National Enquirer

Clown Show Alert: ‘Pathological Liar’ Donald Trump Announces ‘Major Rally’ for ‘Lyin’ Ted Cruz

Posted by on August 31, 2018 at 1:48 pm. NO Comments :

Last month Donald Trump told Sean Hannity that he would go on the road for Republican candidates “six or seven days a week when we’re sixty days out.” So in effect, he’ll be taking a leave of absence from the presidency to become a full-time campaign shill. Never mind that he’s supposed to be doing president stuff, the American people are mostly relieved when he goes golfing, or otherwise refrains from doing more harm to the nation. A new poll shows his disapproval at a record high of sixty percent.

Ted Cruz, Donald Trump

Trump has already done a couple of dozen of these purely partisan Klan gatherings that require him to assemble his staff and security detail to venture from Washington on the taxpayer’s dime. That’s about three times a month that Trump is doing his Dogged Phony show before the Confederacy of Deplorables. And on Friday morning he revealed a new stop on the StormTrumpers Tour: The great state of Texas will be honored with Trump’s presence on behalf of Sen. Ted Cruz.

For the record, these two have not exactly been BFFs. So this public embrace is an obvious bend toward desperation for them both. Trump famously charged that Cruz’s father was a co-conspirator in the assassination of John Kennedy. He lifted that from the National Enquirer, published by his pal David Pecker, who was recently granted immunity to testify against Trump. The President also insulted Cruz’s wife as not meeting his porn star standard of beauty. In response, Cruz accurately called Trump out (deliciously vicious video below) for being a “pathological liar” and “utterly amoral.” But for a preview of what we might expect at the Texas Revival Meeting in October, here is what Trump said about Cruz not very long ago:

A couple of things stand out in those Twitter diatribes. First of all, Trump makes a point of questioning why any Texan would vote for a lying, do-nothing, foreign-born cad like Cruz. That’s a good question. Secondly, he goes to great lengths to characterize Cruz as a hypocrite for staking out a claim of religiosity despite his uncontrollable tendency to lie. Sound familiar? Trump and Cruz are cut from the same sackcloth. And this is the man that Trump now says has his “complete and total Endorsement.” Well, that figures.

Trump also made a point of maligning Cruz’s opponent for the senate seat. Beto O’Rourke has organized an historic campaign that is still gaining strength. The latest poll shows O’Rourke and Cruz in a virtual dead heat. It’s safe to say that all the Cruz supporters in Texas are already accounted for. Which means that turning out new, younger, and more diverse voters will be the deciding factor in this race. And considering that Cruz is the most hated man in Washington, and that all the momentum is on O’Rourke’s side, Trump’s travelling salvation show might just be the final curtain for Lyin Ted.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Trump Towering Inferno? National Enquirer Attacks President’s Attorney Michael Cohen

Posted by on April 29, 2018 at 2:37 pm. 1 Comments :

Everyday there are more indications that Donald Trump’s shoddily constructed shelter from the scandals enshrouding him is collapsing. His closest allies are abandoning him and his administration, or are being cast out by him unceremoniously. Trump ends up being protected by incompetents with the same set of sleazy principles that he embraces.

Donald Trump, National Enquirer

After the raid of the home and offices of Michael Cohen, Trump’s personal attorney, the President set out to distance himself from his long-time friend and lawyer. He told the hosts of Fox and Friends that “Michael is a businessman, he’s got a business. He also practices law.” Continuing he said that prosecutors are “looking at something having to do with his business. I have nothing to do with his business.” And when asked by Steve Doocy what percentage of his legal work is handled by Cohen, Trump said it’s “a tiny, tiny, little fraction.”

That description of their relationship amounts to trump throwing Cohen under a freight train. Cohen’s lawyers had just argued in court that Trump was one of his primary clients, along with Sean Hannity. But Trump is calling him a liar. Hannity also called that a lie. These characters are purposefully fleeing from any suggestion that they are connected to Cohen. And the reasons have to do with what is expected to be uncovered in the items collected in the raid.

