It seems like a lot of people are not reading between the lines of this post. Bezos apparently believes that he was hacked by either the US or Saudi government and that now one or both of those governments are using the National Enquirer as an attack dog against him. That accusation is much bigger than any other piece of this story.
EDIT: Here [1] is a reporter from the Washington Post backing that up. The Bezos' camp believes this is a politically motivated attack and the data was acquired by a "government entity" (logically the US or Saudis).
Whatever you think about Jeff, this is the correct way to handle such things. We should all have the same character in such a situation (despite how the situation arose; in this case via an affair). Jeff has MANY other issues of moral disfortitude (we all do to some degree, though not at these scales). However, this particular event is to be applauded and emulated.
Bezos himself writes, in the article we're discussing:
I asked him to prioritise protecting my time since I have other things I prefer to work on and to proceed with whatever budget he needed to pursue the facts in this matter. - emphasis mine.
And that:
On that point, numerous people have contacted our investigation team about their similar experiences with AMI, and how they needed to capitulate because, for example, their livelihoods were at stake.
Thus making it plain, simple, and obvious, that he recognises that having a net worth up around the US$137 billion[1] mark has it's perks.
It's worth noting that Jeff Bezos has a lot to gain from publishing these threats. While publishing the descriptions of the photographs may sting, publishing the photos themselves would hurt a lot more. Now that he's made the accusations public, AMI could not plausibly publish the actual photos.
This sounds too bad to be true , but if true i think it's how any sensible person should handle it. I mean, a dik pik who will care a month later. Did they really think that such misguided extortion would work? It really doesn't make much sense unless someone else was pushing forward this extortion
Imagine if the material contained morally grey stuff, like something politically incorrect. Not even illegal - just monetary support for some alt right figure or someone.
Then imagine if the material was about this other woman before he got his divorce.
Then imagine if the material contained actual borderline illegal stuff or something like photos of his nieces on a beach holiday.
Amazon could pull a CloudFlare and knock them off the internet as nationalenquirer.com seems to be hosted on AWS. My guess is Amazon/Bezos already has multiple backups of the Enquirer's digital assets for forensic purposes.
> Well, that got my attention. But not in the way they likely hoped. Any personal embarrassment AMI could cause me takes a back seat because there’s a much more important matter involved here. If in my position I can’t stand up to this kind of extortion, how many people can?
Can’t remember the last time I’ve seen a prominent person post the details of a personal extortion attempt out of defiance for all to see.
AMI picked the wrong person. Jeff, literally, has tons of money, extremely respected in the business world.
Forget about the embarrassment, if he secretly capitulates to this, then the real blackmail material would be the capitulation, not the photos. Cause if the owner of Washington Post bowed down to blackmail, every article published in the article will be called into question.
And who gives a shit if a billionaire cheated on his wife or sent dick pics. I don't care. Did he murder someone? Did he not divorce his wife by parting with half his fortune?
David Letterman laid out the details of a blackmail attempt on air a several years ago. If memory serves, he had been having sex with a young staffer on his show. These sorts of blackmail blowbacks happen from time to time, and it's always people who are very secure - either with money or social status or both - who are able to pull them off.
I think another interesting thing about these times, compared to when such things may have happened 20+ years ago, is that the photos they've described would cause rather little outrage or attract much beyond a few giggles from the public. Especially if released after their existence is already known about. I think the iCloud leaks of 2014 severely tempered society's salacious demand for more pictures of this nature.
I remember David Letterman doing just that. Apparently that's the conventional wisdom on this sort of thing: announce it yourself rather than let the other person take the first public move.
Thought experiment: Try taking them at their word for a sec.
"...an exploration of Mr. Bezos’ judgment... is indeed newsworthy and in the public interest."
Wonderful! Looking out for my interests! My heroes, fightin' for me against all the bad judgment! So grateful!
But then, if he'll agree to comply with their demands, suddenly it's not newsworthy anymore.
"AM agrees not to publish, distribute, share, or describe unpublished texts and photos (the “Unpublished Materials”)."
