Forward

The Enquirer, Bezos and blackmail

Just when you thought you couldn't be shocked anymore about the practices of the National Enquirer...

"In an explosive tell-all blog post published Thursday afternoon, Jeff Bezos accused the publisher of the National Enquirer of trying to extort him," David Goldman writes. Here's the full CNN Business story about this bombshell.

And here's how the Bezos-owned Washington Post is covering the news... The story is on Friday's front page...

Here's what we know so far

-- The Enquirer broke a legitimately big story last month when it revealed Bezos' relationship with Lauren Sanchez. That's not at issue here.

-- The issue is Gavin de Becker's private investigation for Bezos. De Becker was charged with figuring out the source of the leaks to the Enquirer, and he concluded that it was "politically motivated." (We don't know on what basis he concluded that or what evidence he may have.)

-- AMI boss David Pecker, of course, was (is?) a longtime friend of the president.

-- Via Goldman's story: De Becker's investigation "had looked at Michael Sanchez, Lauren Sanchez's brother, who is connected to a number of associates of President Trump. Sanchez, the Post reported, 'firmly denies playing any role in the revelation of his sister's affair.'"

-- Something about de Becker's probe, or the stories coming out about it, sparked a reaction inside AMI. According to Bezos, "several days ago, an AMI leader advised us that Mr. Pecker is 'apoplectic' about our investigation."

-- So, Bezos wrote, AMI made an offer: "They said they had more of my text messages and photos that they would publish if we didn't stop our investigation."

-- Bezos called this "extortion and blackmail." He published multiple emails from AMI. In one email, an AMI lawyer proposed that Bezos would disavow any belief that the Enquirer's coverage was "politically motivated," and in exchange, AMI would not "publish, distribute, share, or describe unpublished texts and photos."

-- There is, Bezos said, a "Saudi angle..." Scroll down for more on that...

Here's what we don't know

-- What is American Media's version of events? The company has not commented.

-- We've been trying to call, text and email spokespeople for AMI and Pecker. My calls have been going straight to voicemail.

-- Will either side, Bezos or AMI, share any other emails or other evidence?

-- Will AMI publish private photos of Bezos?

-- AMI struck an immunity deal with federal prosecutors in exchange for cooperation in the Michael Cohen case. Will those prosecutors be looking at Bezos' allegations to see whether they compromise the deal?

-- Will Trump weigh in somehow?

Is it a crime?

On "AC360" Jeffrey Toobin was candid: "I don't know," he said, straight up.

That's how other legal experts are reacting too. Renato Mariotti tweeted: "Was AMI's action slimy? Yes. Is it consistent with some of the questionable practices that AMI engaged in on behalf of Trump and others? Yes. But is this the sort of case federal prosecutors would charge as extortion? No."

Three cheers for Bezos

The consensus in media and tech circles Thursday night: Bezos did a brave and admirable thing by going public with this. By exposing what he called an "extortion" attempt, he has won a lot of goodwill.

"What an incredibly effective response to extortion," Ben Smith tweeted.

"I don't love @JeffBezos in general, but I LOVE Jeff Bezos in particular here," Kara Swisher wrote.

"Amazing that the National Enquirer has been so repulsive that the whole Internet is rooting for a billionaire who got busted for an affair," WIRED editor Nicholas Thompson added.

Author Kurt Andersen weighed in with something similar: "At the end of a week of billionaires whining about anti-billionaire sentiment and being called billionaires, the biggest billionaire, a newspaper owner, reacts heroically to an extortion threat by the billionaire president's newspaper-owning pal. It just keeps jumping sharks."

Ronan says this isn't the first time...

"Stop digging or we'll ruin you"

"I and at least one other prominent journalist involved in breaking stories about the National Enquirer's arrangement with Trump fielded similar 'stop digging or we'll ruin you' blackmail efforts from AMI," Ronan Farrow tweeted Thursday night.

He added: "I did not engage as I don't cut deals with subjects of ongoing reporting."

The Daily Beast did some digging into the Bezos leak hunt last week... "In the process of reporting those stories, The Beast and a member of its staff were threatened by AMI's attorneys," The Beast's Lachlan Markay wrote Thursday night.

I've asked AMI for comment on these allegation too -- radio silence...

Source: "It will all come out now"

Oliver Darcy emails: There's one line in Bezos' post that stands out. Bezos wrote that people have contacted his investigation team "about their similar experiences with AMI, and how they needed to capitulate because, for example, their livelihoods were at stake." Who are these people? What other "similar experiences" was Bezos referring to?

