Jeff Bezos extortion attempt - perhaps a bad idea

In The Dark Knight, when someone says he wants money or he'll reveal Batman's identity, Morgan Freeman's character says "Let me get this straight. You think that your client, one of the wealthiest, most powerful men in the world, is secretly a vigilante who spends his nights beating criminals to a pulp with his bare hands...and your plan is to blackmail this person? Good luck."

........And then we have real life, when the National Enquirer tries to blackmail/extort Jeff Bezos, who is worth $137 billion dollars and the richest person in the world, and Bezos just goes ahead and publishes the dirt they have on him, like a boss.....

https://medium.com/@jeffreypbezos/no-thank-you-mr-pecker-146e392231

That's balls-y.

So he published the pictures?  I didn't see any pictures.  Somebody should publish the pictures. 

Wow. 

1988RedT2 said:

So he published the pictures?  I didn't see any pictures.  Somebody should publish the pictures. 

no, he didn't publish the pictures, but he published the email that listed what they were. I mean, is anyone out there really interested in what a bald 55-year-old's junk looks like? Pamela Anderson he isn't.  Jeff Bezos dick pics and selfies aren't gonna be a top-viewed on the porn sites, I wouldn't think. 

I am going to see how often I can use the phrase "roll this log over and see what crawls out." 

that is some seriously slimy E36 M3 there. Somebody needs that investigated with a badge.

mad_machine said:

that is some seriously slimy E36 M3 there. Somebody needs that investigated with a badge.

I mean, last I checked blackmail is a criminal felony in most cases. And if that email isn't the textbook definition of blackmail, I'm not sure what is. 

Glad he stood up to them.

Damn. New found respect for mr Bezos there. I also loved the log reference! Especially because one of my daughters favorite activities is literally rolling a log over and seeing what crawls out. 

I sort of read an implied where Bezos plans to maybe throw some legal aid to others who have had to give in the Nat Enquirer demands in the past.  Not just go forward with his own but establish a pattern of blackmail.  

Often attributed to Mark Twain and also called Greener's Law...

“Never pick a fight with a man who buys ink by the barrel and paper by the ton.”

Interesting, here we have two that buy the modern equivalent but clearly one buys (owns) more.  

I find myself in the most unusual position of advocating 100% for a billionaire. I hope the ami and enquirer execs do hard time. This is beyond ridiculous.

In reply to John Welsh :

You'd think they'd be smart enough to avoid a Hulk Hogan scenario, but apparently not. Maybe they were emboldened by having a friend in the white house. It'll be interesting to see how this shakes out.

To those that don't know: Gawker involuntarily outed as gay a very rich Silicon Valley executive. He took his time and paid attention to what Gawker was doing and funded a lawsuit brought against them by Terry Bollea (Hulk Hogan) over their publishing a covert recording of him having sex. He won, and Gawker shut down over the $115m judgment.

It’s a bit sad because the NE used to be known to have pretty good journalistic integrity.  Yes, they reported goofy stories, but they were generally well researched and checked.  Obviously, they have wandered from that path (as has many other outlets).

But, when you have a Pecker in command, don’t be surprised when he turns out to be a dick.

In reply to aircooled :

Did you just write that The National Enquirer used to be known for Journalists Integrity? 

How? When? 

Was it  because they were above The Weekly World News yet, somehow below, People Magazine. 

No really.  It was a few years ago, but it was one of those things you would not think is true.  I am certainly not saying there choice of stories where of the highest caliber, but, in general (again, from what I remember) you would be hard pressed to disprove them.

I know, you will say “but what about the Bigfoot baby story shown!?”.  Well, THEY aren’t saying it’s bigfoots baby, they are saying SHE is saying it’s Bigfoot’s baby.  So, in that way, the story is entirely true (I assume). I am guessing many of their “news” stories followed a similar logic.

As noted, you will have to ignore the more recent years.  I am not sure when they went to the dark side.  And no, I have never been a reader, just something I heard a few times when a reported from the paper would talk about stories (the less goofy ones of course) on a radio show I listened to.  The host would often comment on their (somewhat hard to believe) integrity. 

I guess you could say (not a huge compliment obviously), that they didn’t just “make stuff up”.

if you check their Wikipedia page, you can see they were involved is some pretty significant news stories  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Enquirer

Looks like Mr. Male Member bought the out in 1999, so I am guessing the change came some time after that.

In reply to Wally :

There was no way they couldn't run that headline.  

I imagine Mr. Pecker was teased a lot in middle school.

The National Enquirer got really full of themselves after The Weekly World News folded.

I miss the Weekly World News. We never hear what Bat Boy is up to anymore 

In reply to Wally :

He grew up and they’ve been making all these movies about him. 

Bezos probably just watched Eight Mile on Prime and went all B Rabbit Final Battle vs Papa Doc

Jeff Bezos- "Alexa, initiate protocol 666 on national Enquirer. "

Alexa, turning red- "ALEXA SMASH!"

AngryCorvair said:

Bezos probably just watched Eight Mile on Prime and went all B Rabbit Final Battle vs Papa Doc

Keepin’ it real in the 313, y0!