Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
In the tabloid tradition, a good headline must do three things: it must communicate the news; it must commit some act of wordplay; and it must trigger a certain popping of the eyes in its reader, ideally accompanied by some kind of involuntary subverbal response—a squawk, a snort, a guffaw, a gasp. On Thursday, just minutes after Jeff Bezos revealed that American Media, Inc., had threatened to publish explicit photographs of him unless he acquiesced to certain demands, tabloid-headline excellence was achieved, when HuffPost declared, on its home page, "Bezos Exposes Pecker." "Pecker," of course, referred to David Pecker, the chairman and C.E.O. of A.M.I.—the same Pecker who, during the 2016 Presidential election, facilitated a payment to a woman who had a story to tell about an affair with Donald Trump.
[...] The headline was the work of Hayley Miller, a HuffPost reporter in New York whose workday had already ended when the Bezos news came out. [...] The idea for "Bezos Exposes Pecker" came to her quickly, but she hesitated before sharing it. On one hand, she said, "I was just, like, Oh, my gosh, this is gold—got to do this." On the other hand, she considered, "Do I want to bother my colleagues with another dick pun?" In the end, she went for it. "Trusted my gut, I guess," she said.
Whitney Snyder, a HuffPost deputy editor [...] explained that this wasn't the first time the Web site's Slack channels had been peppered with Pecker puns. "We did have a bit of a rehearsal in August," he said, referring to the day that Pecker's immunity deal with federal prosecutors was reported. "We ran a headline that was 'Report: Trump Loses Pecker.' "
Previously: Jeff Bezos Accuses National Enquirer of Blackmail
Related Stories
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."
Saudis gained access to Amazon CEO Bezos' phone: Bezos' security chief
The security chief for Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos said on Saturday that the Saudi government had access to Bezos' phone and gained private information from it.
Gavin De Becker, a longtime security consultant, said he had concluded his investigation into the publication in January of leaked text messages between Bezos and Lauren Sanchez, a former television anchor who the National Enquirer tabloid newspaper [had] said Bezos was dating.
Last month, Bezos accused the newspaper's owner of trying to blackmail him with the threat of publishing "intimate photos" he allegedly sent to Sanchez unless he said in public that the tabloid's reporting on him was not politically motivated.
Also at The Daily Beast.
Previously: Jeff Bezos Accuses National Enquirer of Blackmail
The Story Behind the Instant Classic “Bezos Exposes Pecker” Headline
Jeff Bezos: World's richest man agrees $35bn divorce
The world's richest man, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and his wife MacKenzie have agreed [to] a record-breaking divorce settlement of at least $35bn (£27bn). Ms Bezos keeps a 4% stake in the online retail giant, worth $35.6bn on its own.
[...] Prior to the settlement, Mr Bezos held a 16.3% stake in Amazon. He will retain 75% of that holding but Ms Bezos has transferred all of her voting rights to her former husband. She will also give up her interests in the Washington Post newspaper and Mr Bezos' space travel firm Blue Origin.
Amazon is now [a] vast online retail business. Last year, it generated sales of $232.8bn and it has helped Mr Bezos and his family amass a fortune of $131bn, according to Forbes magazine.
[...] The divorce deal dwarfs a previous $3.8bn record set in 1999 by art dealer Alec Wildenstein and his wife Jocelyn, who became well-known for her cosmetic surgery.
MacKenzie Bezos (soon to be MacKenzie Tuttle?):
She is now the third-richest woman in the world, as well as one of the wealthiest overall.
Also at USA Today.
See also: MacKenzie Bezos to give half of her $36 billion fortune to charity
Previously: Jeff Bezos, Amazon CEO Worth $137 Billion, to Divorce Wife of 25 Years
Jeff Bezos Accuses National Enquirer of Blackmail
The Story Behind the Instant Classic "Bezos Exposes Pecker" Headline
Saudi Arabia's Government Allegedly Hacked Into Jeff Bezos's Phone
(Score: 3, Informative) by stretch611 on Tuesday February 12 2019, @07:04PM (3 children)
The same exact headline was on the New York Post.
Images here [electoral-vote.com]. (as well as "Hard Times for Pecker.")
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 4, Funny) by stretch611 on Tuesday February 12 2019, @07:08PM (1 child)
Forgot to mention...
