Scandalous: The Untold Story of the National Enquirer

Ok so I see some people trashing the doc for trashing Trump. Ignore them. Those people have issues with reality. I feel everything in this doc is accurate. It is very well made, informative and entertaining. I learned many things from it. My issue with this documentary is that it softened the history of the rag known as the National Enquirer before Davis Pecker in order to make the post-Pecker changes more dramatic. Now it is true that the paper got extremely partisan. It is true it created the so-called catch and release tactic. It sold its soul to the devil with the comb over, so to speak. But it really downplays what an awful, lying, irresponsible piece of junk it had been in the 70's and 80's and even the 90's during it supposed "good period." No discussion here of all the crazy UFO stuff and made up nonsense and the lies and distortions. Anyone with a mediocre, or higher, I.Q. routinely laughed at the clearly false headlines you saw while checking out at the supermarket. You grew up knowing that and everyone talked about it for decades, scoffing at and laughing at the pathetic newspaper. I wish this documentary was harsher on the paper but instead had interview after interview of people justifying or glossing over the irresponsible things they were doing. I still recommend it.

I saw that a couple of the reviewers gave this a '1', but the program warrants better than that. Irrespective of the merits, or lack thereof, of the National Enquirer, the program is still interesting, even for those of us who have never bought the paper. It gives a good overview of the background of the paper, and some of its sins. I gave it a 6.

The first issue of National Enquirer I saw was in 1971 in Grandma's living room. As I picked it up, Grandma urgently told me: "That's not a real newspaper. Nothing in it is true. The stories are made up."

I asked, "Why do you read it then?"

"It's funny. The stories make me laugh. I don't know how they make up such wild stories," she replied, laughing.

The history of the National Enquirer and media are significantly different from the story in "Scandalous". No mention is made of the stories about aliens and humans marrying and having babies, sightings of the Loch Ness monster, Big Foot, and other oddities, speculations and stories about the Bermuda Triangle, all of which were presented as factual.

Rather, "Scandalous" portrays the National Enquirer as having been a largely reliable, respectable news source, which I can't write without laughing.

"Scandalous" alleges that the Enquirer started "catch and kill" during the Schwarzennegger campaign. "Catch and kill" is as old as journalism.

The primary agenda of "Scandalous" is revenge against David Pecker and the Enquirer for attacking Jeff Bezos. The story omits that Bezos bought The Washington Post, which Bezos now uses to attack the Enquirer and Trump.

Overall, the film misrepresents most of what it reports. I'm an independent observer, thinker, and voter. "Scandalous" is political propaganda and a jab at David Pecker, who deserves jabbing. The problem with "Scandalous" is that it is agenda-driven, historically inaccurate, and misleading.

An interesting look at the National Enquirer's decades old history, with its ups and downs along the way. The film illustrates how the tabloid publication often used unethical methods to get their stories and how a grain of truth can be stretched to its limit. But the doc also covers how the Enquirer can lead the mainstream media to some stories with intense investigation, like in the O.J. case.

The movie also describes the "catch and kill" policies, directed by owner David Pecker, beginning with the California Governor's race of Arnold Schwarzenegger and ending with the current occupant of the White House.

To note, there were no subtitles on my DVD copy but I was able to access them through the closed caption option on my remote.

Great overall history of the tabloid from conception to present day.

Side note- Trump's weaponized propaganda knows no bounds.