What?! Sellouts! Traitors! What about the public interest?! All the bad judgment!??!?
So yeah, not only do they blackmail public figures; by their willingness to bury the story they also show that they can't be counted on to hold public figures accountable when the time comes. He's right, real journalists don't act like this. (Not that I ever believed that shit; like I said, it was just a thought experiment.)
All you need is a bit of dirt on them, and you're safe from being exposed. Actually that might be the one thing that made this case different and turned it into a blackmail attempt instead of just another in the thousands of sleaze stories over the years.
"proceed with whatever budget he needed to pursue the facts in this matter"
That's the richest guy in the world saying "I don't give a XXXX what it costs, find out who did it."
It's also the moment in your life when, if you get the result that guys wants, he'll be glad to write you a cheque for $20,000,000 and will be happy to do so and he won't be interested in why the number is that high.
That gave me chills, and the phrase, If you’re going to shoot the king, you’d better be goddamned sure you’re going to kill him flashed through my mind. Well, they missed spectacularly, and now the man who has a rocket company for fun is clearly pissed.
Apparently AMI and David Pecker's non-prosecution agreement for the Michael Cohen stuff is contingent on them not continuing to do crime. So i guess that's out the window now.
We are all human. Nobody wins this 'moral crusade' that takes up so much airtime.
We should be much more focused on the existential threats that the entire biosphere is dealing with, not the 'dick pics' of the world's richest man. He's just another dude at his core it seems, happens to be founder of Amazon though.
Having read the whole thing, man Jeff Bezos has a great deal of courage.
It helps to be backed by untold wealth but here is a guy who stands tall in the face of ghastly behaviour and in the face of deep personal embarrassment.
What struck me was how brazen AMI was about the blackmail. Then I realized: they were comoftable doing it that way, putting it in writing, because in nearly every other time they've done this, it worked.
The problem I have with most super rich people is that they consider genuine risk far less important than potential embarrassment. E.g. they won't dare taking a stand politically because of the chance that someone will go public with some scandalous nonsense. Bezos on the other hand seems willing to calculate differently. I have to say, this has changed my opinion of him a lot in his favour. On the very remote chance you're reading this Jeff, good on you!
> If in my position I can’t stand up to this kind of extortion, how many people can? (On that point, numerous people have contacted our investigation team about their similar experiences with AMI, and how they needed to capitulate because, for example, their livelihoods were at stake.)
Sounds like precisely why he felt the buck had to stop somewhere.
Really? I'm at the other extreme: blackmailing me would be pointless as there would be no gain (not to mention in my boring case any unclad selfies would have to be synthesized).
And in the current world[+] there's so much exposure that such pictures will be drowned out by the sheer volume of stuff. Yes, we're still at a point where politicians can lose their jobs because of racialist photos or certain indiscretions, but at least the "indiscretions" have less and less power over non-politicians (actual bad deeds still do, but that's not an issue here).
And these pictures are all about consensual behavior that isn't extraordinary. There's not even a scandal.
[+] or in what I can imagine is a linear projection of today's world forward only a few years from now
If you ever find yourself with scandalous or incriminating material on someone remember this: Blackmail will always fail in the long run.
It's commonnly known in espionage tradecraft that it's an absolute last resort or totally off limits tool. The risk you take with coercive trade craft are insanely high.
This is literally the best thing he could have done. Would love to hear more about other people who have been black-mailed too - perhaps there is something much larger afoot. Hell, if they are this bold about taking on Bezos, potentially the other black-mail-ees are some very influential big hitters (billionaires, politicians, etc).
As others have pointed out, the big story is that he's directly accusing them of political motivation (US and/or Saudi), with them threatening him almost confirming that this is correct. For them to show their hand so badly hints strongly towards some guilt. Digging further seems like the last thing they want, so I think it's what should be done.
Would just like to add - regardless of how embarrassing the photos may or may not be, any "news" agency that publishes them goes straight to the top of my shit list and hopefully everybody elses too. Would be good if there was some organized way to show solidarity against black mail of this kind.