Now another prominent friend of Trump is bravely running away. The National Enquirer is a gossipy tabloid whose chairman, David Pecker, is a close friend of the President. It has reliably boosted Trump on its front page, and attacked his political foes. However, the headline on the latest issue is joining in the rapidly escalating disavowals of Cohen. It reads: “Trump Fixer’s Secrets and Lies!” The article says that:

Cohen “is under the spotlight, as scandals swirl around his boss, and some are questioning Cohen’s role, alleging blackmail, threats, hush-money payoffs – and even collusion with Russia. The president is in the hot seat because of his lawyer.”

Indeed he is. And he knows it. There is speculation that Cohen is likely to “flip” on Trump and tell the feds every little dirty detail that he knows. And having been the President’s consigliere for at least a decade, he knows a lot.

For the National Enquirer to publish such a damning story about a Trump ally is an astonishing turn of events. This is, after all, the magazine that paid former Playmate, and Trump mistress, Karen McDougal $150,000 for a story that they never published. That’s a tactic known as “catch and kill” that is used to bury negative news so that no other publisher can report it. Recent headlines from the Enquirer include fawning praise for Trump and brutal attacks on his enemies. For instance:

  • How I’m Cleaning Up Obama’s Mess
  • The Donald Trump Nobody Knows
  • Trump Takes Charge
  • FBI Plot To Impeach Trump
  • Obama’s Secret Plot To Impeach Trump
  • Trump Must Build The Wall
  • Proof Obama Wiretapped Trump
  • Trump Must Be Prez
  • Hillary: Six Months To Live
  • Hillary Framed Trump Family
  • Hillary Caught In Sex Scandal Cover Up
  • Hillary Going To Jail

So now the Enquirer is piling on Michael Cohen. This coincides with Trump’s blatant distancing himself from Cohen and nearly pretending that he hardly knows him. Trump is preparing for Cohen’s rumored intention to turn state’s evidence. He even posted a Twitter rant that implied that if Cohen sings, he will be lying. Trump said that “Most people will flip if the Government lets them out of trouble, even if it means lying or making up stories.”

It appears rather likely that Cohen is going to turn on Trump and his pals at the Enquirer are helping to discredit him before his testimony is revealed. And seeing as how the paper has been such a dedicated Trump-fluffing comrade, it’s inconceivable that the Enquirer would have published a story like this without Trump’s knowledge and approval. Therefore, the ground must be shifting under both Cohen and Trump. And a legal earthquake may be about to shake things up. Stay tuned.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

HUSH MONEY: National Enquirer Paid 150K To Cover Up Trump’s ‘Affair’ With A Playboy Model

Posted by on November 5, 2016 at 10:01 am. NO Comments :

FBI insiders have spent much of the past week leaking dubious data about Hillary Clinton to Donald Trump’s campaign. It’s a horrifying state of affairs that implicates the agency in election tampering. Meanwhile, salacious information about Donald Trump is getting quashed by his pals in the tabloid media. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that:

“The company that owns the National Enquirer (AMI), a backer of Donald Trump, agreed to pay $150,000 to a former Playboy centerfold model for her story of an affair a decade ago with the Republican presidential nominee, but then didn’t publish it, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal and people familiar with the matter.”

Melania and Donald Trump

Karen McDougal, the 1998 Playmate of the Year, has told friends she was romantically involved with Trump in 2006. He was married to his current wife Melania at the time. The Journal’s sources said that McDougal expected her story to be published, but that AMI never intended to run it. From the beginning it was a means of killing a story that was potentially damaging to Trump’s presidential aspirations.

Imagine that. A sensationalistic supermarket tabloid declining to publish a sex-drenched scandal about a prominent public figure. It has all the elements of the model story for the Enquirer. But even after the Access Hollywood tapes were released and a dozen other women accused Trump of sexual harassment and/or assault, the Enquirer kept the lid on their blockbuster scoop. Why would they do that?

