Jeff Bezos goes from geek to National Enquirer chatter fodder

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Bezos’ personal life is all of a sudden very public.


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Last March, Jeff Bezos released a photo on Twitter of himself strolling with a glossy robotic pet. Many in the media ( consisting of CNET) dutifully reported on the occasion, composing lively stories. Silly memes followed.

Then we immediately forgot it.

That short flash encapsulated Bezos’ public profile for much of his profession. Amazon’s creator and CEO thoroughly cultivated a personality as a captain of market, futurist and most intelligent man in the space. Yes, lots of slammed his callous service practices and absence of charitable offering, however many viewed him as a winner and a genius. This image was assisted by his peaceful individual life which, a minimum of from afar, appeared without debate: long time marital relationship, 4 kids, close relationship with his moms and dads.

In a stunning turn of occasions over the previous couple of weeks, Bezos’ public personality has actually developed into something totally various. After he and his other half MacKenzie revealed their divorce over Twitter last month, Bezos’ adulterous affair rapidly struck the chatter pages. Then, late Thursday, Bezos released a prolonged Medium post exposing an declared blackmail plot by the National Enquirer, a publication with close ties to President DonaldTrump The paper was threatening to expose salacious images of Bezos if he didn’t withdraw an examination into its work.

In fast order, the guy who ended up being the world’s wealthiest individual after establishing a business in his garage in 1994 had every significant publication in the United States– consisting of the one he personally owns– composing stories about his supposed cock picture.

The days of innocent robotic pets are over.

This modification in how the general public views Bezos develops a dramatically brand-new status quo for both the CEO and his business. Bezos will need to cope with being under a microscopic lense from the similarity TMZ for the foreseeable future while he resolves his divorce and the evident extortion plot. United States authorities are supposedly examining the circumstance currently. Running a significant corporation is challenging in the very best of times, so these interruptions aren’t welcome as Amazon strongly grows in brand-new markets and worldwide markets, and deals with 2 brand-new 25,000- worker workplaces in New York and Virginia.

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Amazon’s stock is down about 2 percent on Friday, but otherwise appears to be doing fine. For now, Bezos is benefiting from a sympathetic public response to his revelations of secret blackmail, taking a potential weakness and turning it into a strength. Amazon didn’t respond to a request for comment for this story.

“Jeff Bezos was really facing a situation where those images might be hanging over his head for years to come,” said Mark Lukasiewicz, dean of Hofstra’s Lawrence Herbert School of Communication and a former network news executive. “So putting them out in the public in his own terms … was a masterstroke.”

The Trump connection

Bezos’ personal problems spilled out into the public sphere in January, when he and his wife jointly announced a surprise but amicable divorce. The wording of their letter was positive and they said they’d remain friends.

Just hours later the National Enquirer reported that Bezos has been dating Lauren Sanchez, an actress and helicopter pilot. It also published a series of intimate texts Bezos sent Sanchez, including: “I want to smell you, I want to breathe you in. I want to hold you tight… I want to kiss your lips… I love you. I am in love with you.” In his Medium post Thursday, Bezos confirmed that the texts were his.

Gossip sites filed stories about Sanchez while general news publications considered how the divorce could impact Amazon going forward, since MacKenzie Bezos could end up with half her husband’s 16 percent ownership in the company.

It wasn’t long before Trump’s connection to the Enquirer and its publisher David Pecker came into play. The publication’s parent company, American Media Inc., in December admitted to helping Trump keep quiet an alleged affair he had with an ex-Playboy model by paying her off. Trump has repeatedly pilloried Bezos for coverage in The Washington Post, a paper Bezos personally owns, so it seemed an odd coincidence that the Enquirer would be the one to dig up dirt on Bezos.

The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment for this story.

The Daily Beast reported that Bezos hired an investigator, Gavin de Becker, to find out how the Enquirer acquired his texts. Bezos on Thursday confirmed this fact, as well. De Becker suggested in the Daily Beast that “strong leads point to political motives.”

The Post reported in early February that the Enquirer’s reporting may have been “a political hit job.”

Bezos revealed a lot more in his Medium post. He wrote that behind the scenes AMI was working to suppress this angle of reporting. It wanted Bezos and de Becker to make a false statement publicly that they “have no knowledge or basis for suggesting that AMI’s coverage was politically motivated or influenced by political forces.”

To get Bezos to do this, AMI’s Dylan Howard sent de Becker’s lawyer a bullet-pointed written message detailing a series of racy pictures the publisher had of the billionaire CEO, including a “below the belt selfie.” In the message, Howard also describes “a naked selfie in a bathroom  —  while wearing his wedding ring. Mr. Bezos is wearing nothing but a white towel  — and the top of his pubic region can be seen.”

Instead of bowing to these demands, Bezos publicly exposed them, saying in his post: “If in my position I can’t stand up to this kind of extortion, how many people can?” Journalist Ronan Farrow bolstered Bezos’ claims by saying he, too, had faced blackmail efforts from American Media when he was looking into the publisher’s connections to Trump.

AMI on Friday morning sent out a statement saying:

American Media believes fervently that it acted lawfully in the reporting of the story of Mr. Bezos. Further, at the time of the recent allegations made by Mr. Bezos, it was in good faith negotiations to resolve all matters with him. Nonetheless, in light of the nature of the allegations published by Mr. Bezos, the Board has convened and determined that it should promptly and thoroughly investigate the claims. Upon completion of that investigation, the Board will take whatever appropriate action is necessary.

Played extremely well

Hofstra’s Lukasiewicz called Bezos’ move a public relations coup that will likely be discussed in future PR classes. Instead of people gossiping about Bezos’ scandalous affair and intimate pictures, they are focusing on AMI and its alleged attempt at extortion.

“Anytime a prominent business leader of a public company or a political figure has scandal in his private life, yes it’s damaging,” Lukasiewicz said. “But he has flipped the narrative now.”

This type of situation has happened before. Former CBS late-night host David Letterman a decade ago confessed on his show that he had sex with several women on his staff after Joe Halderman, a former CBS producer, tried to use that information to blackmail the comedian for $2 million. (CBS is CNET’s parent company.) Halderman pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree grand larceny in an ensuing trial and was sentenced to six months in prison. Letterman, like Bezos, was largely viewed sympathetically by the public.

More blowback for AMI may already be on the way. Bloomberg reported Friday that federal prosecutors are looking into whether any criminal activity may have occurred at the Enquirer related to the publication’s dealings with Bezos. Several publications also reported that the situation may expose AMI and its leaders to potential criminal charges in the coverup of Trump’s alleged affair with the former Playboy model. A prior cooperation deal to avoid such charges may have been voided by the alleged blackmail attempt.

“As far as his reputation and his company’s reputation, Jeff Bezos has played this extremely well,” Lukasiewicz said. “I think this is a win for him and I think this is something that will be applauded.”

Jennifer Magas, a clinical associate professor of public relations at Pace University and owner of PR firm Magas Media Consultants, said she recommends a set of actions for crisis communications. They including speaking first, speaking often and taking control of the narrative. With one exception — apologizing to his wife and family — Bezos hit them all, she said.

“He has taken the scandal away from his affair,” Magas added, “and presented himself as both a victim and a champion at the same time.”

First published at 11:13 a.m. PT.
Updated at 12:49 p.m. PT: Adds comments from Pace professor and Ronan Farrow.
Updated at 2:34 p.m. PT: Adds more details on potential criminal charges.
Correction at 12:30 p.m. PT: Clarifies that AMI’s email was sent to de Becker’s lawyer, not Bezos.

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