Slightly off topic, but does anyone know why this is so low on HN? It has more votes and is more recent than anything except the "How I didn't make a billion dollar company" post, but is at rank 11.
"I asked him to prioritize protecting my time since I have other things I prefer to work on and to proceed with whatever budget he needed to pursue the facts in this matter."
I'm not a fan of the guy. He (and all the GAFAs) is killing our public services all over Europe by not paying any taxes (legally, I know, we did this to ourselves).
I think he did good by reacting as he did, though.
However, something is bugging me: how can you be so stupid to make dick pics with a connected device nowadays?
I mean, the fappening happened, so much happened that you cannot ignore the fact that nothing you're doing with an online device is private.
Anyone, any entity with enough cash, can hack into all your devices in a glimpse.
When you're Jeff f*ing Bezos, you must know better, come on!
[+] [-] slg|7 years ago|reply
EDIT: Here [1] is a reporter from the Washington Post backing that up. The Bezos' camp believes this is a politically motivated attack and the data was acquired by a "government entity" (logically the US or Saudis).
[1] - https://twitter.com/ndrew_lawrence/status/109371533307931853...
[+] [-] Balgair|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] TheSpiceIsLife|7 years ago|reply
Yes, with conditions.
Bezos himself writes, in the article we're discussing:
I asked him to prioritise protecting my time since I have other things I prefer to work on and to proceed with whatever budget he needed to pursue the facts in this matter. - emphasis mine.
And that:
On that point, numerous people have contacted our investigation team about their similar experiences with AMI, and how they needed to capitulate because, for example, their livelihoods were at stake.
Thus making it plain, simple, and obvious, that he recognises that having a net worth up around the US$137 billion[1] mark has it's perks.
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Bezos
Edit: inconsequential grammar improvement
[+] [-] hackathonguy|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] buboard|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chippy|7 years ago|reply
Then imagine if the material was about this other woman before he got his divorce.
Then imagine if the material contained actual borderline illegal stuff or something like photos of his nieces on a beach holiday.
He got lucky - many many others would capitulate.
[+] [-] gumby|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] onetimemanytime|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] optimiz3|7 years ago|reply
https://twitter.com/ryanhuber/status/1093665718464327680
[+] [-] danso|7 years ago|reply
Can’t remember the last time I’ve seen a prominent person post the details of a personal extortion attempt out of defiance for all to see.
[+] [-] kumarvvr|7 years ago|reply
Forget about the embarrassment, if he secretly capitulates to this, then the real blackmail material would be the capitulation, not the photos. Cause if the owner of Washington Post bowed down to blackmail, every article published in the article will be called into question.
And who gives a shit if a billionaire cheated on his wife or sent dick pics. I don't care. Did he murder someone? Did he not divorce his wife by parting with half his fortune?
[+] [-] clucas|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lapnitnelav|7 years ago|reply
Sneaky edit : I'm sure one could not ignore his massive balls on any of the selfies AMI allegedly got their hands on ;)
[+] [-] petercooper|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] c3534l|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nraynaud|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fizixer|7 years ago|reply
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7f9D4KclJw
(David Letterman talks about an extortion attempt on him)
[+] [-] peteforde|7 years ago|reply
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NaIwHWEE7k
[+] [-] unknownkadath|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cromwellian|7 years ago|reply
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44QgPty17Mc
This shows the whole Trump/AMI/Campaign org to essentially be a criminal mafia enterprise.
[+] [-] hypochondria|7 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] rdiddly|7 years ago|reply
"...an exploration of Mr. Bezos’ judgment... is indeed newsworthy and in the public interest."
Wonderful! Looking out for my interests! My heroes, fightin' for me against all the bad judgment! So grateful!
But then, if he'll agree to comply with their demands, suddenly it's not newsworthy anymore.
"AM agrees not to publish, distribute, share, or describe unpublished texts and photos (the “Unpublished Materials”)."
What?! Sellouts! Traitors! What about the public interest?! All the bad judgment!??!?