A person familiar with the National Enquirer's operation told me Thursday evening that there were indeed other such situations. The person said that there will be other shoes likely to drop moving forward. "It will all come out now," the person predicted. Stay tuned…

Don't forget the Joe and Mika case

The Enquirer has been accused of blackmail before. Here's my 2017 story about Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski's claims that Trump and his W.H. used the possibility of a hit piece in the National Enquirer to threaten them and change their news coverage...

FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE

-- WaPo's Karen Tumulty: "Jeff Bezos just broke the National Enquirer's business model."

-- Ted Boutrous quoted in the Post: "It's a shocking and frightening thing Mr. Bezos has revealed."

-- NY1's Errol Louis: "National Enquirer vs. Washington Post = street mugger vs. prizefighter: crazy tactics and lots of blood, but no doubt about who wins in the end."

Team Bezos chose Medium...

How did his camp decide to release the letter? By setting up an account on Medium. The letter was his first-ever post on the platform. It's a logical place to publish -- a neutral space where the emphasis is on the words, nothing else -- and kept the message away from any Amazon or Post-owned website...

Bezos the blogger!

"His blog post is, well, a blog post. But it is also so salacious, so bizarrely stimulating, that it overwhelms the thinking brain and presents instead as pure spectacle," The Atlantic's Robinson Meyer wrote Thursday night. "In a little more than 2,000 words, Bezos seemed to rip every headline out of the newspaper and bind them in an eternal neon braid: the mighty power of billionaires, the immiseration of American journalism, the thin smudge of porniness that smartphones have layered onto reality—all of that, and President Donald Trump..."

The Post is Bezos' point of pride

Katie Pellico flagged this parenthetical in the Bezos letter, which described his ownership of WaPo as a "complexifier" in his life:

"(Even though The Post is a complexifier for me, I do not at all regret my investment. The Post is a critical institution with a critical mission. My stewardship of The Post and my support of its mission, which will remain unswerving, is something I will be most proud of when I'm 90 and reviewing my life, if I'm lucky enough to live that long, regardless of any complexities it creates for me.)"

What's the "Saudi angle?"

The Bezos letter noted that Pecker and AMI have been "investigated for various actions they've taken on behalf of the Saudi Government." And later, he says that "for reasons still to be better understood, the Saudi angle seems to hit a particularly sensitive nerve."

Bezos is hinting at something -- but what? Gloria Borger said on "AC360" that it's as if he is leaving "breadcrumbs" for people to follow.

>> Friday's WSJ notes: "In the past, AMI has engaged in talks with Saudi financiers to help shore up its debt-laden business, people familiar with the matter have said."

#JusticeForJamal

One potential connection is obvious: Bezos's newspaper was Jamal Khashoggi's platform to challenge the Saudi government. Ever since Khashoggi's brutal murder, the Post has been leading the calls for justice and accountability, a direct challenge to Trump and his cozy relationship with the Saudis.

On Thursday morning I was with Karen Attiah, Khashoggi's former editor at the Post, at a press conference to call attention to the case. Back in October, senators triggered the Magnitsky Act, requiring the president to determine whether a foreign person -- in this case Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman -- is responsible for a gross violation of human rights "against an individual exercising freedom of expression." The deadline for that determination is Friday.

Will the W.H. respond?

Per CNN's Michelle Kosinski, "a source familiar with the administration's plans tells CNN that the administration is expected to 'double down on defending MBS. They think the pressure is fading.' The source adding the expectation is the White House will reiterate there is not a smoking gun..."

IN OTHER NEWS...

So many stories, so little time

All of these headlines are on the front page of Friday's NYT:

-- "IN 5-TO-4 DECISION, JUSTICES HALT LAW CURBING ABORTION"

-- "Killing of Critic Was on Radar of Saudi Royal"

-- "Racist Yearbook Material Hurls Republican Into Virginia Crisis"

-- "Bezos Accuses Tabloid Owner Of Blackmail"

-- "Unveiling a 'Green New Deal,' And Ambition on a Vast Scale"

FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO

-- Expect wall-to-wall coverage on cable: Acting A.G. Matt Whitaker will testify Friday at 9:30 a.m... (CNN)

-- "Maria Ressa has been indicted for a second time, in a move widely criticized by rights groups as an attempt to stifle press freedoms in the Philippines..." (CNN)

-- Business Insider's parent company says it crossed the $100 million revenue mark "and is profitable..." Lots of details here... (Digiday)

-- Condolences to his friends and family: Fox News legal analyst and "Property Man" Bob Massi died Wednesday after a battle with cancer. (The Hill)

Abramson says she will update her book following plagiarism allegations

Oliver Darcy emails: Jill Abramson conceded on Thursday that some of the passages in her new book too closely mirrored work that first appeared in other publications. "The language is too close in some cases and should have been cited as quotations in the text," Abramson said in a statement. Indeed, at times, it did. We found two new examples of apparent plagiarism in "Merchants of Truth" on Thursday. One where she lifted from Politico, and the other from Newsweek.

