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Enquirer Editor Details Edwards Stakeouts

Tabloid chief slams NYT for missing huge story

By Harry Kimball, Newser Staff

Posted Aug 22, 2008 8:05 PM CDT

(Newser) – The National Enquirer scored big this month by accusing John Edwards of an extramarital affair—but it worked hard for the news, the New Republic reports. The tabloid's reporters staked out Rielle Hunter for days and spent hours waiting for Edwards in a Los Angeles hotel. When the hopeful snuck in via a stairwell, a reporter leaped out and asked about his "love child."

Enquirer editor-in-chief David Perel takes heat for such tactics and admits to paying for tips, but "we pay for accurate information," he says. "We do it the way cops pay tipsters and informants." He also gets to slam the nation's blue chip papers. "The two papers who look ridiculous are The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, that banned people from blogging about" the Edwards story, he says.

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A commuter reads a copy of the National Enquirer in New York's Penn Station. (AP Photo)

In this Dec. 27, 2006 photo provided by the National Enquirer, former U.S. Sen. John Edwards, D-NC, is shown with videographer Rielle Hunter. (AP Photo)

The Enquirer on a newsstand in Hollywood. (AP Photo)

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Tell Sharon Waxman I wish Rielle was a source, because I would have nailed this story a long time ago. I would have been putting a sex tape on the Internet by now! - David Perel, the National Enquirer's editor-in-chief

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Enquirer Editor Details Edwards Stakeouts