Not sure who is advising AMI and David Pecker, but blackmailing the richest man in the world, Jeff Bezos, may prove to be a bad idea. Very bad.
Several days ago, an AMI leader advised us that Mr. Pecker is “apoplectic” about our investigation. For reasons still to be better understood, the Saudi angle seems to hit a particularly sensitive nerve.
A few days after hearing about Mr. Pecker’s apoplexy, we were approached, verbally at first, with an offer. They said they had more of my text messages and photos that they would publish if we didn’t stop our investigation.
My lawyers argued that AMI has no right to publish photos since any person holds the copyright to their own photos, and since the photos in themselves don’t add anything newsworthy.
AMI’s claim of newsworthiness is that the photos are necessary to show Amazon shareholders that my business judgment is terrible. I founded Amazon in my garage 24 years ago, and drove all the packages to the post office myself. Today, Amazon employs more than 600,000 people, just finished its most profitable year ever, even while investing heavily in new initiatives, and it’s usually somewhere between the #1 and #5 most valuable company in the world. I will let those results speak for themselves.
OK, back to their threat to publish intimate photos of me. I guess we (me, my lawyers, and Gavin de Becker) didn’t react to the generalized threat with enough fear, so they sent this:
What follows is specific details, apparently from AMI, of the photos they have. The gist of it is the Enquirer wants the Washington Post, which Bezos owns, to pull a story about them they don’t like. In the background, of course, is the long simmering feud of the Post, Bezos, Pecker, and Pecker’s long-time friend Donald J. Trump. Bezos concludes his piece, along with the emails from AMI, with this:
These communications cement AMI’s long-earned reputation for weaponizing journalistic privileges, hiding behind important protections, and ignoring the tenets and purpose of true journalism. 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. I prefer to stand up, roll this log over, and see what crawls out.
Sincerely,
Jeff Bezos
Here’s to seeing what crawls out.
I would love for Bezos to send AMI down the tubes after Gawker.Report
I’m waiting for the defenses of the president of the US blackmailing his critics.Report
I am waiting for someone to use this to distract from la affair du blackface. Oh, wait…Report
Distracting from a scandal with a scandal that’s an order of magnitude worse.Report
“Hold my beer…”Report
It turns out that trying to bribe the wealthiest man in the world is not easy.Report
What part of this looks like bribery to you?Report
Right. It’s extortiony (quid pro quo on nudey pics and so on) but not bribery. I think the meat of Bezos blog post isn’t that AMI tried to extort him but what they were motivated by: an investigation into how AMI acquired texts from Bezos phone. And if we give Bezos credit for being really smart, and certainly smart enough to have really good lawyers, I think we can infer from Bezos post that his investigation uncovered enough info on that point to be *very* damaging to AMI and Pecker, and potentially Trump.Report
At first I thought you were playing the title game… then I realized I had misread the title… and found myself vaguely disappointed.Report
It’s an implicit pun about his privates.Report
*everything* is an implied pun; only the few, the brave make them explicit.Report
Why are you bringing up Elizabeth Warren?Report
I am a man of few reservations.Report
Even more important than “why”: how?Report
How? I have no idea, but I’m not so green as to think there’s any sort of deal there.Report
Same, my friend, same.Report
What’s striking to me is the implication that this is just the tip of the iceberg, and how interconnected media and politics are.
Where do tabloids get their kompromat? How many public figures and elected officials are under threat of blackmail?Report
just the tip
Yup, that’s what they have a picture of.Report
We’ll know for sure whether Bezos is Jewish.Report
This is the unkindest cut.Report
This needs to be discussed very circumspectly.Report
Here’s one of my favorites:
David’s watch was not working. He remembered passing a little shop with clocks and watches in the window, so he took the watch in for repair.
“Can I help you?” asked the man behind the counter.
“I want this watch repaired,” said David.
“I’m sorry. I don’t repair watches.”
“Well, how much for a new one then?” asked David.
“I don’t sell watches.”
“You don’t sell watches?”
“No, I don’t sell watches.”
“Clocks, you sell clocks then? How much for a clock?”
“I don’t sell clocks.”
David was getting exasperated. “You don’t sell watches, you don’t sell clocks?”
“No, I’m a mohel,” replied the man.
“Then why do you have all those clocks and watches in the window?”
“If you were a mohel, tell me, what would you put in the window?”Report
That’s a good one.Report
Alternate post title:
Bezos Rolls Over Pecker’s LogReport
Huffpo went with “Bezos Exposes Pecker”.Report
OMG!Report
Eugene Volokh’s thoughts on whether AMI broke the law.Report
Another issue is whether AMI violated the terms of its cooperation agreement.Report