Inside The National Enquirer

How Did A Supermarket Paper Beat Other News Media To The Biggest Political Scandal Of The Day?

(CBS)  When you think of great investigative journalism, sensational tabloids don't ordinarily spring right to mind. But perhaps because it does fit into the sensational category, the John Edwards story was broken by The National Enquirer. Kelly Cobiella visits the tabloid … and tells all.

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Celebrities caught on camera. Gossip about the famous.

It's a formula that has turned the weekly National Enquirer into the supermarket tabloid of record for anyone who wants to know more - or see more - about the lifestyles, and downfalls, of the rich and famous.

"People say Enquirer is sensationalistic," said editor David Perel. "And I would say I hope it is sensational. When we work a story we'll probably take the most sensational angle and put it in the headline and blast it to catch your attention."

And it does sell papers … about 1.2 million copies a week.

"What is the perfect National Enquirer story?" Cobiella asked.

"A big news event with accompanying photograph; a major celebrity doing something that they said they weren't doing," he said.

Every day, this Florida-based gossip gatherer scours through 20,000 photos, looking for the pictures that tell stories, such as pictures of Oprah. "Because she went on a diet, talked about the diet recently, and these pics indicate it was not too successful," he said.

Bad news for someone famous is good news for the Enquirer, like actor Patrick Swayze, suffering from pancreatic cancer:

"His face looks sunken now where it did not before," Perel noted after examining one picture.

But a tabloid notorious for dishing dirt on the stars is now in the news for uncovering the year's biggest political scandal: the John Edwards affair, a story the Enquirer first began reporting while Edwards was still a presidential candidate.

Perel indicated an issue from December 2007. It was "the first time we named Rielle Hunter as lover and revealed she was 6 months pregnant and got the exclusive photo of her," he said.

The Enquirer pursued the story for months. Then the recent revelation of a secret Beverly Hills hotel rendezvous between Edwards and his mistress broke the scandal wide open. Senior writer Alexander Hitchin was lying in wait on a tip from an unnamed source:

Hitchen was at a hotel: "OK, so it's 2:40 in the morning. And there's a basement lobby, I approached him. And I said, 'Mr. Edwards, Alexander Hitchen from the National Enquirer. Would you like to explain why you were with your mistress Rielle Hunter and your love child tonight?'

"At that point he went white and ran into a restroom. I tried to open the door, and he's pushing and pulling."

"You're fighting with him over the bathroom door?" Cobiella said.

"Ridiculous, ridiculous," Hitchen laughed.

The mainstream media began reporting the scandal only after the former senator confessed to ABC News.

Edwards said the affair ended in 2006 and denied being the father of Hunter's child.

So, Cobiella asked, if this is such scoop, and this was first out several months ago, why didn't others pick up on it?

Kurt Anderson, a media analyst and contributing editor at New York Magazine, said, "That is the sixty-four thousand million dollar question, isn't it?

"The National Enquirer gives the story cooties for all the Times and Boston Globes, the Washington Posts of the world. That is partly because thirty years, forty, fifty years ago, the National Enquirer was very different than today. It is this low-brow celebrity scandal-mongering thing."

That tawdry reputation began back in the '50s under then-owner and editor David Pope. Mike Wallace interviewed Pope for a 60 Minutes story in 1976:

Pope: I was looking for something that would give us instant circulation. And really I used to marvel at automobile accidents, and I'd see the public crowd around and for some reason have a morbid fascination in what's going on. I personally would turn my head; I couldn't stand it. But I knew they were attracted to that.

Wallace: The public was fascinated by gore.

Pope: Right

Wallace: And so, you decided -

Pope: So we gave it to them

Wallace: Huh?

Pope: We gave it to them - in spades.

When circulation stalled, Pope started placing the paper by supermarket checkout counters and changed its focus: sensational headlines, gossip, stories about psychic phenomena, alleged medical breakthroughs.

And some news that just isn't true. The resulting lawsuits against the Enquirer have made news of their own. In 1982 Carol Burnett won a judgment after a false report of being drunk in public.

Just last week there was news of a settlement with a woman falsely reported as having a son fathered by Senator Ted Kennedy.

But contrary to what you might think, the Enquirer's record in courtroom lawsuits is no better or worse than other media outlets. Unknown is the number of out-of-court settlements the paper has had.

"Every newspaper gets sued; It's a fact of life," Perel (left) said. "But, you know, we do pretty well. That's not to say we get everything right. We don't. But you show the newspaper that does, I'll start subscribing to it right now."

And every now and then, the Enquirer manages to break big stories. Their infamous "Monkey Business" photo sank Senator Gary's Harts presidential ambition. They ran the exclusive that Jesse Jackson had an illegitimate child, and found incriminating photos of O.J. Simpson wearing those Bruno Magli shoes which he had denied owning.

"It is a very rare type of shoe," Perel said. "It left the bloody footprints at the murder scene. He said he never owned 'those ugly ass shoes.' That was his famous quote. And nobody could find a photograph [of him wearing them]. We found the photograph."

Like so many other celebrity magazines, the Enquirer pays for photographs, and it's not shy about paying for information, either.

That raises eyebrows - and questions of credibility. And it's another reason, Kurt Anderson says, why most mainstream media outlets ignored the Edwards rumors … and got stung.

"I think this will be a lesson," Anderson said. "I think this John Edwards case will be a moment we'll look back in three, five, ten years hence and say that was one of the moments when the main street media realized that they can't make assumptions about the truth of a story based on where it popped up."

