Inside the Enquirer

[Jerry George worked] at the Enquirer and its parent company, AMI, for 28 years, earning the titles of senior editor and West Coast bureau chief before eventually leaving the company in 2013.

The Enquirer changed dramatically when Pecker was named chairman and chief executive of AMI [in the late 1990s]. A well-resourced, gleefully lowbrow gossip rag became, in George’s telling, a spare operation that at times acted as a protection racket for certain favorite celebrities — especially Donald Trump, Pecker’s close “personal friend.”


[...]

Prosecutors in the Cohen case claimed that Cohen and Pecker struck an agreement in 2015 to “deal with negative stories” about Trump, two months after he announced his candidacy for president. But George said AMI had already become the “official organ” of Trump long before that.
  HuffPo

Perfect descriptor, considering how they screwed so many people.

George spoke with HuffPost this week about Pecker, the evolution of the Enquirer and the role it played in reshaping Trump’s image (AMI did not respond to requests for comment by phone and email.)

A transcript of the interview, edited and condensed, is below.

Some highlights:

"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.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Tightening the noose

The National Enquirer kept a safe containing documents on hush money payments and other damaging stories it killed as part of its cozy relationship with Donald Trump leading up to the 2016 presidential election, people familiar with the arrangement told The Associated Press.

[...]

Five people familiar with the National Enquirer’s parent company, American Media Inc., who spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity because they signed non-disclosure agreements, said the safe was a great source of power for [David] Pecker, the company’s CEO.

  AP News

The guy who we just found out got an immunity deal from investigators to testify in the Cohen investigation. May have some impact on why Cohen turned himself in and pled guilty without a trial.

But after The Wall Street Journal initially published the first details of Playboy model Karen McDougal’s catch-and-kill deal shortly before the 2016 election, those assets became a liability. Fearful that the documents might be used against American Media, Pecker and the company’s chief content officer, Dylan Howard, removed them from the safe in the weeks before Trump’s inauguration, according to one person directly familiar with the events.

It was unclear whether the documents were destroyed or simply were moved to a location known to fewer people.

It just occurs to me (reminded of the Cohen/Trump tape by this article) that Pecker may have been happy to make a deal for immunity upon finding out about the tape where Cohen suggests buying McDougal's story from the Enquirer because you never know what might happen, and Trump says "David [Pecker] gets hit by a truck..." One might surmise he's suggesting such an accident, and Pecker's chances might be better if he gave his secret information to the investigators. No profit in running over him then.

Trump is going to start doing ever more desperate things. And he's in it for himself.  He'll burn down the world if he thinks it'll save his fat ass.  Strap in.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Rats abandoning ship at increased pace

Cohen’s stunning admission [that Trump directed him to make hush money payments in order to influence the election] came just days after The New York Times reported that White House counsel Don McGahn provided 30 hours of testimony to Mueller’s investigators. McGahn’s extensive cooperation with Mueller rattled the West Wing to the core at a time when aides were struggling to contain the fallout from former Apprentice star Omarosa Manigault Newman’s scathing White House memoir.

And now Trump’s most powerful media ally next to Fox News has broken with him. According to two sources briefed on the Cohen investigation, prosecutors granted immunity to David Pecker, chairman of The National Enquirer publisher American Media Inc., and A.M.I.’s chief content officer, Dylan Howard, so they would describe Trump’s involvement in Cohen’s payments to porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal during the 2016 campaign.

[...]

In July 2013, Trump tweeted that Pecker should become C.E.O. of Time magazine. “He’d make it exciting and win awards!”

  Vanity Fair

If he only published all the stories he killed about Trump's trysts, he could probably make a good living.

During the 2016 campaign, Pecker provided invaluable media support to Trump by regularly attacking his Republican rivals and Hillary Clinton. At times, it seemed like the Enquirer operated as a de-facto arm of the campaign.

Apparently it did.

In June, The Washington Post reported that the Enquirer routinely sent stories to Trump to review prior to publication. (The Enquirer denied that [...]) During the transition, rumors circulated that Trump was considering Pecker for a prime ambassadorship. Last summer, Pecker reportedly brought an adviser to Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman to meet Trump in the Oval Office to help him expand A.M.I.’s business.

[...]

According to a source close to A.M.I., Pecker and Trump haven’t spoken in roughly eight months. Howard remains particularly angry at Trump, two people close to Howard told me. “There is no love lost,” one person familiar with Howard’s thinking said. Another person said Howard “hates Trump” and feels “used and abused by him.”

Apparently, people are finally catching on.

It’s likely that more Trump relationships will be stress-tested in the weeks to come as Trump’s legal peril escalates.

He doesn't have many left, does he?

One source close to Cohen told me Cohen wants to tell Mueller that Trump discussed the release of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s e-mails during the weekend when the Access Hollywood "grab ’em by the pussy” tape dominated the news cycle.

[...]

One source close to the White House said Trump is considering announcing he’s revoked additional security clearances to create a new story line. The source added that Trump is even considering taking clearances from former members of his administration, including former national security adviser H.R. McMaster and secretary of state Rex Tillerson.

Pathetic.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.