Is the National Enquirer Suicidal?

Flickr/<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/emutree/227371480/">emutree</a>

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Traditional print jockeys now have to tussle with a supermarket tabloid for a Pulitzer Prize. This week, the administrators of daily journalism’s biggest exercise in self-congratulation reversed themselves and agreed to consider the National Enquirer in two Pulitzer categories for its reporting of the John Edwards infidelity/paternity imbroglio. The news was hailed by nontraditional journalists at outlets like the Huffington Post and Gawker, who lobbied mercilessly on the Enquirer‘s behalf (and who have no shortage of schadenfreude when it comes to the suffering of print giants like the New York Times and Washington Post).

There’s no question that the gossipy Enquirerwhose current issue leads with a washed-up pop diva’s health problems (“WHITNEY DYING!”) and a celebrity chef’s romantic woes (“PAULA DEEN DIVORCE SHOCKER!”)ran with a story nobody else vetted when it exposed the dalliance between thenSen. Edwards and staffer Rielle Hunter. And the paper deserves some recognition for being, in many ways, a tastemaker and trendsetter in the new media landscape. But the Enquirer‘s allies overlook the fact that its most questionable reporting practice was precisely what got it the “scoop” over other organizationsand what ultimately could lead the tabloid to get squeezed out of its own business.

The biggest strike against the Enquirer is its practice of “checkbook journalism”: It pays sources for their “BOMBSHELL” exclusives. That seems to have been the case with the tabloid’s Edwards affair coverage, too. When CNN’s Wolf Blitzer interviewed Enquirer editor David Perel about the story in 2008, he asked point blank:

Blitzer: Did you pay any sources in connection with this particular story involving John Edwards?

Perel: Wolf, we pay for photographs. We pay for information when it’s accurate. We have no problem doing that. And in this story, you know, whether we did or we didn’t, I’m not going to say. It doesn’t matter. You can assume we did. The thing that counts is the story has proven to be true and there is more to come.

Take Perel’s (dissembling) words at face value and assume there was some payola involved in the Edwards coverage. Then, all of a sudden, the Enquirer‘s “scoop” doesn’t look quite like the mammoth journalistic coup. Not because payola taints a story, but because it means the outlets with the most money and wherewithal will get the next scoop. In other words: If major networks and papers adopt the Edwards reporting model, won’t the Enquirer have just scooped itself out of the scoop business?

Enquiring minds want to know.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate