
Jeff Bezos claims the National Enquirer is threatening to publish “intimate photos” of him.
Yes, really.
You should get comfortable because we've got a lot to unpack here.
In a blog post, the Amazon founder and richest man in the world said he was exposing the story because he would not “capitulate to extortion and blackmail”.
Bezos published emails which he claims show American Media Inc, the company who publish the Enquirer, threatening to reveal a “below the belt selfie – otherwise colloquially known as a ‘d*ck pick’”.
I’ve written a post about developments with the National Enquirer and its parent company, AMI. You can find it here: https://t.co/G1ykJAPPwy— Jeff Bezos (@Jeff Bezos) 1549579861
He alleges American Media Inc CEO David Pecker was motivated by coverage of the company’s ties with Saudi Arabia in the Washington Post, the newspaper Bezos bought for $250m in 2013.
There’s history here too, because the NationalEnquirer also reported in January that Bezos had been having an eight-month affair with TV news anchor Lauren Sanchez.
National Enquirer says it tracked Jeff Bezos & his mistress "across five states and 40,000 miles" in "four-month in… https://t.co/pF4QHSoAxH— Michael M. Grynbaum (@Michael M. Grynbaum) 1547078024
So to recap, the world’s richest man is allegedly being blackmailed by a tabloid newspaper with a “d*ck pic” because his newspaper was investigating whether they were working with the Saudi government.
Wow.
Naturally, the internet is losing its mind over this.
literally what is going on https://t.co/lxzcCsdExm— hunter harris (@hunter harris) 1549585247
I mean, this is a moment in internet history right here, folks. https://t.co/kWlJVqHn7h— Jason Abbruzzese (@Jason Abbruzzese) 1549580251
If you DIDN'T suspect that "blackface pics of politicians" would be upstaged by "dick pics of billionaires" by the… https://t.co/judrcNfdy6— andi zeisler (@andi zeisler) 1549590639
Jeff Bezos: “Alexa, send nudes to my secret admirer.” Alexa: “Got it. Sending nudes to the National Enquirer.”— Pranay Pathole (@Pranay Pathole) 1549607090
DICK PICS, PARKER! GET ME MORE BILLIONAIRE DICK PICS TO USE AS POLITICAL LEVERAGE AND (ALLEGEDLY) FURTHER MY INTERE… https://t.co/gctEP9Ybwe— Dave Itzkoff (@Dave Itzkoff) 1549591581
Bezos Hamilton’d himself. Truly, 2019 is off to a hell of a start.— Aaron Mehta (@Aaron Mehta) 1549583098
Here’s an all-time top 10 front page from the New York Post to celebrate the story.
Tomorrow's cover: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos dropped bombshell blackmail allegations against the National Enquirer on Th… https://t.co/UaGhmTzVjB— New York Post (@New York Post) 1549598918
And here’s another juicy detail – it looks like the Enquirer’s website is hosted by Amazon Web Services…
@JeffBezos Dear Mr Bezos, I'm just gonna leave this here... https://t.co/ggQfsWeiM0— ryan “huber” (@ryan “huber”) 1549585201
We should also spare a thought for the Cincinnati Enquirer right now, which is definitely NOT the National Enquirer.
.@JeffBezos make it stop pls.— Enquirer (@Enquirer) 1549586699
Although Jeff Bezos and the National Enquirer are pretty controversial figures at the best of times, people generally agree the Amazon CEO is doing the right thing by not backing down.
Admitting Jeff Bezos did the right thing is honestly more traumatic than seeing his dick— Jess Dweck (@Jess Dweck) 1549599934
With all the excitement, you might have missed people wondering if Bezos has invented a new word as well.
It's, like, 47th on the list of amazing things about the Bezos post on Medium, but: "The Post is a complexifier for me"— Jim Tankersley (@Jim Tankersley) 1549582904
The Complexifier. https://t.co/V9L9nE7SK2— Gavin Purcell (@Gavin Purcell) 1549581749
If he were still married to a novelist, he wouldn't have used the word "complexifier."— Stephen Marche (@Stephen Marche) 1549581051
But whether he knew it or not, it turns out “complexify” is a real word, according to Merriam-Webster dictionary.
It's a perfectly good derivative noun. https://t.co/MxrhL5djfu— Peter Sokolowski (@Peter Sokolowski) 1549584267
Obviously, this story, if true, is pretty bad but one question for a lot of people is whether the National Enquirer committed a crime with the emails Bezos alleges were sent to him
Over to legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti for an explainer on that...
THREAD: Did the National Enquirer and its parent company commit a crime or otherwise break the law in its recent ac… https://t.co/B5o6NUUMde— Renato Mariotti (@Renato Mariotti) 1549583448
Woah, that was a lot of information.
Now you’re all up to date with what is undoubtedly the most important story of the century.
wow February has been....a lot— chrissy teigen (@chrissy teigen) 1549593692
I feel you Chrissy.
It's a very complexificated time.
HT: Twitter Moments