The thing to understand about the National Enquirer...

[Tommy Carcetti]

…is you didn’t have to buy it to read it.

You didn’t even have to consider buying it to read it.

All you had to do was stand in the grocery store checkout aisle and there it was, with pictures and big headlines promising huge exclusive stories.

So even if you were just standing there, the chances it might subliminally affect you are notable.

Hillary Clinton, a crook?

Hillary Clinton, deathly ill?

Donald Trump, the victim of a set up?

All of these things could be communicated without even an actual word being said.

And given the margin in the swing states in 2016, the subliminal impact of tabloid headlines on possible voters was much more substantial than you or I might want to admit.

ON EDIT: What Trump sought to use the Enquirer for as free advertising and disinformation was the same as what the Russians did for him with social media. Two different types of media but same intended result.

[CincyDem]

1. Gotta wonder what the rise of self checkout did to their business? n/t

[LeftInTX]

7. That's the best thing about self checkout..LOL

[forgotmylogin]

41. That was a very good point - the Enquirer is the thing you had to see at the checkout.

Trump got a ton of free advertising and "people are saying" gossip through this.

Honestly after the 2016 election, the Enquirer from what I saw completely reversed and went back to celebrity gossip only.

I've noticed most stores now don't carry as many tabloids, it's more wellness/diet/architecture/history/biography "special edition" coffee-table magazines that are less periodical and more like a softcover book.

[LeftInTX]

48. I've noticed that too. It seems to have gone back to People and Time etc where I live.

Lots of celebrity stuff, but I can live with that.

[Wonder Why]

2. But no more UFO stories of rural people being experimented on by aliens? Ah! The good ole days.

[ArkansasDemocrat1]

18. What happened to Nessie anyways? n/t

[DBoon]

30. and no more Elvis sightings either

[Tommy Carcetti]

33. The National Enquirer was a gossip tabloid involving real people.

Publications like World Weekly News dealt with the sensational supernatural stuff that no one in their right mind would believe.

There's a difference.

[Wonder Why]

38. Only people in their radical right mind believe the Enquirer.

[Ligyron]

42. HEY! Bat Boy was a totally real thing!

He was gubiner of Florida before flying off to D.C. as (gulp) our Senator.

[claudette]

3. I honestly think

the magazine isn’t the problem. The problem is that there are crazy people who actually BELIEVE the junk in those magazines.

[nikatnyte]

19. Agreed

Any rational person, by this time, looks at the National Enquirer and immediately questions their headlines. I'd never believe any of them. (Yes, yes, I know...most people aren't that rational.)

[Ford_Prefect]

20. The magazine exists to take advantage of people who do not examine the sources too closely, who are easily manipulated

in the same way children can be, through emotionalized headlines and outright sensationalized lies.

They do not ask for this manipulation and do not deserve it. No more so than people with little money want a liquor store, or a gun store in their neighborhood, or a drug dealer in the building they live in.

[Tommy Carcetti]

35. Are you referring to celebrity gossip tabloids like the National Enquirer?

Or the really off the wall supernatural tabloids like World Weekly News?

Because there's a difference between the two as to how plausible their stories might be.

[msongs]

4. one suspects people who look at that rag have already made up their minds on most issues nt

[Tommy Carcetti]

8. Not necessarily

There are a lot of casual voters who aren’t particularly ideological or deeply involved in following the news, but who still vote.

Seeing an unattractive picture of Hillary Clinton with a negative headline might be enough to plant a seed of doubt in their heads.

Seeing enough of those pictures and headlines only reinforces those doubts, even if it’s not on a conscious level.

That’s the insidious nature of what Trump was planning on in his arrangement with the Enquirer.

[LiberalFighter]

5. That was a strong intent.

[OAITW r.2.0]

6. A sad fact, well exposed.

I scan those and shake my head at the stupidity. Others see it and think, "yeah, that makes sense".

[Silent Type]

9. For what it's worth, one of so-called legal experts on tv said defense will show N Enquirer

has done this before for people not remotely tied to trump. I don’t know whether that’s true or not, or even if it’s relevant.

I did a Google search and found articles like one in 2012 N Enquirer entitled, “Romney Abortion Bombshell, he got 2 mistresses pregnant.”

[CanonRay]

10. I always thought there was this percentage of people

who read the Enquierer and watched pro wrestling who were on the fringe of sanity. They are now a political movement called MAGA.

[Sneederbunk]

11. TFG had his own "fake news" outlet.

[unblock]

12. Those stories also make their way into the msm as they feel they need to cover it or respond to it.

And especially if Donnie then talked about it.

[Igel]

13. Batboy.

Apparently some reporters were shocked by the pay-for-the-story idea.

Really? Batboy was a real thing? Uh ... full human.

Sometimes it's like they have their head under a rock. That's been dropped from dozens of meters up.

[gay texan]

27. To be honest

I do miss "weekly world news"

That rag was hillarious!

[Blue Owl]

32. Batboy is alive and real in Florida!

[Martin68]

14. This: "What Trump sought to use the Enquirer for as free advertising and disinformation was the same as what the

Russians did for him with social media. Two different types of media but same intended result."

[HUAJIAO]

15. When I was in college back in the 1960s

I once had a summer job working for a landscaping company. We landscaped/mowed the lawn for the then owner of the National Inquirer - Generoso Pope !!

