And Sir Peckerwood smiled . . .
74
Blackmail is a crime, right? Even for friends/henchmen of the President. Even for rich men using attorneys to commit a crime, right? Even if they are blackmailing even richer men.
That memo from the lawyer was no more a good faith negotiation than a threat to burn down a bodega unless protection money is paid is fire insurance.
If the Bezos attempted blackmail alone doesn't end with at least one disbarred attorney and a Pecker Perp walk then we might as well make blackmail and extortion legal.
103
I remember learning no later than middle school age that extortion was a very serious felony crime, maybe because it was popular with the mob way back then, before RICO. I knew by then that extortion by mail makes it a Federal crime.
If Jeff Bezos was foolish for taking some embarrassing pictures, extorting him via e-mail to stop an investigation into potential crimes sounds positively insane. Who would do that?
All of the stuff Trump associates did with little or no effort to cover their tracks suggests a level of impunity we haven't seen since the pre-RICO days of organized crime.
On Planet Trump, you can do whatever you want, as long as you afford the lawyers to get you off or at least into a stalemate with a fine and no admission of guilt. The only ones punished are "rats", "flippers" and those who "break" under pressure, to use Trump's mob expressions.
The story of Trump in the White House gets more bizarre every day.
179
It is clearly hard to get as rich as Mr. Bezos without tackling hard problems. He has surely faced tougher problems than this building his empire. Character determines our futures and it is being shown here. So he moves on to another loving relationship (no big deal and very typical of human experience); no reason to be embarrassed about that or its details (nothing we haven't already seen of others). Go Mr. Bezos!
53
@G. Harris
Someone had a great line about those lurid details of the Clinton affairs: "If you go to Las Vegas you're going to see some gambling!"
4
Bezos got as rich as he is in large part through Amazon’s contracts providing tech and storage to the government’s surveillance apparatus. If he wants to know how the Enquirer got package pics of him, he only has to ask his own engineers. He has NO room to whine about a loss of privacy.
4
@G. Harris
Is there something in the water in SF that makes one burble over billionaires?
1
Neither a fan nor a customer of Amazon, but very impressed by the way Bezos is handling this. And grateful that he, not someone like Sheldon Adelson, is the owner of the Washington Post.
377
@DesertFlowerLV If someone like Sheldon Adelson were to someone own a jewel like the NYTimes or the WaPO, those businesses would go down the toilet.
3
If this was a leak through a government agency, the perpetrators need to go to prison and that agency should be massively defunded and have most of its senior management replaced. There are a million better ways to spend federal funds than on a cluster of uncontrollable intelligence agencies. We should have learned our lesson with Allan Dulles and J Edgar Hoover. In any event we are way overdue for a second Church Committee.
26
@Jim K
I thought no one remembered the Church committee and the era when Congress worked for the people, not the powerful institutions and corporations.
Thank you for the memory of better times.
4
Mr. Bezos deserves his privacy like any one else. While many likely will want to cite his behavior as amoral, he is an adult, and is taking full responsibility for his life and actions.
I sincerely hope he gains as near a full accounting of exactly how the theft and distribution of his personal data occurred and shares it publicly, so others lives are not hacked in similar fashion by AMI executives.
72
@JH
With any luck, we'll see the AMI execs in jail and AMI itself bottom up.
3
This could be a chance for Jeff Bezos to finally give back - a meaningful and lasting way - to the society that made him. If the absolute worst, most unthinkable thing happened - that Trump ordered the use of government tech resources meant for murder investigations and counterterrorism to mine his sexts - such a revelation led by Bezos and the Washington Post could finally unearth enough for impeachment proceedings to occur.
254
@Kirk Klocke
I'm remembering Follow the Money and the unforgettable nickname of Deep Throat, catchphrases which date back to the glory days of the Washington Post's role in exposing the Watergate scandal.
I too look forward to Watergate Revisited with its seedy cast of characters and scabrous allusions. From Follow the Money to Expose the Pecker, from Deep Throat to Deep State, sadly everything about Watergate 2.0 is shot through with sleaze. But yes, it is still always the cover up that gets them.
11
How can someone with the internet savvy that Bezos has send pictures of his own genitals over the internet? Does the name Anthony Wiener ring a bell? I hope something good comes of this, but I'm not sure that was the right way to go about it.
164
@Jeff M the fact is, lots of people do this. Until you find a way to override animal instincts, they're going to keep doing this. And assuming it stays between two consenting adults, people should have a right to, at the very least, not be blackmailed over it.
168
@Jeff MThe rub on this the source of the revealed texts, which technically are not the internet. The concern is Trumps power over agencies, say perhaps, the NSA, that is alarming. Of course, Trump is not implicated but this is so obviously got his stamp of approval all over it.
