The boss of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, published an extraordinary public statement on Thursday, accusing the celebrity-driven tabloid of “extortion and blackmail”. “It’s a death and divorce Hollywood scandal sheet,” says the writer Chris Lochery, who wrote a history of the Enquirer and its parent company American Media Inc, describing how it pioneered the modern celebrity tabloid format. When the National Enquirer formally endorsed Trump in the 2016 general election, it ensured people standing in supermarket queues in key swing states saw countless pro-Trump stories on the magazine’s cover. Photograph: Alex Brandon/APThe National Enquirer only sells about 400,000 copies a week to an ageing audience, but it still grabs attention due to its willingness to push boundaries and touch material that others would not use. Regardless of the National Enquirer’s methods, there is one man who is a big fan of its reporting: Donald Trump.

Source: The Guardian February 08, 2019 18:01 UTC