So yeah, not only do they blackmail public figures; by their willingness to bury the story they also show that they can't be counted on to hold public figures accountable when the time comes. He's right, real journalists don't act like this. (Not that I ever believed that shit; like I said, it was just a thought experiment.)
All you need is a bit of dirt on them, and you're safe from being exposed. Actually that might be the one thing that made this case different and turned it into a blackmail attempt instead of just another in the thousands of sleaze stories over the years.
[+] [-] andrewstuart|7 years ago|reply
That's the richest guy in the world saying "I don't give a XXXX what it costs, find out who did it."
It's also the moment in your life when, if you get the result that guys wants, he'll be glad to write you a cheque for $20,000,000 and will be happy to do so and he won't be interested in why the number is that high.
[+] [-] Pharmakon|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jdietrich|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] notatoad|7 years ago|reply
https://twitter.com/nycsouthpaw/status/1093654471157170177
[+] [-] fisherjeff|7 years ago|reply
https://twitter.com/renato_mariotti/status/10936583665834229...
[+] [-] rblion|7 years ago|reply
We are all human. Nobody wins this 'moral crusade' that takes up so much airtime.
We should be much more focused on the existential threats that the entire biosphere is dealing with, not the 'dick pics' of the world's richest man. He's just another dude at his core it seems, happens to be founder of Amazon though.
[+] [-] minimaxir|7 years ago|reply
Normally, the Bezos affair story would be gossipy, but this alleges extortion, extraordinarily.
(Also, why is Jeff Bezos using Medium? He owns a newspaper.)
[+] [-] andrewstuart|7 years ago|reply
It helps to be backed by untold wealth but here is a guy who stands tall in the face of ghastly behaviour and in the face of deep personal embarrassment.
+1 Bezos.
[+] [-] ineedasername|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] minimaxir|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] stupidcar|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] everdev|7 years ago|reply
Sounds like precisely why he felt the buck had to stop somewhere.
[+] [-] gumby|7 years ago|reply
And in the current world[+] there's so much exposure that such pictures will be drowned out by the sheer volume of stuff. Yes, we're still at a point where politicians can lose their jobs because of racialist photos or certain indiscretions, but at least the "indiscretions" have less and less power over non-politicians (actual bad deeds still do, but that's not an issue here).
And these pictures are all about consensual behavior that isn't extraordinary. There's not even a scandal.
[+] or in what I can imagine is a linear projection of today's world forward only a few years from now
[+] [-] hirundo|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|7 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] longerthoughts|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] komali2|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Spooky23|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] AndrewKemendo|7 years ago|reply
It's commonnly known in espionage tradecraft that it's an absolute last resort or totally off limits tool. The risk you take with coercive trade craft are insanely high.
As proven here.
[+] [-] 1nvalid|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bArray|7 years ago|reply
As others have pointed out, the big story is that he's directly accusing them of political motivation (US and/or Saudi), with them threatening him almost confirming that this is correct. For them to show their hand so badly hints strongly towards some guilt. Digging further seems like the last thing they want, so I think it's what should be done.
Would just like to add - regardless of how embarrassing the photos may or may not be, any "news" agency that publishes them goes straight to the top of my shit list and hopefully everybody elses too. Would be good if there was some organized way to show solidarity against black mail of this kind.
[+] [-] basil-rash|7 years ago|reply
https://imgur.com/a/bifDABu
[+] [-] 40acres|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] buboard|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] markdog12|7 years ago|reply
HuffPo headline
[+] [-] kawera|7 years ago|reply
Wow!
[+] [-] bayesian_horse|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] guilamu|7 years ago|reply
I think he did good by reacting as he did, though.
However, something is bugging me: how can you be so stupid to make dick pics with a connected device nowadays?
I mean, the fappening happened, so much happened that you cannot ignore the fact that nothing you're doing with an online device is private.
Anyone, any entity with enough cash, can hack into all your devices in a glimpse.
When you're Jeff f*ing Bezos, you must know better, come on!