57
@Jeff M-If it's true it's very cheesy. But even more so is Team Bezos--legal comprised of lawyers David Boie who paid Israeli investigators to dig up dirt on Harvey Weinsteins' victims, Jonathan Sherman who previously represented The National Enquirer's parent company AMI as it worked to squash negative stories about President Trump, and Martin Singer who represented Bill Cosby. Go figure. Team Bezos seems like Team Sleaze? I hope the former Mrs. Bezos gets lots of money from her settlement and support from the likes of chumplady.com to cushion her loss and the launch of her new life.
4
The Enquirer didn't learn any lessons from Gawker? Bezos' net worth is almost 100 times that of Peter Thiel. And Bezos can easily use the same playbook. I am sure to find people whose privacy that are invaded by the National Enquirer is much easier than those made claims against Gawker.
28
@Timothy
On top of hounding people, in their early days Gawker also made a practice of revealing celebrities personal info such as home addresses and phone numbers.
One of their targets was George Clooney, who made a brilliant move by turning their own practice on them by giving out their info. Not a word was spoken. They never bothered him again.
24
Sue them for blackmail and invasion of privacy. Find out how National Enquirer got the stuff. Get a judgment so big that only the Washington Post will be sold at the checkout counter.
128
Peckerwoods all, including Mr. Bezos.
5
@Mark N. your false equivalency is false, at least on this particular issue.
2
Occasionally, a Billionaire does a very good thing, for all of us. See: the Bill Gates Family. I am very impressed with Bezos, and anyone that doesn’t see the connection with the Washington Post, and it’s relentless exposure of Trump is willfully ignorant. Or a paid lackey/liar. Best wishes, SIR.
220
@Phyliss Dalmatian believe u are wrong about Bezos having undue influence on WaPo. People at this paper have too much integrity. Thank God for WaPo, NYTimes and all the strong, independent newspapers.
4
Mr. Bezos goes to Washington. And cleans out the Oval Office.
A headline to pray for, and I’m an atheist.
Seriously.
385
@Phyliss Dalmatian
Haha....God works in mysterious ways.
4
I think it will be interesting to watch these big guns shoot it out and see where it sticks.
10
Great Cover NYP!
21
This looks like a case of "follow the money." Who stands to gain blackmailing Jeff Bezos? How did his texts get into AMI's hands? Who funded this hit job?
Many apologies for saying this, but "enquiring minds want to know."
74
To me, the worst aspect of this story is that DJ Trump tweeted that a tabloid is a better source of information than the Washington Post.
And, of course, his "base" will believe him.
Yet more evidence that 'lil DJ Trump is incompetent.
74
What I want to know is, how in the world did AMI think that it could take on Jeff Bezos? Too funny.
198
I will never get tired of the comedic value add of the NYP headlines. Easily first ballot hall of fame headline on that one. Keep doing you, NYP...
20
New All-time No. 1 POST headline, and I've seen a lot of 'em.
28
If any one of the Class-F sycophants Trump has planted around him hacked this information and gave it to the Enquirer uh oh.
That violates the deal that the National Enquirer's parent company struck with Mueller and leaves them wide open to prosecution for assisting the president in campaign law violations.
Finally a billionaire I can love.
68
@Susan Murphy yeah, Bezos is unquestionably the good guy here, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. Amazon is still a piece of work in general.
14
So who is going to play Bezos on SNL this weekend?
(Rubs hands together like Mr. Burns...)
58
@Triple C Stanley Tucci?
2
I’m sure his children are proud.
5
@Jackson
Bezos' - On many levels. I bet his soon-to-be ex-wife is too.
Trump's children, certainly, but with no reason.
3
@Jackson wondering if he didn't at least discuss with estranged wife. I'm thinking his children are at least proud their dad took a stand to not be extorted, consequences be dam*.
2
If there is an upside to the Trump presidency, it is the near-death of the idea that you can threaten anyone with exposing their embarrassing but not clearly criminal behavior.
303
@Alan-Not so sure. As long as "Mr. Trump (can continue to) harness Twitter to spread lies and create new realities, and to harass journalists" -- Twitter's president and advertisers are essentially giving Trump a megaphone and a free pass.
26
@Alan
Near-death only applies to males who top the Forbes Richest People list. For everyone else, sexual extortion is alive and well.
7
I, for one, want to see how this affair unfolds. If indeed a government agency hacked into his personal account, we have a problem. It means the president can order his minions to go after anyone he doesn't like or who doesn't admire him. I do hope there is a serious inquiry.
124
@AV I'm guessing it wasn't a domestic agency. The Saudis have a documented history of activities like this, ironically using Israeli-developed software much of the time.
54
@Paul D, I agree. Given the relationship between Trump and the intelligence community, I can't imagine any of them helping him in this way.
It was probably aliens ...or Elvis.
12
Love the NY Post!
