Popular Culture Review 30.2
power to run stories or not to run them ” ( para . 7 ). Pecker suppressed negative coverage of Arnold Schwarzenegger . White House officials reputedly pressured television hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski to apologize to the president for their comments . In return , the Enquirer would not publish a story about their relationship . The same month the scandal sheet dropped a negative story about Tiger Woods after he agreed to a cover story in Men ’ s Fitness .
Jonathon Chait of The National Interest observed , “ Trump habitually pays for sex , and we also know he is willing to pay to keep embarrassing secrets from going public ” ( para . 2 ). Pecker helped his friend by keeping damaging information from the public . A former senior editor at the Enquirer , said “ We never printed a word about Trump without his approval ” ( Farrow para . 7 ). Pecker kept files containing negative stories on Donald in a safe . Sources close to the editor say that he removed them to a more secure place or destroyed them around the time of Trump ’ s inauguration . These contained information and sources relating to Trump ’ s marital problems , affairs , and lawsuits , plus multiple tips that he cheated while playing golf . Pecker probably did not destroy this treasure trove of malicious gossip figuring that it might provide written insurance in times of adversity ( Rutenberg and Haberman 1 ).
Rachel Maddow , MSNBC anchor , described the National Enquirer as “ weird , outrageous , and fantastically false ” ( Emery para . 11 ). The magazine counter-attacked with a flurry of vicious articles . One questioned why Maddow did not attend gay parties and another reported a feud between Maddow and Megan Kelly over Tom Brokaw . Enquireman in “ Rachel Maddow ’ s Brain-Dead Enquirer Attack ” chided Maddow for getting the price of his tabloid wrong and sent her a free
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