One odd thing about the whole National Enquirer going after Joe and Mika

[dsc]

I am not an avid reader of tabloids but I find it hard to believe that the tabloids make a habit of targeting cable news hosts given that the overlap among people who know who Joe and Mika are and read the National Enquirer would be tiny. I don't see, absent doing a favor for Trump, why they would have gone after those two.

[left-of-center2012]

1. I don't read the National Enquirer

But maybe they think having the MSNBC couple on their front page will increase sales,
even though it's bad publicity.

Maybe they think followers of Joe and Mika will see the cover and buy it to see what it's about?

I don't know.

[safeinOhio]

2. When in line at the store,

I pick that rag up, scan the head lines and then it around and then put it back on the rack. I've seen others do it too.

[Tanuki]

3. The publisher probably calculates that doing Trump a favor will pay off down the road. The Enquirer

allegedly paid a woman $150 K for exclusive rights to her story about her affair with Donald, not for the purpose of publishing it and boosting sales, but to keep her from going to any other media (and not publishing it themselves). Don't expect anything about Trump and his cronies to make sense in the usual scheme of things.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/11/national-enquirer-paid-to-kill-trump-affair-story-report.html

[dsc]

4. that I can see easily

I just don't see any other reason they would publish such a story.

[maxsolomon]

5. It's not odd at all

The NE is owned by a personal friend of President Asshole, David Pecker. He is coordinating with the White House to shape coverage, just as FoxNews does, in any way they can.

Blackmail is perfectly justified in this bottom feeding world. Even if very few people read that tabloid, we all see the headlines waiting to buy our groceries. It seeps into the consciousness of the uninformed voter through repetition.

Propaganda 101.

[FM123]

6. You make a good point - since most tabloids write about movie stars & such

to arbitrarily write a hit piece on cable news hosts doesn't even fit in with the rest of the Hollywood gossip format. Maybe the odd political stories are an extended version of Trumpy's tweets.

[wishstar]

7. I would be willing to bet Trump asked the Natl Enquirer owner to harass them

as a way for Trump to intimidate and get revenge over their disloyalty as well as pressure them to apologize and buckle under to him.

[BannonsLiver]

9. No doubt about it

The NE, Radar Online and TMZ are all unabashedly pro Trump/anti Dem. They are all Trumpian tools.

I expect if he's still around in 2020 they will try to smear whoever the leading Dem is. It will be quite ugly.

[UTUSN]

8. It's not about the NE audience's erudition - it's about *smearing* on a wide basis

Once the smear is out there, it gets bigger exponentially just on the basis of "everybody knows".

Not that Joe Scabs & Mika Mouse are innocent about whatever (the DRUMPF-kissing, the marriages, the self-promotion) - Scabs has been emotionally and verbally ABUSING Mouse all these years - while we/I watched.