Also notable headlines from NY Post:
Casey Anthony: Not Guilty as Hell!
Anthony Weiner: Weiner's Rise and Fall
and my personal favorite...
Headless Body in Topless Bar
Keep up the stellar journalism!
25
Yup. The NYP even gives The Onion a little comedic competition.
2
Historical precedent: In a similar situation, the Duke of Wellington wrote to a would-be blackmailer "Publish and be damned."
42
Just goes to show -- money cannot buy class. The richest man in the world leaves his lovely, smart wife for a TV babe. And he does it while sending the latter penis pics and goofy texts. This Bezos fellow might know a lot about selling books, but he has maturity level of a 17-year-old.
20
@John Jabo, Sounds like the Bezo's separation was mutually agreeable and the new "babe" is roughly the same age and general appearance as the wife. Regardless of age, lust and good judgement are usually mutually exclusive. but in this case the Enquirer acquired the photos and then threatened to publish them, if Mr Bezos didn't back off from his own investigation into the initial expose. Extortion trumps immaturity.
38
@John Jabo,
I agree, except perhaps the level of maturity...12-year old?!
1
@John Jabo
A 17-year-old... that would put him about 15 years of maturity beyond the "president."
3
Real life comic book villains, Roger Stone, Donald Trump et al. coming up against real life comic book heroes, Jeff Bezos, Robert Mueller etc... Tune in tomorrow, same bat time, same bat channel.
120
@James please don't put Robert Mueller on same level as Jeff Bezos.
1
I am not surprised that Bezos took this action. He is a man of principle, and, to his full credit, he stood by it. The Gawker lawsuit gives him precedence for pursuing legal action and even potentially bankrupting AMI, which I hope happens. AMI is an immoral organization, and needs to go.
In any event, rumor has it that he has nothing to be ashamed about his endowments, financial or otherwise! Hats off to him.
88
@Dankar A man of principle? He cheated on his wife, hardly something a man of principle would do. What goes around comes around Mr. Bezos.
11
@Steven Gordon: And Trump has never done the same? Please hold Mr. Bone Spurs to the same standard.
6
@Steven Gordon
He not that great to his employees, even the ones at the Post.
3
The Bezos scandal is the definitive turning point downward of Trump's reign. Bezos will uncover high crimes by Trump, not to mention files of embarrassing information. In addition, Bezos will act as a catalyst and a help to the Mueller investigation.
This is all about Trump. He is the causative agent of Bezos' troubles. And it reveals just how dumb Trump is. Bezos is the world's richest man, with the equity to marshal his own private intelligence agency and an army of lawyers.
Bezos will not only strike back, he will obliterate the relatively penurious Trump and his family.
The National Enquirer blackmail was a surprise Pearl Harbor attack. Bezos response will be the detonation of an atomic bomb on Trump.
371
@Joe --- I doubt all that will actually happen, but it's fun to think about.
26
@Joe So our future depends on one billionaire fighting dirty with another (smaller) billionaire and winning?
Where does that leave democracy? Not in the hands of the non billionaires, I assure you.
Beware the man on a white horse even if he delivers your tchotchkes for “free”.
9
@Bruce
I like the nuclear destruction part.
Trump atomized.
13
You know what, given how many lives Jeff Bezos de facto controls, he probably doesn't deserve privacy. The only thing he's "winning" is completely selfish: the "right" to keep doing business as he's always done.
6
Pecker's in a pickle...Go Jeff Bezos! I'm renewing my prime this month, although there was never any doubt.
53
Bezos kicked up a ton of sand in the bullies' (who knows how many) faces.
Watching coverage I could only think...what a bunch of thugs and gangsters we have arm twisting, overt and covert threats to others and twitterfied insults hurled hither and yon.
Enough already. Bezos called their bluff. He had nothing to lose--and everything to gain.
(Though I'm sorry his current wife has had to endure all of this).
181
"He should use the opportunity to reflect on how he can lead the fight to protect everyone’s privacy and digital dignity"
Yes, you tell him, Kara. Weren't you the one that recently had to print his personal, private texts that were obviously obtained illegally? I guess you felt it was important that those who read the NYT and avoid gossip rags like the National Enquirer should become voyeurs in someone's private affairs.
14
Ha. That New York Post headline is Daily News caliber.
8
Can't wait for the Enquirer to try to publish the photos now. Mr. Bezos might cop a line from Clint Eastwood: "Go ahead, make my day."
495
I'm not a fan of Amazon but glad to see Mr Bezos standing up to this. Go ahead and roll over the log and see what crawls out!
135
What are being referred to as puns in this story are not puns. Mr. Shortz will agree with me that they are at best double meanings.
8
It seems that tactics like extortion and "catch and kill" are just business as usual for AMI. But they suffered from a total lack of imagination for not realizing that the richest man in the world might be a poor choice of enemy.