Maybe because David Pecker, publisher of the Enquirer, is a long-time personal friend of Trump and supports his candidacy. He has used his paper to advance Trump’s campaign and attack his opponents. For instance, the Enquirer published a story alleging that Ted Cruz’s father was an accomplice to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Another article purported to expose “Hillary Clinton’s Secret Health Crisis.”

On the other hand, the Enquirer published a series of glowing homages to Trump. These tributes were about, and written by, The Donald with the audacious title “The Man Behind the Legend.” And Trump returned the drooling adoration by publicly wondering why the skeevy tabloid never got a Pulitzer Prize.

The Enquirer denies that they deliberately bought McDougal’s story to kill it. They claim they were paying for her to write fitness columns and to appear on magazine covers. However, the paper never published a single column or photo of her during the two year term of the agreement. There was also an ambiguously worded provision granting AMI the exclusive rights to “any romantic, personal and/or physical relationship McDougal has ever had with any then-married man.” That certainly would have covered Donald Trump without the nastiness of saying so outright.

These are among the benefits of having a media entity in your pocket. You can get them to zealously praise you and to bitterly malign your foes. And you can also have them snatch up lingering problems from your sordid past and prevent them from ever seeing the light of day.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Donald Trump is fond of attacking the media in the most vile manner. He has literally made it dangerous to cover his campaign rallies. Many news organizations have had their press credentials revoked when they did something that displeased him. And prominent journalism organizations have condemned his overt threats to freedom of the press. But in his world the National Enquirer is a Pulitzer-worthy publisher that will come to his rescue when needed.

Bill O’Reilly’s Journalistic Standards Revealed – Again

Posted by on August 13, 2009 at 10:13 am. 3 Comments :

Bill O’Reilly has indeed proven again and again that he has no journalistic standards. It is becoming somewhat tedious having to point this out when it occurs with such frequency, but this latest example just cries out for attention. I’m going to let O’Reilly tell the story himself…

“Sources tell ‘The Factor’ that there is a federal investigation underway to find out if any American company sold components for roadside bombs to nefarious people. In May of 2008, and again in October ’08, coalition forces discovered unexploded roadside bombs in Iraq and handed them over to the FBI bureau in Baghdad. The FBI discovered that radio frequency modules inside the bombs were part of a shipment made by a U.S. company to Corezing International, a business in Singapore with direct ties to Iran.”

Oh my. That’s sounds frightening. Do go on…

“According to authorities, these modules are still being used today to kill Americans. The FBI will not comment, and ‘The Factor’ believes the investigation may be classified, because information is very hard to come by.”

So I assume that “The Factor” dove in and conducted a thorough investigation to get the “hard to come by” information, carefully documenting the exploits of a corrupt and dangerous program that is threatening American soldiers and America’s interests…

“‘The Factor’ has been told, but cannot confirm, that the General Electric corporation is under suspicion in the case.”

Ummm…..If you’ve been told something that you can’t confirm, why are you reporting it? You know, I’ve been told that Bill O’Reilly fixes breakfast in bed for Osama Bin Laden every Sunday morning before going to Mosque together. I can’t confirm it, but…..

“To be clear, ‘The Factor’ is not accusing anyone of anything. We are just reporting what we believe to be true.”

You aren’t accusing anyone of anything? Unless I’m mistaken, you just accused General Electric of arming America’s enemies and killing American troops. You made the accusation despite not being able to confirm it. And “reporting what we believe to be true” isn’t reporting at all, it’s gossip. So your assertion that you aren’t making an accusation is contradicted in the very same sentence by your admission to being a gossip monger (see Antilogical Reasoning).

Needless to say, O’Reilly got it all wrong. GE responded calling O’Reilly’s allegations “irresponsible and maliciously false” GE’s spokesman, Gary Sheffer, said that GE doesn’t do business with Corezing, and they don’t even make the radio frequency modules to which O’Reilly referred. Sheffer continued…

“We usually do not respond to the misleading and inaccurate claims made on this program because very few people take them seriously, but tonight’s report took this smear campaign to a new low.”

