We live in wondrous times. On Thursday night, the world's wealthiest man, Jeff Bezos, revealed that the tabloid National Enquirer was threatening to publish what Dylan Howard — chief content officer of American Media Inc., the Enquirer's parent company — referred to in an email as a "below the belt selfie — otherwise colloquially known as a 'd*ck pick'" if Bezos didn't drop an investigation into how AMI acquired his private text messages to his mistress. Howard and other AMI officials put these threats into writing, and Bezos put that writing into his post.
This could cause serious legal problems for AMI and its chief, David Pecker, who have a non-prosecution deal with Manhattan federal prosecutors in a separate "catch-and-kill" case, and Bezos' investigators reportedly suspect that a government agency or foreign government originally intercepted the Bezos text messages, which could potentially implicate President Trump, a longtime friend of Pecker and vocal critic of Bezos. But let's not lose sight of what's important here: the gift this is to headline writers. In fact, the New York Post and HuffPost had the same obvious-in-retrospect banner:
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Honda and Nissan in merger talksSpeed Read The companies are currently Japan's second and third-biggest automakers, respectively
-
Taylor Swift wraps up record-shattering Eras tourSpeed Read The pop star finally ended her long-running tour in Vancouver, Canada
-
Drake claims illegal boosting, defamationSpeed Read The rapper accused Universal Music of boosting Kendrick Lamar's diss track and said UMG allowed him to be falsely accused of pedophilia
-
'Wicked' and 'Gladiator II' ignite holiday box officeSpeed Read The combination of the two movies revitalized a struggling box office
-
Jussie Smollet conviction overturned on appealSpeed Read The Illinois Supreme Court overturned the actor's conviction on charges of staging a racist and homophobic attack against himself in 2019
-
Quincy Jones, music icon, is dead at 91Speed Read The legendary producer is perhaps best known as the architect behind Michael Jackson's 'Thriller'
-
OJ Simpson, star athlete tried for murder, dead at 76Speed Read The former football hero and murder suspect lost his battle with cancer
-
Momofuku's 'Chili Crunch' trademark uproarSpeed Read The company's attempt to own the sole rights has prompted backlash