Bezos has his shortcomings, but I'm rooting hard for him in this case. If AMI did (as it appears) commit extortion (a federal crime), then that would nullify its non-prosecution status in the Michael Cohen illegal-use-of-campaign-funds case. I hope when this sordid chapter is over, Bezos's allegations against AMI are all proven true, AMI goes bankrupt, The National Enquirer is shuttered, all connections to Trump are exposed, and all guilty parties end up poor and in prison.
468
@D Price-Trump sought to buy decades of dirt the National Enquirer had on him. Trump and his former personal attorney Michael Cohen devised a plan to purchase potentially damaging stories the National Enquirer and its parent company AMI had collected on him since the 1980s. Hopefully, Bezos will expose all of these files too!
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/30/nyregion/trump-cohen-national-enquirer-american-media-recording.html
24
If I was AMI I would be laying very low after that immunity deal.
It seems like they just couldn't help themselves -they'veapparently been shaking people down for along time.
71
It's a pay-to-play game. As a richest men in earth, Bezos failed to pay, just show how cheap he is.
1
@Elaine
What you call cheap, I call principles, he refused to play under these terms!
3
@Elaine: What on earth are you talking about?
2
@Elaine Wow,so you are OK with criminal blackmail, extortion and invasion of privacy. Too bad your favorite source for the news won’t be around much longer. Mr. Bezos didn’t make his money by paying attention to criminal cowards and fools. He’s getting mad and he is getting more than even.
Obviously you are one of those who would have no complaints if Trump shot somebody on Fifth Ave.
2
The National Enquirer and its ilk have always been trash. In my mind they became subversive when, for the only time in my memory, they began running positive and supportive headlines instead of the usual scandalous teasers. And who were they supporting? Who did they have sympathy for? Whose enemies did they attack? Trump's and Trump's family's. At that point they shifted from ignorable mindless entertainment for the unsophisticated and they became vehicles of propaganda.
Anyone who does not believe that these hits on Bezos are not malicious and being carried out for Trump (at his request or not) is naive.
162
@arusso National Enquirer is now competing with Murdoch's fox news.
3
I remember reading that AMI received a protection against prosecution if it (1) cooperated with SDNY regarding trumps campaign finance issues as related by Michael Cohen. And (2) it ceased doing anything illeagal for the next three years. If AMI broke this agreement, it would be open to any and all prosecution on all of the charges regarding the violation of and conspiracy to violate campaign finance laws.
My sense is that threatening extortion and resorting to blackmail violates that protection against prosecution agreement.
Go get them, SDNY
305
@FDNYMom
BINGO !!!
28
@FDNYMom
Lock them up, Trump and his BFF Pecker both dressed in orange suits. Now that would be lovely.
8
You have to give the Esquire points for never missing an opportunity to employ double entendre headlines - reminding me of the old "Variety" type.
3
Apparently, Bezos has nothing to be ashamed of in the pictures if they come to light...American Media way overplayed their weak hand.
21
Bezos in no hero: He can afford the fight. But he's got it right: when someone tries to hurt you by humiliation, make them eat it.
59
I will never understand why good ole capitalists disdain Bezos so much. I thought all they cared about was winning at all costs.
7
Thanks for sharing the NY POST headline.
Best of the Year!
16
Given how Bezo's newspaper often brings to light Trump's corruption and lies, and given Trump's thin skin and publicly stated desire to use the FBI and other government agencies to attack his political critics, I wonder if anyone is looking into a Trump connection to Bezo's investigators thinking that "he could have been hacked by a government agency"?
45
@DaDa I hope they catch trump on this one. This is a serious crime and added to the rest of his serious crimes this might be the end. Make America Great Again...of course it always was.
8
Golly - and I just ordered my first doo-dad from Amazon - here in Australia - yesterday !
7
As a former anti-bullying volunteer working with high school and elementary school students - the rock and the hard place with responding to bullying is, if a target responds to a bully, the bully will say "oh what's the matter with you, why are you getting so upset - chill, loser." But if they don't respond to the bully, then they look wimpy or weak - and the bully broadcasts out their victory to everybody for a good laugh.
So, on behalf if all of the kids who face bullies ever day, THANK YOU, Jeff Bezos, for flipping that script on its ear - showing that we should gather ammunition, shout it out, and, most of all, make it clear to the whole world that it's the bully who's the weakling!
111
The Enquirer is a trashy tabloid which has in the past traded on politics to draw people into their lurid stories.They always make terrible decisions but this time they made one which may come to bite them.When they chose to involve Bezos , they chose the wrong victim.Bezos has the means to fight back- thank you, Mr.Bezos-and now the spotlight will be on the Enquirer to explain how they acquire damaging material.Incidentally, I find no humor in the revelations about Mr.Bezos.It is sad that his marriage ended and it must be difficult for the couple’s four children to live through all this public scrutiny.Amazon and his vision as its CEO is interesting-the interest in the rest of his life is an intrusion into his privacy-a privacy that we all cherish.
