Jeff Bezos Accuses National Enquirer of Blackmail
Jeff Bezos, Amazon's chief executive and the world's richest man, accused the owner of The National Enquirer on Thursday of trying "extortion and blackmail" to stop his investigation into how his private text messages and photos with his mistress were leaked to the tabloid.
In an extraordinarily personal online post, Mr. Bezos said intermediaries of David Pecker, the chairman of American Media Inc., the nation's biggest tabloid news publisher and owner of The National Enquirer, had approached him to stop his investigation. Mr. Bezos said he had been told that if he refused, the publisher would make risqué and intimate photos of the billionaire and his mistress, Lauren Sanchez, public.
[...] "Of course I don't want personal photos published, but I also won't participate in their well-known practice of blackmail, political favors, political attacks and corruption," Mr. Bezos wrote of A.M.I., explaining why he had decided to speak out. "I prefer to stand up, roll this log over and see what crawls out."
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 08 2019, @02:56PM (4 children)
I'm much more interested in knowing the reason that they don't want him to find out how they got a hold of his texts and messages, particularly if they are willing to go as far as trying to blackmail him. This doesn't sound like your regular scummy tactics from hiring a qustionable investigation firm, like they normally do.
Let's see, does Pecker have any friends in high places that could have given him support, you know, someone that he tries to be particularly loyal to? Perhaps someone who is particularly envious of Bezos and is someone who particularly hates Bezos?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 08 2019, @03:08PM (3 children)
Bezos forgets that he has Powerful Enemies. When your enemy is Trump, there are millions of MAGA hats, independently working to bring you down.
It doesn't help that you own the WashPost and are a filthy monopolist.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 08 2019, @03:33PM (2 children)
All true, but why are they so afraid of their methods getting out?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday February 08 2019, @04:28PM (1 child)
Say, hypothetically, that Trump has ordered the NSA to monitor Bezos' phone and acquire the filthy blackmail (like possibly happened to Weinstein). If they call Trump on it and are somehow able to prove it, then they have to acknowledge that it has been going on for a long period of time and possibly under other administrations or abused by other lawmakers for personal or blackmail reasons. Anyway, there are probably so many goddamn rogue-agents in our intelligence services you don't know who is for who and what is for what. They all just kinda do whatever the fuck they want now, the dogs are unleashed. A war of all against all.
Muthafuckin' Trump be like, "Go ahead buddy, I'll do it, I'll fucking do it!"
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 08 2019, @05:15PM
Ah, I think this is the key, from this article [thehill.com].
Don't worry, though, Pecker says he's going to get to the bottom of it! Rogue reporters, no doubt. "Don't worry, we've fired them for violating our stringent ethics policies. No need to investigate further!"