Gossip-Hating Burkle Buying Tabloids?

Casual disregard for the facts may be synonymous with tabloid gossip. And it would be satisfying to reach the conclusion that simply holding gossip-writers to the same standards as other journalists will solve the problem. But it won't....And as gossip journalism spreads, so do the shoddy standards that accompany it.

That was Yucaipa Cos. chairman Ron Burkle, writing in The Wall Street Journal in April, 2006, about the "Yellow Peril" of sleazy, unethical tabloid journalism.

And this is from today's New York Post:

High-level merger talks are underway between American Media Inc. and Ron Burkle's Source Interlink Cos. and the two sides could be close to inking a deal.

That would be the same American Media Inc. that owns the National Enquirer, Star and Globe. What, Page Six isn't for sale?

(This would be a good place to note that I used to work for Burkle, or think I did, at Radar magazine. He has never confirmed rumors that he is an investor, and I never met him, spoke with him or saw him in the office.)

"If a deal is consummated," adds the Post, "there could be a debate about who would run the combined company."

It should be a short debate. Despite a recent report that AMI will show a small profit for the third quarter, the overall trend at AMI has been down, down, down since David Pecker took over the company in 1999. The one shining exception has been Shape, which AMI acquired in 2002. Through September, it has already carried nearly 1,200 ad pages this year, up 13.4 percent year-over-year.