52
Not long ago we were all looking at images of a young man and a Native American drummer on the National Mall. As the cameras moved out and more perspectives were offered some of us changed our tune.
Today, mr. Bezos looks like a hero, I hope that impression lasts the test of time.
11
I don't feel guilty about having an Amazon Prime account anymore.
Jeff Bezos may be able to expose the corruption at the bottom of our national debacle a lot faster than Mueller, and he has the money to do it.
Thank you, Jeff.
258
@Beth Cioffoletti I have always appreciated my Amazon account. It lets me designate a charity that will receive a small donation when I make a purchase. I named my college, and while the donations aen’t much I am a firm believer that every penny counts. I appreciate the opportunity that Amazon gives me to make these donations.
21
@Bashh, Ditto. My Amazon smile account supports Doctors without borders, and I use Amazon enough that my contribution has value.
23
@michaeltide
Mine, too!
4
Bravo Jeff!! Game well played.
I see you very differently know.
Thanks for standing up against the evil corruption of the yellow press whose underlying mode has always been the same.
It's about time. Our privacy is under attack and has been greatly subverted by the net and the media's thirst for dirt.
We the people appreciate your courage and candor, Mr. Bezos.
121
@Discernie Now if Jeff could just do the same with Fox Noise the country would be in a better place.
2
A hero finally emerges .
Makes me feel like a kid again , back when we had movies where the fearless Hero went after the bad guys .
Thank you , Mr. Bezos
170
I wonder if anyone has filed an ethics complaint against AMI's attorney, Jon P. Fine with the New York State Office of Court Administration over this matter.
Well, well. With a little digging it turns out Jon Peter Fine was previously suspended by the New York Courts for over 6 years from 1998 to 2004. That is a very long time for an attorney to be suspended as a disciplinary matter which raises a question as to the seriousness of his underlying transgression. What was the discipline for? If it was for the perpetration of a crime then one has to wonder if Fine possesses the requisite moral character and fitness to continue practicing law.
260
His email, if authentic, seems like a hypothetical from my first year of law school. “Students, what behavior constitutes extortion?”
70
@flyfysher As a lawyer, this was also my first reaction when I read the email from AMI's attorney, Jon Fine,to Bezos's attorney. It was so far over the line Fine will be lucky if all he loses is his bar license, rather than his freedom.
18
“Mr. Bezos clearly is winning here. He should use the opportunity to reflect on how he can lead the fight to protect everyone’s privacy and digital dignity, even as he takes back his own”
Methinks a good place to start is for Bezos to follow AOC down the Green New Deal River. Amazon ain’t the only estuary in town these days.
17
Good contender, but I think "Headless Body in Topless Bar" is still the all-time champ among New York Post headlines.
It's going to be an interesting fight. I suspect there will be more creative headlines coming in the next few weeks.
31
@The View From
Perhaps. but I took one look at it this morning, laughed, and thought it's a close second at least.
7
@The View From
Totally agree on the number 1 headline never losing that spot. I do think this one beats "Huma Cuts off Weiner" though which I had as second.
13
Kudos to Bezos, his Medium piece, and for turning the tables on Pecker's sleazeball enterprise. Of course, as a 'person of means', he can pursue *how* AMI obtained his data to a far greater extent than the average citizen could ever afford. And he seems also to appreciate this, writing, "If in my position I can’t stand up to this kind of extortion, how many people can?"
And if his search ultimately detects an orange slime trail, well, I hope he will reveal its origin. After all, enquiring minds want to know.
540
@Rolf Arvidson
Love your last paragraph. "Orange slime trail" is priceless.
And, yes, I'm sure you're not the only one who thinks this is likely traceable back to a certain Very Smart Person.
4
@Rolf Arvidson Anyone, of any means, can say "no" to blackmail by simply letting it all hang out.
1
@Rolf Arvidson Loved your pun.
3
The key take-away from all of this is that big data represents both a opportunity AND a threat.
(full disclosure: I work in big data in the healthcare field).
One thing we should learn after this episode speaks to how the internet is currently structured. We are creating vast data repositories, which immediately become targets. Hackers of all kinds - private, corporate, malign government - will seek these troves out so they can be exploited in ways we did not intend, and would not approve. Even non-malicious data loss can be a huge headache, as anyone who loses an iCloud login can attest.
I know a lot of people say they don't care if someone gets the information on their phones or computers. You may think that your INDIVIDUAL privacy isn't all that important, but what if it elects Donald Trump?
I'm not saying it's a direct cause, look at what happened: Americans declined to care about their data privacy, IT experts in business and government declined to care about security. And adversaries used these things against us.
