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Chicago Tribune: who ELSE has the National Enquirer been blackmailing?
Link to tweet
Rex Huppke
✔
@RexHuppke
Pause a moment and consider the way Jeff Bezos was being threatened. Now envision what Trump’s pal at the National Enquirer has on Ted Cruz, and ask yourself why Cruz went from hating Trump to loving him. Now do the same thing for Lindsey Graham. And all those Evangelicals. 😈
✔
@RexHuppke
Pause a moment and consider the way Jeff Bezos was being threatened. Now envision what Trump’s pal at the National Enquirer has on Ted Cruz, and ask yourself why Cruz went from hating Trump to loving him. Now do the same thing for Lindsey Graham. And all those Evangelicals. 😈
26 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
It wouldn’t be bad at all! 
Pandora's Box
I mean safe that Pecker has tucked away? Is that where all orangeanus' kompromat on the repubs is stashed?
This will get ugly in a hurry.
Jeff Bezos accuses National Enquirer owner of 'extortion and blackmail'
Amazon chief alleges tabloid threatened to publish nude images of him
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/feb/07/jeff-bezos-national-enquirer-blogpost-blackmail-claim
(snips)
I hope Bezos puts AMI in the trash bin, where all their papers belong. Never dreamed someone would finally stand up to one of these tabloids. It's now time someone did the same to one of Murdoch's rags, but more powerful than the phone hacking scam.......
Amazon chief alleges tabloid threatened to publish nude images of him
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/feb/07/jeff-bezos-national-enquirer-blogpost-blackmail-claim
(snips)
Bezos, who is the world’s richest man and owns the Washington Post, became the subject of tabloid papers in January after he and his wife, MacKenzie, announced they were divorcing. Shortly after, the National Enquirer published “intimate text messages” revealing Bezos’s relationship with Lauren Sánchez, a former TV anchor.
Bezos wrote in a Medium blogpost that he employed the private security consultant Gavin de Becker “to determine the motives for the many unusual actions taken by the Enquirer”, which is published by American Media Inc (AMI).
Bezos said an “AMI leader” subsequently told him that David Pecker, the chief executive of AMI, was “apoplectic” about the private investigation.
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In the blogpost, titled “No thank you, Mr Pecker”, Bezos accused AMI of telling him “they had more of my text messages and photos that they would publish if we didn’t stop our investigation”.
Bezos said his ownership of the Washington Post was a “complexifier” because it had made him the enemy of people including Donald Trump, who has frequently targeted him. Pecker is a longtime confidant of the president.
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According to Bezos, AMI’s chief content officer, Dylan Howard, emailed threats to Bezos’s lawyer, Martin Singer, allegedly writing: “ In the interests of expediating [sic] this situation, and with The Washington Post poised to publish unsubstantiated rumors of The National Enquirer’s initial report, I wanted to describe to you the photos obtained during our newsgathering.”
The email, which Bezos published in full, but with personal information redacted, said the Enquirer had obtained a “below the belt selfie – otherwise colloquially known as a ‘d*ck pick’” as well as nine other images.
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Bezos wrote on Thursday: “Rather than capitulate to extortion and blackmail, I’ve decided to publish exactly what they sent me, despite the personal cost and embarrassment they threaten. “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?”
Bezos wrote in a Medium blogpost that he employed the private security consultant Gavin de Becker “to determine the motives for the many unusual actions taken by the Enquirer”, which is published by American Media Inc (AMI).
Bezos said an “AMI leader” subsequently told him that David Pecker, the chief executive of AMI, was “apoplectic” about the private investigation.
------
In the blogpost, titled “No thank you, Mr Pecker”, Bezos accused AMI of telling him “they had more of my text messages and photos that they would publish if we didn’t stop our investigation”.
Bezos said his ownership of the Washington Post was a “complexifier” because it had made him the enemy of people including Donald Trump, who has frequently targeted him. Pecker is a longtime confidant of the president.
---------
According to Bezos, AMI’s chief content officer, Dylan Howard, emailed threats to Bezos’s lawyer, Martin Singer, allegedly writing: “ In the interests of expediating [sic] this situation, and with The Washington Post poised to publish unsubstantiated rumors of The National Enquirer’s initial report, I wanted to describe to you the photos obtained during our newsgathering.”
The email, which Bezos published in full, but with personal information redacted, said the Enquirer had obtained a “below the belt selfie – otherwise colloquially known as a ‘d*ck pick’” as well as nine other images.
------------
Bezos wrote on Thursday: “Rather than capitulate to extortion and blackmail, I’ve decided to publish exactly what they sent me, despite the personal cost and embarrassment they threaten. “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?”
I hope Bezos puts AMI in the trash bin, where all their papers belong. Never dreamed someone would finally stand up to one of these tabloids. It's now time someone did the same to one of Murdoch's rags, but more powerful than the phone hacking scam.......
