Speculating on profits that never came. Greed. Being obsequious to TSF. Being a King-maker by making Hillary lose.

He's lucky she didn't sue him for defamation/libel. Carol Burnett got a tidy little sum for doing just that.

That is the question I am asking, what profit did Pecker think was coming his way?

Pecker does not strike me as the type to make bad business decisions, laying out all kinds of big cash.
For nothing in return.

I think there is a missing piece of information.

Maybe Pecker was offered a lifetime free membership at Mar-A-Lago or another golf course. I can't see TSF offer any portion of ownership in any of his properties.

And no one would believe Trump's promises any way.

Supermarket

Trump was running for POTUS.
The papers would fly off the shelves.

In my multiple rotations around the Sun I have never bought one.
Guessing a trump supporter is much more likely to read the garbage they push out.

So Trump news played to their demographic.

For what purpose?

What did David Pecker want?

For a publisher, having a president in your back pocket is usually good for business.

Trump has no boundaries whatsoever.
Could be helpful for someone with a scandal sheet newspaper.

So investing in Trump was an investment in future stories from the White House.

1) Access to the office of POTUS?
2) living in the bubble that admired TFG?
3) Sucked into the MAGA cult?
4) The mob never lets people out. Once he made the mistake of getting into something illegal, can’t get out. TFG would have Cohened him?
5) Clearly I have no idea

I don't know either.

But one thing I do know.

The answer to my question is not going to be pretty.

Pecker and Trump had some other illegal activities in common?

Something like that.

It's like the movie-stars in the '50s who hung around with mafia gangsters.

But Pecker was putting out a lot of cash.
And taking losses.

He placed his own job in jeopardy, breaking the law as well as money down the drain.

But that is why the Trump sycophants do I suppose.

I think there is more to this story.
Don't know yet what it is.

I think this was part of it.

Pecker was playing with fire.

I wonder how much of that catch-and-kill could have ended up as catch-and-sell to Russia.

Donnie fed him info he could use. The one thing I've seen cited was a heads up on who was getting kicked out next on the apprentice. But I'm sure there was other stuff he published as well, related to him campaigning or otherwise.

I think not getting reimbursed is what killed the deal. Donnie won the election and had no further use for pecker, so he screwed him, it's the trump way.

Other shady business deals.
This was just one of them.

Maybe more than Trump just giving him info.

paying them off not to run stories. But the publication (along with its sister sites in the UK) was sold a year ago in February. It seems the major "worth" was in its many many decades of archived stories which go back even earlier than Elvis Presley's days and number 100s of thousands of articles.

So, perhaps Pecker's main concern was keeping NE buzz going with its front page stories on every checkout line--whether consumers bought it or not. That might not have made for a lot of new profits, but maintained the then-current worth, I suppose.

Catch and Kill was a separate NE product line.
Not just for Trump.

Basically a kind of black mail?

Getting salacious stories on celebrities and then giving them a chance to pay Pecker not to print the story.

And or they didn't make that much money selling papers but were accumulating the archive of stories to sell eventually.

In LA Confidential. Hush-hush publication made money for him as a scandal rag, a smear rag, and to bury stories . . . They were all part of the normal business model.

Trump was just one of many.

So Pecker was a crook before he met Trump.

...he wanted to be ambassador to russia...

...it can be hard sometimes to understand the actions of a pecker...

...

Good guess.

Trump did thru Cohen.

And Pecker paid the doorman $30K and I don't know if Trump reimbursed that either.

But yes Cohen mortgaged his home to pay Stormy for Trump.

There's been and continues a lot of consolidation in the media space, globally.

What is his motivation now? He's part of the plot so he's singing?

He was given immunity in exchange for giving information to federal prosecutors.

Yes perhaps Pecker thought his collaboration with Trump would enhance the value of the paper.
And could be sold for a higher price.

stories and lies to sprawl across the front page of his tawdry magazine to make money. He wanted to keep trump in his pocket and this is how that was supposedly accomplished.

Is this was a money/profit move. Trump granted him access to some personal stories that were good for Trump to get out. When Trump appeared in the rag, it sold more copies. It was a simple quid pro quo. They did not publish bad stories about Trump but published bad stories about his perceived enemies. In exchange, Trump gave them exclusives which made him more popular and made the rag lots of money.

Can that be true?

I may have also heard it on Stephanie Miller.

They discussed how they did that regularly with famous folks and celebrities. I think I recall them specifically saying Arnold Schwarzenegger had stories buried and in return he gave them exclusives. It almost sounded like a blackmail type of situation but was not presented as such. The celebration gives them exclusives and they bury the big bad stories.

I agree, getting damaging stories about celebrities then asking for money to kill the story
is blackmail.

Maybe that is part of the reason Trump was mad at Pecker and didn't pay Pecker back
for the Karen McDougal payment.

Trump put the moves on him Because he saw that David pecker could be useful to him. He was used and influenced to make dumb decisions including participating in the scheme described above.

Yes that could be the case.
I also think Pecker had a money motive of some sort.

Real political power! The kind of power very few people ever find themselves close to. Power that becomes an aphrodisiac to many people, even if they may already have some legitimate power themselves, they still fantasize about having more power or being close in proximity to ultimate power such as presidential power.

And the money that goes with power.

Nancy Pelosi once say "With trump all roads lead to Russia" ? or something like that?


sage

That's what I'm thinking.

sage

And the NE killing negative stories about Trump and printing negative stories about Trump's opponents
was a big help.

Knowledge is power, especially when it impacts a rich person's wealth, position and connections.

Mr. Pecker may have been rewarded in ways that are not apparent on his company's bottom line, but can be seen on his relentlessly smiling wug.

Probably hoped all of the above.

Weissmann, on Nicole Wallace's show, said that Trump and Pecker utilized the nation's mass media to manipulate candidate coverage. They'd destroy stories critical of candidate Trump, including his love life. Enemies were punished by the publication of negative stories. For example, they'd talk about Cruz having various affairs (as if such a thing were possible) and the next thing you know, other outlets start "covering the story."

In writing this, I look back and remember just how the focus before 2016 was Donald the TV personality, mobster, racist, etc., but NOT his role as a real-life Putin's Puppet.

That could have been his motive.

But was Pecker willing to commit federal crimes just to get more stories for his paper?
I guess so.

I have trouble believing that.

but is it possible he did it to curry favor with trump, who he actually seems to like? I think one of the things he testified to this morning was how cheato introduced him to people in NY and helped him make friends. Maybe he saw him as someone who helped him make connections.

I think there was more to it, but yes that could be a piece of it.

I think there were a number of reasons why Pecker did the catch and kill for Trump.

DUers are giving some good reasons.

Trump have claimed it all as a campaign in kind donation?

It is just amazing how many crimes Trump and his friends commit.

Pecker on a power trip along with Trump.

Thanks, probably more to it.
But part of it.