Could the money be going to the athletes instead?

Recently it has come to light that the National Enquirer, headed by American Media CEO David Pecker who also owns the Olympia brand, allegedly paid $200,000 to the brother of Lauren Sanchez, the mistress of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

Via CNBC:

“The Wall Street Journal reports that the National Enquirer’s publisher paid $200,000 to obtain intimate texts between AmazonCEO Jeff Bezos and his mistress Lauren Sanchez. American Media, the supermarket tabloid’s publisher, reportedly paid that sum to Michael Sanchez, Lauren’s brother.

“The Journal’s finding, attributed to people familiar with the matter, parallels the conclusion reached by private investigators working for Bezos as of early February. Those investigators reportedly found that Michael Sanchez had leaked the texts to the Enquirer, although they didn’t appear to conclude who might have paid for them.

“Bezos has said American Media threatened to publish explicit photos of him unless he stopped investigating how the Enquirer obtained his private exchanges and publicly declared that the Enquirer’s coverage of him was not politically motivated.”

It’s a story wrought with personal vendettas, sex, lies, and private photos all culminating in a massive media showdown and federal charges. But let’s consider for a moment a very different angle to these happenings.

While the Pecker/Bezos scandal has been the highlight of recent news articles, one has to wonder about others individuals caught in the crossfire that may not have been considered. The scandal has highlighted a number of things.

Firstly, that David Pecker and Jeff Bezos are engaged in a high stakes battle for power on a massive scale. The second is business practices that neglect members of massive organizations that are never considered, in this case bodybuilding and fitness competitors.

While that may seem like a bit of a stretch, let’s take a moment to consider that athletes competing at the highest level of bodybuilding still aren’t compensated all that greatly for their hard work. These men and women compete at the world famous Olympia yet are given prizes that are less than adequate.

For the Pecker and the National Enquirer to allegedly pay $200,000 for illicit photos but pay a fraction of that amount to IFBB athletes at the highest levels of the sport could be considered a slap in the face to the competitors who put so much on the line to step on stage.

There are certainly moving parts to this issue that are shrouded in mystery and are unlikely to completely come to light. But if so much money can be spent on illicit photos, can’t the same amount be awarded to the winners of Classic Physique ($20,000) and Bikini ($35,000)?

Generation Iron will continue to follow this story and provide more updates as they become available.

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Source: CNBC