"The Enquirer" and the CIA?

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    I recently watched a fascinating documentary called, “Enquiring Minds”, about Gene Pope, the owner of The National Enquirer newspaper. This is merely a brief summary of the film, I have not looked into it further. I thought it was full of interesting tidbits when viewed thru the lens of media fakery and manipulation.

    The doc begins by describing how his father, Generoso Pope came to the USA as a poor Italian immigrant and then started a newspaper for the Italian American community in NYC.

    In so doing, he started to create a lot of business and political (and mafia?) connections and the U.S. Government (President Truman) enlisted his help in encouraging Italian Americans to convince the Italians to reject communism in the early stages of WW2. Even though communism won, the U.S. government was very appreciative of his efforts.

    Shortly before the Korean War, Generoso died, leaving the newspaper to Gene, who was 23 at the time. He became very involved in local politics, serving on the school board (almost all other members were over 50 years old), was an honorary policeman of some sort, etc.

    Gene (supposedly) then was exposed for something regarding support of a political candidate which reflected poorly on his paper and the family name, “losing all his influence”, according to the film. This embarrassment also caused him to be odd man out with his mom and 2 older brothers, who took his inheritance and the newspaper business.

    Fortunately, through connections his father had made before he died, (this is almost an exact quote, one sentence long, about 30 minutes in) “he was hired at the newly created CIA and after only a few months in Washington, D.C. returned to New York”.

    He then married an up and coming actress, who was not Italian, causing the final break in his relationship with him mom.

    In 1952, he purchased The New York Enquirer for $75,000 (they speculate about who gave him the money to do so, but I don’t recall who it was now) which became The National Enquirer newspaper.

    He ran the paper, as a very hands on owner and editor. Employees say he reviewed every single story ever printed until his death in 1988. He sounds like a mercurial, intelligent and driven person.

    The film describes the stories they broke that pushed the bounds of media, culture, etc. It also describes how he moved the business and all the employees to Florida, his extravagant Christmas decorations, his serious pronouncement that he wanted to create his own country, on an island, off the coast of Florida and even his plans for Enquirerland.

    Prior to his death, those closest to him, said he had always said that when he died the newspaper would be sold at a blind auction, to the highest bidder, with all the proceeds being distributed to his family, because “no one here can handle it”. Which I found interesting because he had many employees who had worked with him since the beginning and were very loyal.

    One employee said that Rupert Murdoch offered Pope $80 million dollars for the newspaper, which he declined, because, “one day it would be worth $400 million”. “And he was right”, the employee marveled.

    In 1988 when he died, the employees came together to purchase the company, offering $400 million dollars, however, it sold to Peter Callahan (I’m curious who that is), for $412 million. Interesting the company sold for the $400 million he said it would, so many years earlier. Hmmm.

    But that’s not all.

    Eight days after the attacks on the World Trade Center, this newspaper that had vast archives of documents, photos, etc. of celebrities, politicians, crime and more, was then targeted with an anthrax mail scare.

    The 2 headquarter staffers “opened a love letter addressed to Jennifer Lopez” that contained a soapy powder. Bob Stevens, “the 63-year old Enquirer photo editor, who had lovingly re-touched the Elvis in the coffin photograph, was the first to be exposed”, and died less than a month later. Consequently five decades worth of memorabilia was destroyed.

    The documentary then brings it to the present, however, I think the best parts have already been illustrated.

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Starting with Coast to Coast AM over 20 years ago I have been down many rabbit trails to understand what is really going on. Everywhere from Alex Jones to Freeman to Before the First Cup to Free Talk Live to Abel Danger and Higherside Chats and Red Ice Radio as well as many, many more. My spouse tells me my podcast data consumption exceeds that of a family of four. I found Fakeologist several years ago when I was a Judy Wood devotee and thought you all were wrong about 9/11. Via Higherside Chats, featuring Marcus Allen, bringing me to Hoaxbusters call, I found all of you and have been listening for about a year. I'm ready to join the online conversation because I have yet to find anyone in my "real life" who will talk with me about these mind-boggling topics.