American tabloid newspaper that pioneered celebrity scandal journalism — and whose 'catch and kill' practice (paying for exclusive rights to stories and then suppressing them) became a significant political scandal through its relationship with Donald Trump.
The catch and kill model: the National Enquirer's practice of paying sources for exclusive rights to scandalous stories — and then, for favored subjects, killing the story rather than publishing — was revealed during the 2016 campaign as a systematic practice benefiting Trump. David Pecker's AMI kept a 'safe' of suppressed stories. The catch and kill arrangement was later cited in Trump's criminal trial. The Enquirer's broader contribution: making celebrity scandal into a mass-market consumer product and pioneering checkbook journalism.
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