"I think their [Pecker and AMI] last concern was their readers. It was more a front for generating cash to continue to build their empire. [...] It’s a company that is motivated by greed."
[...]
[G]oing back to whenever Pecker took over, the late ’90s, suddenly we stopped reporting negative stories on Donald Trump, and there were many! In the old days, Trump was good copy. His foibles, his divorces, his romances, his sexual escapades ― and then all that stopped.
We would aggressively cover Trump through the ’90s, which brings us to the end of the marriage to ― who’s the wife who was the beauty queen? [...] Marla Maples. We chased that storyline like demons. It was a great story! And they ultimately married, and then David Pecker came in and all of a sudden any negative stories on Donald Trump [were quashed]. Story leads were submitted and quickly declined. It became obvious he wore the editors down. It was not verbalized on my level, but it was obvious that his mission was to sanitize Donald Trump’s image because he had political ambitions.
[...]
I think David Pecker fancied himself Donald Trump’s sidekick. They were brothers of a sort. Neither of them have ever really been accepted by polite society. They had a lot in common that way. They were the social underdogs that just missed the mark as far as society went, and an alliance was formed. [...] It became clear in the ensuing pages that [Pecker] only wanted puff pieces done on his friend Donald Trump. [...] If Trump was referred to as a billionaire, the fix would come back: “multi-billionaire.” It was all blowing smoke [...] To make him seem grander.
[...]
How many potential Trump-related stories were killed in your time once Pecker was there?
I would say 10. [...] And hundreds of story leads that were never approved, that would come in and we just wouldn’t explore. [...] It makes no sense to pay in advance. You never want to pay [for a tip] until publication, so that you’re assured you get your money’s worth. If you pay in advance, that is suspicious. [...] [I]t is obviously to keep a story off the market.
[...]
Every story was run by Trump’s attorney, which it turns out was Cohen, or by reps with his organization. [...] They were given not only copy approval and headline approval and photo approval, but they would actually be sent pages, covers to show how the story was displayed and if they didn’t like the photo or the headline or the prominence, they had input, and it was always acted on.
[...]
[Trump] always talked about running for president, but no one believed it would ever be possible. Looking back now, it became possible because of the assistance of at least this organization. It certainly didn’t hurt to have the most dominant presence on the supermarket rack in his pocket.
[...]
I think that for years the editorial board of American Media has been talking down to its readership and certainly it included the Trump base as part of their readership, but it’s becoming more and more obvious how corrupt this administration is and I think ultimately the readers are going to turn on them.
[...]
American Media obviously is squirming. They’re in the hot seat now and everybody is on to them. You saw the publication of McDougal that was featured in Men’s Journal? I’d love to see the numbers on that sale. They’re still complying, albeit hesitantly, but everybody is on to them now. It’s all happening.
I knew Dylan [Howard]. I thought Dylan was a gentleman. My dealings with him were always fine. I have no axe to grind, but it’s clear that as he gained traction with the company, he embraced the company line, which was protect Donald Trump above all else.
No comments:
Post a Comment