It is a pretty good general policy to regard O’Reilly as someone who is “misleading and inaccurate” and whom few take seriously. Although O’Reilly takes himself seriously enough to make up for all of those who know that he’s a joke. In response to remarks by Obama’s press secretary, Robert Gibbs, O’Reilly imagines that he is now at war with the White House. And, once again, he cites his ratings as evidence that Fox News will prevail in such a war.

First of all, there is no correlation between TV ratings and public opinion. This has been proven repeatedly. Secondly, when will O’Reilly and his comrades at Fox get it through their heads that being a top rated cable network is not an endorsement of their journalistic credibility. The National Enquirer has twice the circulation of the nation’s top daily newspaper (USA Today). By O’Reilly’s reasoning, the Enquirer is the the best newspaper in the country.

Finally, the notion that O’Reilly could seriously address the question of whether Fox News and the White House are at war is the best evidence that they are a disreputable enterprise whose obvious biases should disqualify them from being granted press credentials. The truth is that Fox News has more in common with the National Enquirer than a vast community of gullible readers/viewers. It is only a matter of time before Fox broadcasts headlines directly from the Enquirer. In fact, they may already be doing so. Stories about the President being a secret Muslim born in Kenya, and a health care plan that implements “death panels” for the purpose of euthanizing your grandma, could have come right out of the same issue of the Enquirer announcing the capture of Bigfoot by intergalactic (illegal) aliens.

Will John McCain Renounce This Ugliness?

Posted by on October 14, 2008 at 3:37 pm. NO Comments :

I have been predicting that the last few weeks of this election season was bound to get nasty. I had no idea how bad it was going to get. The McCain/Palin ticket is badly wounded and they know that there is little hope for them to prevail. Consequently, they have nothing to lose by going for Barack Obama’s jugular. That sentiment was articulated verbatim today by Sarah Palin who told Rush Limbaugh that…

“Rush, I’ve got nothing to lose in this and I think America’s got everything to gain by understanding the differences – the contrasts here between Obama and McCain.”

That is why we are seeing more disingenuous attempts to associate Obama with “unrepentant domestic terrorists.” That is why racial epithets and chants of “terrorist” are emanating from McCain/Palin rallies without objection by the candidates. It is why they are now, with the help of Fox News, fomenting distrust of the election process by falsely alleging voter fraud. And it is why the National Enquirer is pushing a disgusting story that has no bearing on this campaign, but has salacious appeal to the repugnant right-wingers who will stoop to any means to achieve their ambitions.

The Enquirer’s “Exclusive” (to which I will not link) is topped with this intentionally misleading headline: “Obama Sex Perv Scandal.” The headline suggests that Obama is a sexual pervert, but that is not what the story is about. The column alleges that Frank Marshall Davis, a friend of the Obama family in Hawaii when Obama was ten years old, authored a pornographic autobiography. The Enquirer further states that…

“The appalling catalog of admitted real-life decadence is laced with perverted sexual activity, bisexuality, rape – and the seduction of children.”

The book, “Sex Rebel: Black,” was published in 1968 and the author was listed as Bob Greene. The Enquirer says that Greene was in fact Davis, but they provided no evidence for the claim. Davis died 20 years ago. There is no way of knowing whether the Enquirer’s assertions are true, but their reputation doesn’t elicit much confidence. It wouldn’t matter anyway. Associating Obama with this venal garbage makes absolutely no sense. He was a child and couldn’t possibly have had any connection to the alleged activity. Clearly, in his personal life, he is the model of a committed husband and father.

For this article to appear so close to the election can only be interpreted as an intentional attempt to tarnish Obama and damage his election prospects. Perversity obsessed rightists, like Cliff Kincaid of Accuracy in Media, are already jumping on the story. Expect more of that to come from the conservative media chorus.

The question is, can we expect McCain to renounce this nonsense? A couple of days ago, McCain admonished a supporter for saying that she couldn’t trust Obama because he is “an Arab.” McCain took the microphone from her and said, “No, he is a decent family man and citizen.” Setting aside that McCain just insulted every Arab as not being decent, etc., if McCain really believes what he said about Obama, he will not let a story like this fester and grow with the help of his surrogates.

