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Peter Bart: Trapped In A Circus Of Sleaze, David Pecker Had Looked For An Escape Route


David Pecker once proposed a publication with the clout and reach of the Enquirer but with a more rigorous mandate of accuracy, Peter Bart writes.

Pecker, having made a deal with prosecutors, testified that he paid for a bogus story from a doorman alleging that Trump had fathered an illegitimate child. Having climbed the CBS ladder on the financial side, Pecker had become a major figure in the Hachette-Filipacchi publishing empire with stakes in magazines and books worldwide. It would offer sensation without sleaze — a sort of populist Variety with bigger stars and sexier subtext.

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