The American tabloid famous for sensationalism has hired the American political consultant who is best known for his wildly inaccurate predictions.
On Friday, The National Enquirer announced that it had hired Dick Morris to serve as chief political commentator and correspondent. Morris will write a weekly column in the Enquirer's print edition and will provide video commentary for its website.
Morris, a longtime pollster and consultant to President Bill Clinton, is perhaps best known for his prediction that Mitt Romney would beat President Obama in a landslide in the 2012 election. That view, which he held up until the day of the election, earned him the title of "King of Wrong Mountain" from The Daily Show's Jon Stewart.
The National Enquirer might be in the running for that title as well. Despite a few moments of political influence — most notably in 2008, when it revealed that Sen. John Edwards was having an affair — the bulk of Enquirer stories trade in thinly sourced speculation, gossip and outright invention.
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Morris, ever one to go against the conventional wisdom, does not see it that way: "The National Enquirer is one of the few journalistic outlets that has the courage to publish the truth," he said in a statement. "As this critical election approaches, I am thrilled to have a perch from which to tell the unvarnished truth, particularly about Hillary Clinton — facts other publications just don't print because it doesn't fit."
There's an added twist here, which is that Morris was forced to resign from Clinton's 1996 presidential campaign after another tabloid — the Star — published photographs that appeared to show Morris and a prostitute in a hotel room.
The Star and the Enquirer are both owned by American Media.
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The Hill, a Washington site that covers Congress and politics, cut ties with Morris after the Enquirer's announcement, according to Media Matters.
The Enquirer said it is thrilled to have him on board: "Adding Dick Morris to one of the best editorial teams in the industry underscores our commitment to investigative journalism," Enquirer editor-in-chief Dylan Howard said. "He greatly values our commitment to delivering the kind of quality content that our readers have come to trust us for and, like The Enquirer, has the guts to publish stories other media won't touch."