We need, as Americans, to care about privacy and security of our data on our electronics and our networks. We have not seen massive bank theft (although the future remains open) but our laziness has already come back to bite us in innumerable ways. It will keep happening until we get serious.
My personal opinion is that data in this quality and quantity should not be collected in the first place. It will always be a honeypot.
64
He should also use this opportunity to challenge the very existence of Tabloid publications, Ms. Swisher.
What service do they provide beyond destroying lives?
Even if those images were obtained legally, why does the law permit companies to profit from someone's personal pain. I don't get the state's complicity.
105
@Helina You would need to be much clearer with your assertion. It sounds like you're saying one or more laws are being broken consistently by virtue of the existence and operation of tabloids. What law or laws are being broken? To say something should be destroyed because it doesn't not provide a service you deem positive is pretty dangerous.
9
Helina,
In these United Stares, we have protection of free speech, in our first amendment. What speech protections do you enjoy in Lala land?
The New York Times is running a front page photo of a New York Post for its headline coverage of the owner of the Washington Post defending himself against the National Enquirer. It's better than greased pig wrassling' at the State Fair. Jeff Bezos is pig wrestling for all the rest of us, and his willingness to get dirty to is the best thing that's happened this year.
Thank you, Mr. Bezos.
1370
@Vanessa Hall
This is the best comment! It made me laugh but it is so spot on. AM is delusional if they think anyone will believe this is not politically motived. Go Mr. Bezos!
158
@Vanessa Hall I did not laugh out loud, I guffawed.
76
@Vanessa Hall This is a truly excellent comment. Thank you!
56
I thought very highly of Bezos.
Then he did something that dropped him off that pedestal. (Call me old -fashioned, but cheating on your spouse is unacceptable from anyone and under any circumstances.)
Now, he is on his way to redemption (in my book).
Brave soul.
117
@AP917
Hope you're not a Trump fan because I have some very bad news for you.
2
Yet again I am thunderstruck by why, WHY do people need to take these kinds of pictures of themselves and/or their lovers? Won't they ever learn that if pictures exist, especially if transmitted over the internet, sooner or later, someone else is going to get hold of them?
265
@Martha Goff I'm not sure he took these pictures. cNN reports that probably the brother of his girlfriend took them or had them rigged in the bedroom. They also report that the National Enquirer has been tracking Bezo for the last 4 months looking for this kind of dirt.
50
@Martha Goff
If you're older or in an LTR you would be shocked at how the dating world has changed. I was married in '84 and thus left that world at that time. Then, I was widow(er)ed 6 years ago and later started dating again.
What people ask prospective dates via Match or OK Cupid would make you blush.
In the 70's and 80's we thought we were sexually liberated. Hah! We were a bunch of prudes!
Some of the changes are great, lots less embarrassment and shame, and it's easy to tell your partner what you want.
But some of the changes are crass, and technology both pushes people apart and brings them together.
Change is, well, change.
37
That risk is part of the thrill.
7
"He should use the opportunity to reflect on how he can lead the fight to protect everyone’s privacy and digital dignity, even as he takes back his own."
Really? Too late; that horse has left the barn.
Add "cyber" as a fluid to air, water, and liquid. There is no containing it. You might possibly erect a barrier but those break, just as a cyber "cloud" or "firewall" can be breached.
I lead a life of a poor and obscure so nobody would be interested in my "privates" and private life. I have to trust that my online financial transactions and passwords with my person credit union account will not be breached.
Every moment, however, I live with a vague unease that my turn will come and my meager accounts are cleaned out by a cyber thief.
That's the new world we live in. I don't like it, but I have to accept it. Again, there is no going back.
24
Electronic data is manmade. Don’t lose hope in the right to declare that this intrusion of the home and individual is illegitimate. Society can choose to categorically reject something whenever it chooses to. The people have the power or the government is illegitimate, period. There are other states and stateless entities without clean hands. We should reject all of this. I am tired of letting fear justify infringement, and then getting a fearful society anyway. Don’t let the terrorists win, remember?
14
@Jung and Easily Freudened I just have to say that your user name is the BEST and most clever I have seen yet!
14
@Ryan Swanzey
paraphrasing Ben Franklin "any society that violates its liberties for the sake of security, deserves neither"
3
The National Inquirer has hurt innocent famous people for years, by telling often in accurate stories about them and showing doctored photographs as "proof." Usually only very wealthy celebrities can take revenge throught the courts because the battle is expensive and the outcome unsure.
I am delighted that Bezos has taken on this scourge of journalism. I was delighted when Bezos saved the floundering Washington Post and has allowed it to operate so independently editorially.
Bezos may be big enough to even take down Trump. The game is on. I'm a big user of Amazon Prime and I'll keep it up to show support for Mr. Bezos!