Abramson vowed in her statement that passages which were in question would be "fixed." She said that when she was writing her book she "tried above all to accurately and properly give attribution to the many hundreds of sources that were part of my research." Read Darcy's full story here...

>> Darcy emails one more observation: Harvard, where Abramson is a senior lecturer in the Department of English, declined to comment about the plagiarism allegations. Of course, Harvard has a strict policy against plagiarism that can, in some cases, result in expulsion from the school. Would a student be let off without disciplinary action in a similar scenario? 🤔

Twitter earnings takeaways

Seth Fiegerman writes: "Twitter turned its first annual profit in 2018, but the company has a problem it doesn't want to talk about." The problem: Declining monthly active users. The company is moving over to a daily active user metric instead... Details here...

FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE

By Daniella Emanuel:

-- Rotten Apples, the website that will tell you if a given production had cast or crew members accused of sexual misconduct, "has been upgraded with features that will allow fans to donate to victims and support non-profit organizations..." (Variety)

-- The WSJ's real estate section has an interesting piece on how luxury home owners are ditching dark theaters in the basement for "multi-use media rooms..." (WSJ)

-- Speaking of media use: UK doctors are urging families to limit their children's screen and social media time... (NYT)

-- A new study from the Women's Media Center found that "75% of all non-acting Oscar nominations this year went to men." This confirms data on the same subject that Deadline reported last month... (Deadline)

-- Some non podcast-related Spotify news: They're now suspending/terminating accounts that use ad blockers... (Verge)

Alden v. Gannett battle deepens

Katie Pellico writes: MNG Enterprises, the Alden-controlled newspaper chain better known as Digital First Media, is launching a proxy fight now that Gannett rejected its initial takeover bid.

Following a Thursday afternoon meeting with MNG, Gannett released a statement promising to "evaluate MNG's notice and proposed nominees, all of whom are affiliated with MNG or its majority shareholder Alden Global Capital." Gannett said it still "does not believe that MNG's proposal to acquire Gannett is credible." More to come...

Netflix pays $10 million for film featuring AOC

"Netflix announced on Thursday that it has finalized a deal to acquire worldwide distribution rights to the award-winning documentary, "Knock Down the House," which features Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez," The Wrap's Jeremy Fuster and Trey Williams reported.

Deadline's Mike Fleming Jr. said Wednesday that Netflix "paid $10 million for worldwide rights..." By his count, that makes this the "biggest documentary sale ever brokered at a film festival..."

HBO's "Song of Parkland" marks one year since tragedy

Brian Lowry emails: Can it really be only a year since the Parkland school shooting? HBO chronicles the aftermath of those events through the eyes of students and their theater teacher in "Song of Parkland," a 30-minute documentary that brings a life-affirming spin to the tragedy.

"Song of Parkland" will be streaming for HBO subscribers starting Friday...

FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR

By Frank Pallotta:

-- Keep a close eye on this: Woody Allen has sued Amazon for $68 million over breach of contract... (WSJ)

-- The Oscars have no host, but it could've been The Rock. Here's how he would've taken on the show... (THR)

-- A few days before the Grammys, music's biggest award show seems to be at war with Ariana Grande... (Variety)

-- Christopher McQuarrie is joining Showtime's Bill Clinton and James Patterson adaptation of "The President Is Missing..." (Deadline)

-- Sports media and gambling betting on each other: Turner will open a Bleacher Report studio inside Caesars Palace... (Bloomberg)

Lowry reviews "Lego Movie 2"

Brian Lowry emails: "The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part" should be the big box-office draw this weekend, but the sequel, filled with pop-culture references that will sail over kids' heads, pretty dutifully follows the instructions, failing to hold together as well as its predecessor.

FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE

By Lisa Respers France:

-- Despite a healthy diet, soap legend Susan Lucci has revealed she had to have emergency heart surgery... (CNN)

-- A group of Australian politicians want to ban singer R. Kelly from coming into their country. Kelly had tweeted - then deleted - that he was heading down under on tour... (CNN)

-- The new "Shaft" film features 3 generations of John Shaft... (CNN)

Thanks for reading! Email me anytime... See you tomorrow...