Back in Florida, the Enquirer is still hot on the trail of the John Edwards story; Perel muses over a photo of a hotel room that is missing its bed ("That is truly strange" he said. "I think we'll send a reporter or two over there and nose around and see what we find out."). But even he has limits.

"Stop, stop. I don't want to go there. I do not like it," Perel said to a reporter's suggestion about the Elizabeth Edwards angle. "She's been hurt, she's lashed out."

"So there is such a thing as 'untouchable'?" Cobiella asked.

"Just some places you don't go," Perel told her. "And there's some places I don't want to go. And in this case we really have tried to stay away from that aspect of the story.

"I want to hit the news element of the story. I want to hit the fact that a man running for president had an affair and then lied about it to the American public and, you know, darn near blew up his own political party while doing it."

[notblue]

if this potential presidential nominee had been a Republican, the inquirer would not have been the first to bring this story to the masses.

[walt1944-2009]

The last really UNBIASED news story to appear anywhere was the Iran/Contra scandal under the "TEFLON" President, Ronald Reagan. That was 20 years ago!!! Since then, the political parties, especially the neocon Fascist Nazi Republicans have gone to great lengths to make sure that NOTHING goes into print unless it damages the other party or achieves their own ends, and/or those of Corporate America!!!

It''s called CENSORSHIP, with Corporate moguls like Rupert Murdoch and political groups like the DNC, RNC and millionare "swiftboaters" telling us what is good to read and what is not! It doesn''t matter if it''s true or not, which in most cases, it isn''t!

This is FREEDOM OF THE PRESS, according to the neocon Fascist Nazi Republicans and Corporate America!!!!! Spread the BS and bury the truth!!!

That''s how National Socialism (Nazism) got started in Germany in 1930!!!

SIG HEIL, BUSH!!!!!!!
sig heil, HIS OLDER CLONE, "SURRRRRRGE!" McCain!!!!!

[questionnews]

Funny
Party A''s guy pulls a bonehead move and Party B''s people go Mad Cow over it.
Party B''s guy pulls a bonehead move and Party B''s people dismis, divert, justify, excuse and say things like "It''s nobody''s business and it''s not as bad as what that guy in Party A did".

[sparks224]

"If you want to know what the elitists of our country want you to think, you buy the New York Times."
Posted by ragnar30066

By "elitists" I assume you mean the people that own corportate America.

This is very simple:

1.Conservative Republican policies are far more favorable to big corporations than Liberal Democratic policies. This explains why corporate America (EXXON,Wal-Mart, etc.) donates far more money to Republicans.

2.The main-stream media is owned by big corporations.

Got it?

The idea that the main-stream media has a Liberal bias is complete nonsense on its face

[ragnar30066]

It used to be that nobody who wanted to be informed would buy the National Enquirer. They would buy the New York Times. Now if you want to be informed you buy the National Enquirer. If you want to know what the elitists of our country want you to think, you buy the New York Times.

That''s the bad news. The good news is the New York Times is going broke due to plummeting subscriptions and declining ad revenues.

[wmbrashier]

Once while working in Las Vegas, I was asked a couple of questions. I was busy and explained that I would be "off the clock" in five minutes and would be back.
Upon returning, I asked, "Are you really interested or do you just have inquiring minds?"
The man and his wife laughed! They both worked for the "National Enquirer!"

[reunionpi]

How the National Enquirer editor is registered to vote


This is how the Chairman and Editor, David Perel of the National Enquirer register to vote. One of the two has a concealed weapons permit.

webofdeception.com

This is why people are suspicious of the mainstream media. The name of the previous owner of the Enquirer was not David, as in the story, but Generoso Pope, Jr. I know, I met him.

[puzzler125]

The funniest thing is when (in the first Men in Black movie) K goes to the newsstand for copies of the Nat''l Enquirer and other "newspapers" for information on aliens in the United States!

[sparks224]

Since we don''t have real news anymore, the National Enquirer has become the business model for all "NEWS" departments in the media.

[donnie10007]

Its very simple national enquierer! Mind yer business!

[sparks224]

thgdriver,
This is very simple:

1.Conservative Republican policies are far more favorable to big corporations than Liberal Democratic policies. This explains why corporate America (EXXON,Wal-Mart, etc.) donates far more money to Republicans.

2.The main-stream media is owned by big corporations.

Got it?

The idea that the main-stream media has a Liberal bias is complete nonsense on its face.

[donnie10007]

Not only does she git half my stuff, she ruins all my chances of git''n a date!

[donnie10007]

I have nightmares me and my wife are gonna git a divorce, and she''s gonna go runn''n to the national enquirer and put on the front page: "Donnie10007''s peckkkkers only 5 inches long!"

[donnie10007]

The eyes of scum are on ya.

[donnie10007]

You turn the american dream into a thing to be afraid of. You make success, and being successful a thing to feel guilty about. You voilate people''s privacies.

[donnie10007]

There''s very good reason why the rich belittle the poor in this country. And the tabloids are it.

[donnie10007]

The problem with this sort of thing is that it inspires sensationalism. It makes it a ''lets see who can be the stupidest'' olympic event.

This is why people are suspicious of the mainstream media. The name of the previous owner of the Enquirer was not David, as in the story, but Generoso Pope, Jr. I know, I met him.

[donnie10007]

Normal people don''t wanna know about people''s personal lives. Normal people don''t consider that stuff important to the main issues. Only weirdos consider that sort of stuff important.