Bezos is on Medium!
“Bezos Exposes Pecker” is my favorite headline so far this year.
Important update (2/12/19): These were not politically-motivated leaks, just the slimy National Enquirer doing what they do — publishing other peoples’ dirty laundry. The brother of Bezos’s mistress leaked the texts. I’m interested to see if he will walk back his claims, or retain his victim position after cheating on his wife. Either way, his post was well written, entertaining, and I hope if he does follow up he uses Medium.
Thursday, in a post titled “No thank you, Mr. Pecker”, Jeff Bezos exposed the National Enquirer’s attempt to blackmail him.
First, I want to commend Jeff on being a total boss. Not for infidelity, but because he did not succumb to the sick practices of American Media Inc. (AMI), the tabloid’s parent company, and their owner David Pecker.
Long story short: A few weeks back, the National Enquirer leaked intimate text messages between Bezos and his lover, and he responded by launching an investigation. AMI is not happy with Bezos’s investigators poking around, for potentially troubling reasons. They threatened him with more leaks, additional texts and some lurid pictures he sent to his mistress, unless he stops the investigations and publicly acknowledges the leaks were not politically motivated.
Thursday’s post what Jeff decided to do in lieu of rolling over. He called the blackmailer’s bluff, and even copied the entirety of AMI’s extortion emails, including their agents’ email addresses and cell phone numbers. His post also states that there may be evidence the texts could have come through a government entity, and mentions references Trump’s public complaints about Bezos. Wow, this is excellent TV! Remaining apolitical here, I just want to point out what a thriller this story may be: The richest man in the world is fighting with the President of the United States (who is already in the cross-hairs of so many powerful people). Could we possibly be seeing the darkest hour in this crazy saga?
Not to venture too far into conspiracy theory territory — with how wild everything is in our politics and media, I sometimes wonder if this current insanity is just a big show, keeping us entertained so “they” can continue to turn the same old cogs behind the stage 👁️. Indeed, things often are not what they seem on the surface. I’ve thought about this current scandal being entirely set up, with some or all the parties involved complicit, for various reasons. It certainly helps sell newspapers! This is a good transition back on topic:
I love that Jeff Bezos posted this to Medium! A friend messaged me Friday morning, knowing I enjoy the platform, wondering why he published his note here. My guess is he needed to keep this as much separate from his businesses as possible, and especially not use his own Washington Post. He may have been interested in the shareability.
Medium is so slick to use. It’s a pleasure to click “new story”, and a practically blank page appears, to begin filling with blocks of text, otes, embeds, and pictures. You can sign in with Google and begin blogging instantly. For these reasons, Medium publications host the blogs for both my small businesses, and it’s what I picked for my daily public writing commitment. Now, as friends have been gaining interest in writing posting bandwagon, they’re choosing to write here, as well.
So what really excited me about seeing the article pop-up, more than the scuttlebutt and the injustice exposed, is a feeling of affirmation. Jeff Bezos just joined the Medium tribe, so now what I’ve been doing is officially cooler. No doubt there is something to be said for a brand and product that makes people feel this way, nice work Medium. Maybe he just needed a neutral platform to type out his letter, maybe this is the start of a more direct, personal, and public outlet for him to share. Either way, even just the single meaningful article adds Metcalfian value for me.