I thought what the National Inquirer did to Mrs. Bezos was horrible - I can't imagine the pain it caused her and their children. This is nothing except a dirty political war. For once, Trump and AMI Owner bit off more than they can probably chew. Both are rich men, but they are nothing compared with Jeff Bezos - and now they know that Mr. Bezos is fearless and has a very good memory.
1017
@San Francisco Voter As an editor who worked in the tabloid trade back in the '70s my experience is captured in a single phrase: Never let the facts get in way of a good story.
52
@Sam Bufalini
I have been assuming the Enquirer probably has a meeting every week to strategize about how much they can lie without getting sued. Do you think so?
I remember in 2016 they ran a front page story about Hillary Clinton saying she weighed almost 300 pounds. They also claimed she weighed 180 when she left the White House in 2000. I thought, "that can't be true." But I think they calculated that it would be below her dignity to refute it, and since fat shaming is such a big thing in American society, Trump supporters would like it and buy the issue.
46
@Ted Gemberling-Far worse: The National Enquirer and its sister publication the Globe ran 35 negative covers with fake stories slamming Hilary Clinton. Shocking headlines pitched to distort Clinton's record and disgust voters.
https://qz.com/1369399/david-peckers-national-enquirer-ami-trashed-hillary-clinton-to-help-trump/
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/12/national-inquirer-helped-trump-attacking-clinton/578116/
53
It's a bit sad that after all the Enquirer has done in the past that it finally takes this to see some... progress.
It's worth reading Jeff Bezo's Medium post and seeing the connections he makes between Jamal Khashoggi, Saudi Arabia, Trump and the Washington Post.
322
@Studioroom...I found it, read it and OMG! IMHO, Bezos' photos are nothing these days. Who cares? He doesn't. It will be so much fun to see him kick Pecker's behinder.
1
Great that the richest man in the world has "the means" to take on TNE when other journalists who allege they were victims, didn't have "the means" to challenge TNE.
32
Bezos has as much right to privacy as any American, as much as I do, as much as Trump does. I didn’t care about Trump’s dalliances, and I don’t care about his. Men are...silly boys. But clearly someone in the White House does, and that’s the very curious point. Why? Somehow I think it’s this tangential aspect that’s going to sink Trump and not the Mueller investigation, and that is good enough for me.
Bezos: I’d donate to the cause, but you don’t need the money. You have my support, though. Bring Trump to his knees. Thank you!
Sincerely,
Prime member #13,336,975
668
@Pietro Allar
"I didn’t care about Trump’s dalliances, and I don’t care about his. "
This is a bit off topic but I want to mention that Trump's extracirricular activities are only an issue in that he lied about nearly everything about them. He sought to bury them, He denied having them. In addition the mostly evangelical holier-than-thou base, in their near infinite capacity for hypocrisy, chose to ignore his amoral behavior. These are the issues, not what he does with his genetalia on his days off.
158
@Pietro Allar "clearly someone in the White House [cares], and that’s the very curious point. Why?"
A: Trump has a serious personal feud with Bezos for numerous reasons: www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/04/trump-war-with-amazon-and-the-washington-post-is-personal
and,
www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jun/17/donald-trump-jeff-bezos-amazon-washington-post-power-money
1
Funniest headline ever! Never thought I would see that! And it's all true!
(Huge laughing cat emoji here!)
87
@Chris Morris
And they can't even censor it! Ha!
3
@Chris Morris You can't make this stuff up, lol!
3
Bezos is my new hero!
114
Good for Bezos (and really, who cares about his lewd photos). The Enquirer needs to be put down.
637
I agree, yoloswag. One thing I do to help it along is turn the rags to the back page when I'm waiting in line in retail stores like WalMart, Safeway and other stores who continue to put this hate-rag in front of unassuming customers.
Most people do not understand "subliminal" advertising. It is when one is exposed to a "message" that causes them to unconsciously make decisions.
The hate rag managed to seriously help The Con Don destroy Ms. Hillary Rodham Clinton with all the horrid photos and false information they printed.
Do NOT buy their publication. Turn them around so the back cover shows. Tell your store manager to get them out of the check stand area. Take away their corrupt, hateful power.
It will make you feel GREAT!
74
@yoloswag
Hope Bezos annihilates AMI and the Pecker.
13
"Put down" as in a snarky putdown? Or "put down" as in "We had to put down old Fido today"?
Either way is good.
5
Thank you, Bezos!
112
Not always a fan, Jeff Bezos, but today, thank you.
I wonder which is the worser sort of person here? The kind of person who did something shameful that they're afraid of being made public? Or the sort of person who threatens to publicly-reveal those shameful things if you don't do as I say?
Just how many non-disclosure agreements does AMI hold? Enquiring minds want to know.
228
@Rebecca
"Just how many non-disclosure agreements does AMI hold?"
