David Pecker and The National Enquirer: When a Tabloid Becomes a Political Tool 

We still don’t know why David Pecker risked his career, his company and any shred of public regard to help Donald Trump

David Pecker
David Pecker (Getty Images)
Sharon Waxman

Has there ever been a more tragically named media mogul than David Pecker, the fallen chieftain of the National Enquirer, the sleazy dealmaker for Donald Trump turned snitch on the stand? 

Just think of the abuse a young Pecker must have endured in middle school. The slings and arrows, the cruel insults, the forced jocularity. And the opportunity for revenge once he wielded a million-readership tabloid magazine with the ethics of Joseph Goebbels. 

I’m just kidding. I have no idea if being made fun of as a kid led David Pecker to traffic in inventing stories that ran as fact, to quash factual stories to help Donald Trump win an election and, most incredibly, to shamelessly confess all of it on the stand last week.

Sharon Waxman

Sharon Waxman

Sharon Waxman, is the founder, CEO and Editor in Chief of TheWrap. She is an award-winning journalist and best-selling author, and was a Hollywood correspondent for The New York Times. Twitter: @sharonwaxman

Comments

11 responses to “David Pecker and The National Enquirer: When a Tabloid Becomes a Political Tool ”

  1. Robert Avatar
    Robert

    This essay is a bit disingenuous. Even in Elementary School in Alabama, I knew, along with everyone else, that the National Enquirer was the Pro Wrestling version of the news. We read it like we read The National Lampoon. Elvis spotted with Aliens stuff.

    Reply
  2. Semolina Pilchard Avatar
    Semolina Pilchard

    In every field, every profession, there is the ultimate and the banal. You are to journalism what Golda Meir or Martin Luther King was to empathetic strength and resolve. Pecker is to journalism what Ronald McDonald is to haute cuisine.

    Reply
  3. Adrian Avatar
    Adrian

    Free drinks and food lifetime at Mar a Lago is enough for David.

    Reply
  4. Arthur reaulo Avatar
    Arthur reaulo

    He who has not sin toss the first comment about others .Your hated is nothing new you need to ravish others for money truth is not a factor.so make up a story. You decided this. Because you have no moral code. God will definitely know you and decide your Fate.

    Reply
  5. William Avatar
    William

    This is a pot calling the kettle black argument that shows an extreme bias towards one side of media that doesn’t follow the official talking points. While I think that hiding evidence is bad, what Sharon fails to understand is that her false sense of higher moral purpose falls apart when looked at it with a broader microscope. It was not that long ago that all mainstream media was calling the Hunter Biden laptop fake news and Russia disinformation. It is both sad and ironic how low the bar has fallen for all of mainstream media, to include tabloid journalism. I could only hope that one day that these sanctimonious keepers of wisdom develop a sense of integrity and morals, so that I can once again read news and not an agenda filled talking point.

    Reply
  6. LJHOVA Avatar
    LJHOVA

    “Because I’m not an idiot.”

    Are you sure about that?

    Reply
  7. Dale Davis Avatar
    Dale Davis

    So the National Enquirer was reputed to publish false stories. It didn’t take me long to see they were trash before I stopped buying them. Sadly, much of the American public kept buying it, which enabled it to stay in business. It’s pretty much the same, today, with some of the trash political pundits churn out, and the American public swallow.

    Reply
  8. Thomas Jefferson Avatar
    Thomas Jefferson

    It’s amazing how anyone can throw shade at the National Enquirer for being pro-Trump, but fails to mention the other 10,000 media outlets that have been clearly promoting liberal propaganda on behalf of the US Government. 

    Reply
  9. Bob Avatar
    Bob

    This was not a scheme developed in 2015, Pecker testified he has done it since the 90’s.

    Reply
  10. ProgNarr Avatar
    ProgNarr

    Author having a TDS session.

    Reply
  11. Richard Rogers Avatar
    Richard Rogers

    Funny when people of the same profession publish news about another in the same profession and think they are smarter than the other, but if the truth is known, she is just as bad.

    Reply

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