Is the National Enquirer Suicidal?

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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.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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