Pascrell Calls on Five of Largest Supermarkets to Pull National Enquirer

Requests trusted businesses stop selling tabloid purveyor of toxic misinformation

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-N.J.-09) wrote to the heads of the supermarket chains Walmart, Kroger, Albertsons,  Publix, and Food Lion, and called on them to remove the National Enquirer tabloid from their shelves following the latest reports that the head of the tabloid allegedly used it to deliberately spread false information and as a vehicle to commit extortion, blackmail, and other crimes.

“I write to request your businesses discontinue sales of the National Enquirer tabloid. Recent events make clear that the tabloid is a purveyor of fabricated news and possibly a vehicle in furtherance of illegal extortion, blackmail, and other crimes. In the interest of your millions of customers, this tabloid should be removed from all your store shelves,” Pascrell writes the leaders of America’s largest supermarket chains.

After recounting the sordid history and recent stories surrounding the tabloid, Pascrell writes, “[j]ust as none of you would sell a contaminated food product, I know you would never dispense other agents of sickness to the tens of millions of customers who walk through your aisles every day. Misinformation makes our society sick and the National Enquirer tabloid is a primary purveyor of it.”

The travails surrounding the National Enquirer’s publisher David Pecker and his company American Media Inc. (AMI) and its tabloid, the National Enquirer, have become well known. During the 2016 presidential campaign, the tabloid acted as an unofficial arm of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, maintaining a near-complete flow of negative publicity aimed at Mr. Trump’s opponents. Verified reports note that Mr. Pecker routinely bought the rights to numerous stories potentially negative to Mr. Trump and never ran them, a modus operandi typically called “catch-and-kill.” This practice was the subject of an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2018. Mr. Pecker signed an agreement for witness immunity in exchange for his testimony before a federal grand jury empaneled in a larger federal investigation into Mr. Trump. In his agreement with prosecutors, Mr. Pecker acknowledged paying $150,000 to “suppress” a story on Mr. Trump’s extramarital relationship to protect the then-presidential nominee.

In recent weeks, Jeff Bezos, the owner of Amazon and the publisher of the Washington Post, has alleged that confederates of AMI threatened to blackmail him before publishing salacious private stories involving Mr. Bezos. There are reports that Mr. Pecker and AMI are now subject to renewed prosecutorial scrutiny and possible criminal penalties for violating his plea agreement.

A copy of Rep. Pascrell’s letter is available here, and the text of it is provided below.

February 25, 2019

Mr. Doug McMillon
President and CEO, Walmart
702 S.W. 8th Street
Bentonville, Arkansas 72716

Mr. Rodney McMullen
CEO, Kroger
1014 Vine Street
Cincinnati, Ohio 45202

Mr. Jim Donald
CEO, Albertsons

250 E Parkcenter Boulevard
Boise City, Idaho 83706

Mr. Todd Jones
CEO, Publix
3300 Publix Corporate Pkwy
Lakeland, Florida 33811

Mr. Frans W. H. Muller
CEO, Food Lion
2110 Executive Dr
Salisbury, North Carolina 28147

Dear Sirs:

I write to request your businesses discontinue sales of the National Enquirer tabloid. Recent events make clear that the tabloid is a purveyor of fabricated news and possibly a vehicle in furtherance of illegal extortion, blackmail, and other crimes. In the interest of your millions of customers, this tabloid should be removed from all your store shelves.

The travails surrounding the National Enquirer’s publisher David Pecker and his company American Media Inc. (AMI) and its tabloid, the National Enquirer, have become well known. During the 2016 presidential campaign, the tabloid acted as an unofficial arm of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, maintaining a near-complete flow of negative publicity aimed at Mr. Trump’s opponents.^[1] Verified reports note that Mr. Pecker routinely bought the rights to numerous stories potentially negative to Mr. Trump and never ran them, a modus operandi typically called “catch-and-kill.” This practice was the subject of an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2018. Mr. Pecker signed an agreement for witness immunity in exchange for his testimony before a federal grand jury empaneled in a larger federal investigation into Mr. Trump.^[2] In his agreement with prosecutors, Mr. Pecker acknowledged paying $150,000 to “suppress” a story on Mr. Trump’s extramarital relationship to protect the then-presidential nominee.^[3]

In recent weeks, Jeff Bezos, the owner of Amazon and the publisher of the Washington Post, has alleged that confederates of AMI threatened to blackmail him before publishing salacious private stories involving Mr. Bezos.^[4] There are reports that Mr. Pecker and AMI are now subject to renewed prosecutorial scrutiny and possible criminal penalties for violating his plea agreement.^[5]

This pattern of behavior makes it clear that Mr. Pecker uses the National Enquirer tabloid both in total support of the leader of a political party and in furtherance of scabrous and potentially illegal schemes. And I would be remiss not to mention that since Mr. Pecker purchased the National Enquirer, the tabloid has been sued repeatedly and successfully for publishing libelous items about scores of public figures.^[6] Given this history, his flagship tabloid publication should not be given a platform in your businesses through which to poison Americans with lies.

This matter transcends politics and speaks directly to the valued place each of you holds in our national life. Supermarkets mark the upward evolution of modern society. I hope you feel enormous pride that your businesses play such integral and trusted roles in the lives of nearly every American. Just as none of you would sell a contaminated food product, I know you would never dispense other agents of sickness to the tens of millions of customers who walk through your aisles every day. Misinformation makes our society sick and the National Enquirer tabloid is a primary purveyor of it.

In its 2014 decision to cease the sales of cigarettes and other tobacco products, CVS made a decision that was not good for its financial bottom line, but one that was in the best interests of its customers and our nation. The impact of that decision was unalloyed good for the health of America. Helping stop the torrent flow of misinformation that batters Americans would be a public good. You should follow the spirit of that decision and no longer carry the National Inquirer tabloid on your shelves. Importantly, we must preserve First Amendment rights — while the National Enquirer has a right to publish material as they see fit, no publication has a First Amendment right to sell its products in private supermarkets.

I look forward to working with you to achieve this goal. If you disagree, please explain the rationale for the continued dissemination of fabricated news.

Thank you for your time and attention to my request.

Sincerely,

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[1] https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/08/24/president-donald-trump-rivals-say-national-enquirer-supported-him/1087658002/

[2] https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/23/politics/david-pecker-immunity-cohen/index.html

[3] https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/publisher-of-the-national-enquirer-admits-to-hush-money-payments-made-on-trumps-behalf/2018/12/12/ebf24b76-fe49-11e8-83c0-b06139e540e5_story.html?utm_term=.e37ce6a34711

[4] https://medium.com/@jeffreypbezos/no-thank-you-mr-pecker-146e3922310f

[5] https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/08/media/national-enquirer-jeff-bezos/index.html

[6] https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/claudiarosenbaum/dr-phil-drops-250-million-defamation-lawsuit; https://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/national-enquirer-retracts-smart-story-that-netted-reporters/article_1c521c00-bf23-5259-bb41-56880dea9be7.html; https://www.rcfp.org/carolyn-condit-and-national-enquirer-settle-suit/; https://www.today.com/popculture/cameron-diaz-sues-national-enquirer-wbna8079101; https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/judge-judy-gets-apology-for-false-national-enquirer-alzheimer-story