They're hard to miss at grocery stores and newsstands in America—the colorful, heavily illustrated tabloid newspapers with headlines promising shocking, unlikely, and sometimes impossible stories within. Although the papers are now ubiquitous, the supermarket tabloid's origin can be traced to one man: Generoso Pope Jr., an eccentric, domineering chain-smoker who died of a heart attack at age sixty-one. In The Godfather of Tabloid, Jack Vitek explores the life and remarkable career of Pope and the founding of the most famous tabloid of all— the National Enquirer. Upon graduating from MIT, Pope worked briefly for the CIA until he purchased the New York Enquirer with dubious financial help from mob boss Frank Costello. Working tirelessly and cultivating a mix of American journalists (some of whom, surprisingly, were Pulitzer prize winners) and buccaneering Brits from Fleet Street who would do anything to get a story, Pope changed the name, format, and content of the modest weekly newspaper until it resembled nothing America had ever seen before. At its height, the National Enquirer boasted a circulation of more than five million, equivalent to the numbers of the Hearst newspaper empire. Pope measured the success of his paper by the mail it received from readers, and eventually the volume of reader feedback was such that the post office assigned the Enquirer offices their own zip code. Pope was skeptical about including too much celebrity coverage in the tabloid because he thought it wouldn't hold people's interest, and he shied away from political stories or stances. He wanted the paper to reflect the middlebrow tastes of America and connect with the widest possible readership. Pope was a man of contradictions: he would fire someone for merely disagreeing with him in a meeting (once firing an one editor in the middle of his birthday party), and yet he spent upwards of a million dollars a year to bring the world's tallest Christmas tree to the Enquirer offices in Lantana, Florida, for the enjoyment of the local citizens. Driven, tyrannical, and ruthless in his pursuit of creating an empire, Pope changed the look and content of supermarket tabloid media, and the industry still bears his stamp. Grounded in interviews with many of Pope's supporters, detractors, and associates, The Godfather of Tabloid is the first comprehensive biography of the man who created a genre and changed the world of publishing forever.

"Paula Morton's rakish history goes behind the scenes to examine every facet of modern yellow journalism: what headlines sell and why, how the journalists gather the news, the recent and ongoing downturn in circulation, and, most important, what tabloid news says about American culture."--Inside back jacket.

Once touted as a potential prime minister, former Western Australian premier Brian Burke has had a rollercoaster career. This is the first major biography of this charismatic and influential politician who even out of power and disgraced, pulled political strings in WA and beyond. The most popular premier in the nation in the 1980s, Brian Burke went to gaol twice after the scandals of WA Inc. His reputation was thought to be damaged beyond repair, but he became a successful lobbyist for some of the most powerful corporations in the country. As the Corruption and Crime Commission steadily closed in on him he was shown to be running a virtual shadow cabinet in his home state. Quentin Beresford tracks the rise, fall, resurrection and then collapse of the man in the Panama hat, examining what it is in Burke's personality, the nature of Labor party factionalism and the business community that brought him such power and influence across the country. In this absorbing account, Beresford succeeds in unraveling the strands of Brian Burke's life, exposing the forces which fashioned his now notorious public persona.' Carmen Lawrence, former WA Premier and Federal ALP parliamentarian a that is Brian Burke without either caricaturing him or being thrown off balance by his undoubted magnetism.' - Carmen Lawrence, former WA Premier and Federal ALP parliamentarian

Tabloid Trash is a funny, irreverent, wildly entertaining take on the great American subculture of supermarket tabloids, as well as a classic detective novel in its own right. It opens as the infamous U.S. Reporter decides to hold a lavish retirement gala for its star sleazebag journalist, Max Kowalski. But the party comes to an abrupt close just after midnight, when Max is found dead -- murdered during a robbery. One of the guests happens to be Max's nephew Arnie Kowalski (a crippled ex-cop with a major chip on his shoulder) who begins his own investigation into the dual crime. As Arnie and his trash-talking girlfriend Charlene start to ask questions, they also begin to run into problems with various parties and their already strained relationship begins to unravel. Their task is not made any easier by the fact that almost everyone had a reason to loathe Uncle Max, including a Nazi rabbi, a sensitive sumo wrestler, an incompatible biker couple, an oriental astrologer, an oversexed former hooker, a stunt man who once climbed the Empire State Building in a King Kong suit, and a 100-year-old from Iowa who was abducted by aliens. As the plot develops, strange clues, smart deductions, and unlikely twists lead inexorably to a racy climax, as Arnie Kowalski finally uncovers the surprising truth about his uncle's death -- and life.