It’s a familiar taunt from President Man-Baby.

The press is the No. 1 Enemy of the American people.

But it has been effective.

As he boasted to Lesley Stahl at one point, he says it so that when the press does report something negatively about him, the public is less inclined to trust the facts.

And the invective has led to a rising tide of rage against those in the media.

In the two years since Man-Baby took office, the number of threats against U.S. journalists has risen dramatically.

The rage is real and he feeds it every day.

For the first time, I’ve come to realize he has a point:

The press can be the enemy of the American people.

At least one publisher, anyway.

Earlier this month, AMI – the publisher of the weekly tabloids The National Enquirer and The Globe signed a non-prosecution agreement with the New York district attorneys confirming that the company paid ex-Playboy model Karen MacDougal $150,000 in a “catch and kill deal.”

The company never planned to publish her account of an affair with Man-Baby. Instead, it suppressed it “so as to prevent it from influencing the election.”

That’s a huge admission.

But AMI – and CEO David Pecker, a longtime Trump friend – did more than just kill a story. It ran a calculated campaign to smear Hillary Clinton.

A casual search of the National Enquirer website turns up the most innocuous headlines for Man-Baby. (“Kanye West Wants ‘The Apprentice'”)

For Hillary Clinton, it’s a different story.

“Enquirer Exclusive! Hillary Clinton’s criminal connections”

“Bombshell Report! How the Clintons rigged the Trump investigation”

“DC Deception!: Hillary Clinton’s 70 Biggest Lies for Her 70th Birthday”

And compare how the Enquirer’s digital wizards massage Photoshop to make her look an extra from “The Walking Dead” while making him seem vaguely presidential.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The National Enquirer is in the checkout aisle of just about every supermarket in the country. You may not buy it, but you certainly can’t escape it. The drumbeat of headlines and doctored photos almost certainly had an impact on some voters.

The Founding Fathers never imagined the press – any press – would willfully not do their job, that they would actually try to control the flow of news to sabotage an election.

That’s what the National Enquirer did.

There should be consequences for that.

At the very least, a lot more of us should be angry about it.