I hope this story dies an early death, but if it gets a foothold in the press, then reporters need to get a statement from McCain to ascertain if he agrees with the substance of the story or approves of the tactic of retelling it. What’s left of McCain’s honor should make this an easy decision for him, but judging by his behavior so far this election year, it would be folly to presume that he would do the honorable thing. After all, he has nothing to lose.

TVNewser Completes Its Descent Into Tabloid Drudgery

Posted by on December 20, 2007 at 3:02 am. 2 Comments :

Last night on the CBS Evening News, Katie Couric presented another in her series of Primary Questions to the candidates for president of both parties. The question for this installment dealt with marital fidelity and whether it should be a determinative factor when deciding for whom to vote.

This question, while not as elevating to the debate as questions about Iraq, global warming, the economy, or health care might have been, could still have produced some observable squirming from a number of the candidates. But in reporting on Couric’s broadcast, the rapidly deteriorating TVNewser was more interested in propagating rumors than in objective journalism. In an item by Steve Krakauer, who joined TVNewser last month and previously worked for Fox News, two candidates were singled out as having answers that would “be of interest.”

The first was Hillary Clinton, for whom a case could be made for a potentially interesting exchange. Although it should be noted that it was not Hillary, but her husband, who was guilty of infidelity. Since the context of the question was whether someone who was not true to their spouse could be trusted to be true to the country, it really did not apply directly to any behavior on her part. And despite their troubles, a decade has past since the affair and they have managed to keep their marriage and family together.

The second candidate Krakauer cited was John Edwards. And this is where Krakauer demonstrates either a woeful inability to mask his prejudice, or a professional immaturity that borders on incompetence. This is how he presents his next point:

“Also, with reports of a Sen. John Edwards extra-marital affair and subsequent pregnancy, his answer will be looked at more carefully as well.”

By referring to “reports” of Edwards’ “affair” Krakauer implies that there are credible allegations from responsible journalists and sources. The truth is that there is only a single allegation by an anonymous source as reported to the “National Enquirer” (to which I refuse to link) which is nobody’s idea of a responsible journal. And not a single reputable news organization has yet to follow the Enquirer’s smarmy lead, although Matt Drudge headlined it (good company).

The Enquirer’s story is fraught with ambiguity and error. Both Edwards and Rielle Hunter (the alleged other woman) describe the charges as untrue and ridiculous. Hunter, who is pregnant, has identified the father as Andrew Young, with whom she worked on Edwards’ campaign. Young confirmed his paternity, but that didn’t stop the Enquirer from asserting, with no evidence whatsoever, that everybody was just trying to cover up for Edwards. The Enquirer even faulted Edwards for not nipping the scandal in the bud early on by revealing the relationship between Hunter and Young. Of course Edwards could not have done that because he didn’t know anything about the relationship, as Young told the Enquirer.

This is the level of unsubstantiated innuendo that Krakauer pretends is newsworthy. In fact he is engaging in the most vile sort of rumor-mongering. He doesn’t even bother to explicitly inform his readers that his source is the Enquirer (he hides it in a link). And if all of this isn’t bad enough, in an article about the relevance of the breaking of marriage vows, Krakauer smears two candidates for whom there is no evidence of such behavior, but fails to mention others with known multiple marriages (McCain and Thompson) and notorious philandering (Giuliani).

So Krakauer thinks rumors spread by tabloid rags are interesting, but Mayors who keep their mistresses in the Mayor’s residence and use city funds to pay for trysts in the Hamptons are not even worth mentioning. What’s truly interesting and sad is how low TVNewser has sunk and how useless it has become. It is no better now than its new partner the Enquirer or, as I lamented in an earlier article, the Drudge Report. What an embarrassment for everyone involved.

Feel free to let TVNewser know what a pack of ethically-deprived journalistic lowlifes they are:

TVNewser
Chris Ariens, Editor, Exec. Producer
Laurel Touby, Founder, CEO