#2- Supermarket tabloids

Tabloid journalism inhabits a special place in the world, those places being the checkout aisle at any supermarket and the internet. From more outrageous publications like the New York Daily News telling any tale about a politician, to more acceptable outlets like People and TMZ covering that celebrity gossip that people care about. Tabloids by and large operate on the principle that as Director David Fincher puts it "people are perverts", they want to know every detail of someones life especially the parts that are taboo we know this and they know this. This business of collecting rumors and fabrication will only stop when people stop looking which will be never and because of that they have the power and money which allows them to do what they do.

Karen McDougal

Enter The National Enquirer a tabloid that you no doubt have seen in its usual spot in the check-out aisle has been recently discovered to have "assisted" President Donald Trump in the cover-up of stories involving an affair with former Playboy model Karen McDougal and the payoff of a Trump tower doorman Dino Sajudin. McDougal's affair with Trump began in around 2006 and lasted until 2007 all of which Trump's is married to his current wife Melania. This affair remained a secret until 2016 when McDougal was in talks to tell all to ABC when the Enquirer's parent company American Media(AMI) agreed to pay her $150,000 for two years of fitness columns, magazine covers, and most importantly the life rights to the relationship with "the married man" who is Donald Trump. McDougal thought that the story would be published but the agreement that she reached with AMI forbid her from being able to tell the story anywhere and did not obligate AMI to publish it. This tactic is called "catch and kill" and is not the only documented time AMI has used this. Dino Sajudin was paid by AMI $30,000 dollars in so that he would not talk about a rumor that Trump allegedly fathered a child with a former housekeeper. Why exactly is AMI so concerned with Donald Trump you might ask it can't be for circulation reasons as they did not publish either story.

David Pecker and Trump

Well it is very simple as the current CEO of AMI David Pecker and the President are long time friends, with Pecker saying that he greatly admires Trump. This is backed up further from former American Media spokesman Stu Zakim saying, " This boils down to friendship. Pecker is taking care of his friends,". McDougal and Sajudin are just of the stories that we know of that were subject to the "catch and kill" tactic with Zakim also saying that, "AMI has often paid for stories to take them off the market -- i.e., no one else can print it -- to protect David's friends. Trump is one of his close friends, so take the leap". The fact that a man like David Pecker the CEO of The National Enquirer helps his friend Trump really makes every time Trump says "fake news" reach new levels of irony.

Wall Street Journal article here.
CNN article about "catch and kill" here.
CNN article about Sajuin payoff here.