In addition to the "Hard Times for Pecker" Headline, there was another funny subtitle on that cover, "Will Amazon Pull Out of NYC?"
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday February 12 2019, @08:45PM
I read once that the UK tabloids figured out the the best headlines had some combination of urgency, youth, sex, the royal family, and a medical angle.
This means the the best possible headline would be:
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Wednesday February 13 2019, @05:27AM
Maybe they were both first.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXSyPzoeTvY&t=49s [youtube.com]
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 3, Funny) by Thexalon on Tuesday February 12 2019, @07:10PM (8 children)
Back in my younger years, I met my congressman, whose name was, I'm not kidding, Dick Swett [congress.gov]. I kept my cool, but I have to admit I always wondered "Why didn't this guy go by 'Richard', 'Rich', or 'Rick'?"
Of course, his plight wasn't half as bad as our classmate who was stuck with an unfortunate last name pronounced "za-hore".
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Tuesday February 12 2019, @07:14PM (5 children)
Used to be a NASCAR driver named Dick Trickle. He retired about 10 years ago.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Tuesday February 12 2019, @08:13PM (4 children)
There is a ton of shit in New York named after Robert Wood Johnson [wikipedia.org] of Johnson & Johnson fame. And it is always with the middle name. And theres a bunch of generations of his decedents with the same name that keep naming things after themselves.
I wish one of them had a kid named Richard, though.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 4, Funny) by bzipitidoo on Tuesday February 12 2019, @10:09PM (2 children)
When President Nixon resigned, should the headline have been "America loses Dick" or "America cuts Dick"?
Shortly after that change of presidents, it was "America pulls out of Vietnam".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 12 2019, @11:22PM (1 child)
I assume american media picked up on the combination of Bush and Dick too?
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Sunday February 17 2019, @04:38PM
George Carlin pointed out that both Iraq Wars were run by Dick, Bush, and Colin.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 12 2019, @10:11PM
I went to school with a Richard Johnson. We never called him dick though.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Tuesday February 12 2019, @07:39PM
You'll get a warm fuzzy feeling when you chuckle at his name, and when the people in your community need to vote, "Remember the name, you know he's familiar -- Dick Swett!"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 13 2019, @02:05AM
"Buttcrack Plumbing" was in the local yellow pages.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 12 2019, @08:18PM
This isn't another indicator of the collapse of society, because sophomoric innuendos have been made in headlines throughout the history of the headline.
But it certainly is evidence that human beings don't progress much, either.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 12 2019, @09:27PM (4 children)
These penis jokes are a perfect example of the toxic masculinity that is driving women away from the old boy's club mainstream media outlets.
The patriarchy must be torn down so women can have a safe space in the media that is free from this triggering bro culture.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 12 2019, @10:20PM (2 children)
Did you somehow miss the parts where first off, this is huffpoo, the vanguard of modern militant radical feminism and secondly the creator of said headline is of the XX flavor of humanity rather than XY?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 12 2019, @11:27PM
The Anon you reply to is a male who is doing his damn best to make a joke using mimicry.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 13 2019, @07:02AM
>> implying serious OP [wikipedia.org]
Come on... Only someone with severe brain damage or mental retardation would unironically spout the same kind of arguments as the ones in the OP.
(Score: 3, Touché) by c0lo on Wednesday February 13 2019, @12:33AM
Oh, don't be such a pussy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 13 2019, @01:31AM (2 children)
Today's "journalism" is about spending lots of time and effort to come up with a punny headline and little if any time or effort on the actual story.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday February 13 2019, @01:53AM (1 child)
One thing I find as I age, I prefer more boring news sources. If I want fake news, I get the real stuff from The Onion.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Wednesday February 13 2019, @03:17AM
You left out "El Reg" https://www.theregister.co.uk [theregister.co.uk]
When life isn't going right, go left.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 13 2019, @07:13AM
Oh no... Somebody made a dick joke‽‽‽
Quick, someone call Adria Richards [knowyourmeme.com] to get the person who wrote the joke fired!!!
(Score: 2) by Bot on Wednesday February 13 2019, @07:36AM
- bezos
- what
- got your naughty pics
- no wai i will give in, let it blow, at least i will retain my integrity that way
*reads newspapers the day after*
groan
Account abandoned.