[surfered]

16. I'm always surprised by the number of people...

…who believe this stuff. The same people who believe professional wrestling is real.

[DENVERPOPS]

17. Bingo TC

A lot of the same muck that Hitler did in his early days.......

Tell a lie, and keep repeating it.....

Take control of the Media

ETCETCETC

[CarolinaNC]

21. I turned against the Nation Enquirer when they plastered pictures of Princess Diana's death scene...Horrible

Trump and national enquirer have been buddies. You are right, he fed them disinformation and they used it.

[catbyte]

22. I miss Weekly World News at the checkout...

[diverdownjt]

24. Love me some Bat Boy....LOL

Wonder how he's doing these days

[Blue Owl]

31. Last I heard he's trying to attack Medicare and Social Security

[PufPuf23]

44. Bat Boy looks like Rudy Giuliani as a child. nt

[orangecrush]

23. Nailed it

As usual

[WarGamer]

25. Aliens!! The #1 topic

[Tommy Carcetti]

34. The National Enquirer is a celebrity gossip tabloid involving stories about real people.

What you're thinking of are papers like the World Weekly News, which dealt with the crazy supernatural stuff like aliens and bigfoot that no one in their right mind would take seriously.

But people might take gossip about a real person seriously.

Even if it wasn't true.

[WarGamer]

36. always worth a laugh in line at the store

[NoMoreRepugs]

26. Great take TC.

[captain queeg]

28. I don't think the NI is much like if was in the old days.

They got sued so many times they really toned it down.

[summer_in_TX]

29. Seth Abramson points to Saudi funding of the catch-and-kill stories.

Link to tweet

Seth Abramson reposted
Seth Abramson
@SethAbramson
Hey, let’s hope no one asks David Pecker who was *paying* for all Trump’s catch-and-kill operations during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, because—spoiler alert!—it was the Saudis, who had cut a deal with Don Jr. to illegally interfere in the election in early August 2016.
6:04 PM · Apr 23, 2024
·
116.2K
Views

Seth Abramson
@SethAbramson
·
4h
MORE/ How do I know this, you wonder? Well, I’m glad you asked. I wrote all about it, with full sourcing, in a NEW YORK TIMES bestseller that was published five years ago.

Maybe people will care *now*? Or no?

Seth Abramson
@SethAbramson
·
4h
You’re getting *very warm*, James.

I said that this criminal trial is very much about illegal election interference, and I meant it. Per usual, the good guys are only telling about 10% of the story in order to not ruffle feathers. But America deserves the full truth about this. x.com/JamesSNYC/stat…
Show more
James
@JamesSNYC
·
4h
Let’s not forget that David Pecker published a glossy custom magazine without ads on Saudi Arabia that was distributed by AMI in the USA. It extolled the virtues of Saudi Arabia and its destinations. A total puff piece. Follow the money. 💰

(Link to the article about the glossy custom magazine: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna868581)

Link to tweet

Seth Abramson
@SethAbramson
Saudi Arabia.

Once you understand that the arrangement between AMI and Trump was in fact an arrangement between AMI and Trump and MBS, you understand it all.
Quote
Adam Klasfeld
@KlasfeldReports
·
11h
Replying to @KlasfeldReports
Trying to pierce Pecker's claim that the arrangement was mutually beneficial, ADA Steinglass notes that catch-and-kill of the alleged affairs didn't benefit AMI's magazines.

[live love laugh]

37. Republican OWNED Media is a "thing".

I just wish more Peckers would come forward.

[moniss]

39. My mother-in-law

used to buy a couple of the tabloids every week. She was convinced about 4 headed aliens and dogs with a head on each end. When challenged she would insist it had to be true in order for a company to print it. Good heart but susceptible mind.

[twodogsbarking]

40. The cover in the check out line is what most people saw. It was always worth a chuckle.

[LeftInTX]

49. It was always about Hillary's health. It was like having Fox News piped into the grocery store.

https://i.kinja-img.com/image/upload/c_fit,q_60,w_1600/6b34c7752d69fe819af19aedf81e5efe.jpg

[sanatanadharma]

43. The eyes see, the mind registers, the mindless believe

Biggest cover story of all: 35 ways the National Enquirer's publisher boosted Donald Trump

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100218891876

[Always Blue]

45. Every time

When I would go through checkout line I either turned them around or put other magazines in front of them.
I think that they should have been sued over the lies. Not just ignored because no one will read it.

[NanaCat]

46. Once I got used to doing my own shopping as an adult,

I never looked at them in the checkout unless someone brought them to my attention for some reason. I'd have to think hard to know what was at the checkout at all. I was busy enough emptying the cart, getting my payment method ready, doing one last double-check of the items against my list, keeping an eye on the cashier's scans, keeping track of my kid when he was young, and so on. I didn't even notice the other junk.

Might have also helped to have shopped at military commissaries for several years during my young adult life. They didn't stock junk at the checkouts so what little of a habit I had with looking at the displays got erased, once and for all.

Of course, now I'm a curbside/delivery shopper, so even less chance that I might see any of them.

[Liberal In Texas]

47. Propaganda can be very subtle.

Very good points Tommy.

[mountain grammy]

50. the National Enquirer is trump

Mean.. Ugly.. full of lies.