The sordid and complex story of Amazon founder and chief executive Jeffrey P. Bezos’s run-in with the National Enquirer is unusual in its details, but striking in one respect: It is yet another instance in which the Enquirer has been accused of unsavory tactics in pursuit of stories a number of times in recent years.
The Enquirer and other publications owned by its parent company, American Media LLC, have faced allegations of unethical and abusive behavior from actor Terry Crews, associates of former senator John Edwards (D-N.C.) and for its involvement in a scheme to protect the film producer Harvey Weinstein from accusations of sexual assault.
Although the tabloid’s revelation of Edwards’s affair with a campaign staffer in 2007 is often lauded as its finest feat of reporting, American Media’s tactics allegedly had a darker underside.