re: #109 Barefoot Grin

Just about to read Ronan Farrow’s new piece on Trump’s affair with Playmate Karen MacDougal. I listened to an interview with him and he claimed the overriding reason for publishing the article had less to do with the salacious details of the affair but to expose how tabloids help wealthy and powerful men like Trump by “catch and keep” purchases of stories—buying the rights and then killing the story.

newyorker.com

I don’t understand. It would seem if a tabloid purchased the rights to a story, then they also have leverage (extortion) over the object of the story. “Mr. Trump, do this or we publish.”

They need to flood the streets with AR-15s but the pharmacist is free to deny women their birth control if he thinks they’re doing too much sex. Freedom!

— Oliver Willis (@owillis) February 16, 2018