And how many involve Trump?
I cannot WAIT for this to hit the courts.
110
@Rebecca
I think most human beings, except maybe some nuns, have something "shameful", or at least embarrassing, in their pasts. The fact that AMI goes after not only tabloid stars but just everyday Americans (OK, Bezos isn't "everyday" but he's not a newshound like the Trumps or the Kardashians) is despicable. Bezos's sex life is not in any way newsworthy nor should it be fodder for extortion. Go Jeff! Fight the good fight on behalf of all of us who still believe in privacy and societal norms.
13
The late-night hosts are going to have a great time with this one.
38
It's disconcerting to learn that one of our leading technologists and innovators cannot protect his personal privacy. The National Enquirer's conduct is disgusting. But those of us who use Amazon -- or any Internet platform -- have no billions to combat invasion of our own privacy.
128
@Richard
Unfotunately, "one of our leading technologists and innovators" didn't have the sense NOT to text or email naked crotch shots to his girlfriend. Anyone older than 15 should anticipate such photos will, somehow, work their way into the public realm. That said, good for Bezos for standing up, owning his idiocy, and fighting back against obvious blackmail and extortion. I hope he sues, in addition to the SDNY revoking their agreement with AMI.
5
If nothing else, joins the pantheon of the great tabloid headlines of all time.
690
@Sharon C Right up there with "Headless Body in Topless Bar."
6
OMG you MUST be referring to the NYP circ. 1983:
Headless Body
In Topless Bar
6
"He should use the opportunity to reflect on how he can lead the fight to protect everyone’s privacy and digital dignity, even as he takes back his own."
Yup, he should. Will he? I doubt it.
Amazon's growth is due to the data it gleans from its customers (and vendors), and it constantly finds new ways to use this information to capture market share and enter (and dominate) new businesses.
It has a vested interest in pushing back against any attempts to shield the privacy of its users. And I don't imagine Bezos has suddenly gotten religion from his own run-in with exposure.
23
@Elizabeth A Exactly. "Privacy for me, but not for thee."
6
Kudos to Bezos!
193
Nobody should risk putting anything on the internet or social media that they would be unwilling for the entire world to see.
Because, at some point in the future, the whole world may see it.
That's been my 'rule of thumb' for the past 23 years.
Or am I missing something here?
32
@Kenneth Johnson You're missing something here. I think that's good advice but that doesn't really take into account things put on the internet without one's knowledge. Most of us live in a digital society. All of our communications are digital and vulnerable, more so if you have a large target on your back. So yes there are things we can do to mitigate our exposure, but the problem is that the infrastructure itself is insecure.
34
@Kenneth Johnson
How does that justify blackmail?
1
I never thought I'd be rooting for a billionaire (richest man in the world) to win anything, but so glad Mr. Bezos did what he did. Did AMI not realize he's the richest man in the world before they threatened him? He isn't a public servant so frankly, I don't care what he does or with whom as long as its legal.
852
@Tentative I don't care even if he is a public servant, as long as it's consensual and legal. I do care that yet another person has proven himself to be such a moron as to take a photo of his intimate parts -- and then send them electronically. A CHILD could have told him that was a bad idea.
80
@Sarah
Not sure why you would "care" about this...yes, it may be foolish to do this, but he is an adult and is responsible for his actions, but should not be blackmailed for it, by a Trump-supporting rag...and none of us should 'care", if we were not in the photos...
52
I disagree that a child could have told you that it’s a bad idea to send a sexual picture of yourself online. Some kids bully the kid who took it once they have one to hang over their head. Some of those kids are so ashamed of themselves and their bodies that they commit suicide. It’s a horrible thing to do to a person to shame them into not wanting to live anymore.
39
Given the logistical operations and computer wizardry resources that Mr. Bezos controls, I would be surprised if he doesn't already know exactly what happened and is now just baiting the trap.
405
@rbjd Oh, I like it....
2
@rbjd - I also believe you are correct. Wait until the Feds raid Pecker's home and the AMI offices within a week.
2
Make no mistake, we are ONLY talking about this scenario, because a robber baron didn't like the ''coverage'' he was getting, and decided to use his means to change that perception.
I don't particularly consider one side or the other heroic, because one good deed does not cancel out all other bad deeds. (union crushing as an example)
If I owned a newspaper, and had carte blanche for editorial means, then I would immediately create a column that every week took up the cause of other people that have been bullied, may be in some limiting NDA, and do not have access to barrels and barrels of digital ink.
Just a thought.
43
@FunkyIrishman
Dear FunkyIrishman,
Well said. If you have all the money you can create your own reality...up to a point. Mr. Bezos is not my hero, but neither is Mr. Pecker. They are both greedy men rolling in a slime pit of their own creation. Reality but very disgusting.
2