-Caveat Lector-
Grabbing the Headlines: The National Enquirer
By Howard Kurtz
Staff Writer
Washington Post
Monday, February 26, 2001; Page C01
The hottest publication in America right now is the National
Enquirer -- and no one in the establishment press is snickering.
One month after scooping the world with the tale of Jesse
Jackson's out-of-wedlock child, the supermarket tabloid did it
again last week, discovering that Hillary Rodham Clinton's
brother had been paid big bucks for helping secure a presidential
pardon for a businessman convicted of mail fraud and perjury.
"We have been slowly swinging toward politics in the last three
years -- since Monica, really," says Enquirer Editor Steve Coz.
"What's the difference between Hollywood and Washington?
Politicians are so much better known now, which is good for
magazine sales. Tom and Nicole getting divorced might be a very
good story to read, but when you uncover a Bill Clinton pardon
scandal, that does have an impact on people's lives."
A Los Angeles Times reporter had been banging on Hugh Rodham's
door in Florida, and Associated Press writer John Solomon
independently broke the story Wednesday, including a statement
from the Clintons that smelled of damage control. But it was the
Enquirer that had a copy of a $200,000 wire transfer from felon
Almon Braswell's Canadian bank to Rodham's firm. Coz admits he's
"miffed" that the story popped before the Enquirer, not yet at
the newsstands, could leak the revelations to its favorite
outlet, the New York Post.
Coz acknowledges that the Enquirer used its checkbook in the
Rodham inquiry, though he says "this story was more dependent on
investigative reporting than anything else." Similarly, some
payments were made on the Jackson story, but not to the
reverend's mistress.
More telling, perhaps, is the paper's firepower -- a dozen
Enquirer reporters were chasing 10 of Clinton's most questionable
pardons. As in the Jackson story, the Enquirer's "CLINTON PARDON
PAYOFF EXPOSED" was so solid that the principals had little
choice but to quickly confirm the details, with Rodham returning
his $400,000 fee under pressure from the former first family.
While not abandoning the celebrity world -- last week's cover was
"Arnold & Maria Divorce Blowup" -- Coz says he's been beefing up
his East Coast staff, in part by hiring Richard Gooding, who
broke the 1996 story about Dick Morris's call girl for the rival
Star. (The Enquirer, Star and Globe are now owned by a firm
headed by former Treasury undersecretary Roger Altman.)
Enquirer circulation is a healthy 2.1 million -- down from a 1977
high of 5 million -- and the Harvard-educated Coz has toned down
its sleaze content. Clearly, the tab has come a long way since
the New York Times kicked up a fussby deigning to quote from one
of its O.J. Simpson stories. "They are, if you think about it,
the newspaper of record of the Clinton years," Newsweek's Howard
Fineman declared on the Imus show.
Coz says the Enquirer's interest in national affairs (so to
speak) is driven by one man: "Clinton is the Tom Cruise of
politics, a larger-than-life character." So what happens when
Clinton fades and the paper is left with the Bush administration?
"That is a huge question," says Coz. Of course, there's always
Tom and Nicole.
<snip balance>
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