Pecker Pics and Tabloid Tricks
Jeffrey Toobin helps Alex Wagner make sense of the National Enquirer: its strange history, its devotion to Donald Trump, and why it’s at war with the world’s richest man.
February 14, 2019
38 min
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Episode 80 · February 14, 2019
Pecker Pics and Tabloid Tricks
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38:13This episodePecker Pics and Tabloid Tricks
Summary
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos recently accused the National Enquirer of “extortion and blackmail” over private photos of him obtained by the tabloid. In a Medium post, Bezos shared emails from the Enquirer that threaten to publish those photos unless he accedes to their demands. How did a celebrity magazine get into the rough and tumble world of extortion?
Jeffrey Toobin, New Yorker staff writer and CNN’s Chief Legal Analyst, joins Alex Wagner to share insights from his 2017 profile of the man who runs the tabloid. How did the National Enquirer become what it is today? Why does it pay to silence stories about Donald Trump? And why is it at war with Jeff Bezos?
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