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The tabloids and Trump: A love for the pages
That's the print title. From Tuesday's (January 17) WaPo, the Style section. I found it by searching Paul Farhi's Twitter feed. There's a reason I link to those.
The most glowing stories about Trump run in tabloid media. Why the romance?
By Paul Farhi January 16
@farhip
Donald Trump’s relationship with the reporters who cover him has often been testy. But not all the news coverage of the president-elect has been contentious or critical of late. Take, example, this splashy recent headline: “Tiger Woods: Donald Trump Crushed It at Golf.” .... All three stories came from the same source: TMZ.com, the popular celebrity-gossip website. TMZ normally specializes in scoops about people named Kardashian, but for several weeks, it has been a reliably Trump-friendly zone. Its stories have ranged from Woods’s favorable assessment of the president-elect’s tee shots to glowing reports about Trump’s plans for inaugural parties.
The website’s founder, Harvey Levin, also interviewed Trump for a one-hour special on Fox News in November. The program consisted of Levin and Trump walking around his Trump Tower apartment, with Trump describing the stories behind various objects. One reviewer called it “the puff piece to end all puff pieces.” ... There’s a bit of that going around.
For all his complaints about the news media, Trump has been able to count on the support of at least one segment of it: the tabloids. Old-school tabs like the National Enquirer as well as newfangled ones like TMZ, RadarOnline and DailyMail.com have offered a news diet rich in Trump calories. The tabloids have played both offense and defense on behalf of their man: When they aren’t fawning over his wealth and family, they’re defending him in his many scrapes and controversies.
....
The Enquirer — whose stories helped end the political careers of John Edwards and Gary Hart — has had perhaps the most torrid and flagrant affair with Trump. The relationship purportedly stems from Trump’s long friendship with David Pecker, the chief executive of the Enquirer’s publisher, American Media Inc. (AMI). .... Not surprisingly, AMI’s other tabloid publications — RadarOnline, the Globe and Ok! magazine — have been in the president-elect’s corner, too. .... Martin Clarke, the DailyMail.com’s publisher and editor in chief, said in an interview that his website takes a different editorial tack from its British parent, which is overtly center-right.
By Paul Farhi January 16
@farhip
Donald Trump’s relationship with the reporters who cover him has often been testy. But not all the news coverage of the president-elect has been contentious or critical of late. Take, example, this splashy recent headline: “Tiger Woods: Donald Trump Crushed It at Golf.” .... All three stories came from the same source: TMZ.com, the popular celebrity-gossip website. TMZ normally specializes in scoops about people named Kardashian, but for several weeks, it has been a reliably Trump-friendly zone. Its stories have ranged from Woods’s favorable assessment of the president-elect’s tee shots to glowing reports about Trump’s plans for inaugural parties.
The website’s founder, Harvey Levin, also interviewed Trump for a one-hour special on Fox News in November. The program consisted of Levin and Trump walking around his Trump Tower apartment, with Trump describing the stories behind various objects. One reviewer called it “the puff piece to end all puff pieces.” ... There’s a bit of that going around.
For all his complaints about the news media, Trump has been able to count on the support of at least one segment of it: the tabloids. Old-school tabs like the National Enquirer as well as newfangled ones like TMZ, RadarOnline and DailyMail.com have offered a news diet rich in Trump calories. The tabloids have played both offense and defense on behalf of their man: When they aren’t fawning over his wealth and family, they’re defending him in his many scrapes and controversies.
....
The Enquirer — whose stories helped end the political careers of John Edwards and Gary Hart — has had perhaps the most torrid and flagrant affair with Trump. The relationship purportedly stems from Trump’s long friendship with David Pecker, the chief executive of the Enquirer’s publisher, American Media Inc. (AMI). .... Not surprisingly, AMI’s other tabloid publications — RadarOnline, the Globe and Ok! magazine — have been in the president-elect’s corner, too. .... Martin Clarke, the DailyMail.com’s publisher and editor in chief, said in an interview that his website takes a different editorial tack from its British parent, which is overtly center-right.
