“Legitimate” news organization such as the New York Times, Washington Post, or CNN I suppose. It is sad commentary to me that news organizations that routinely misrepresent, slant, or fail to report negatives about their left-wing buddies are considered legitimate. Granted, the Enquirer is not what I would consider legitimate either. But they sometimes get the story totally right while the "legitimate" news organizations are trying to bury the story.
I will grant the Enquirer this — They’ve had a string of successes in exposing a lot of scandalous behavior among our politicians and celebrities ( John Edwards and Jesse Jackson being prime examples ).
Having said that, I would have to caution everyone in simply accepting pointblank, everything they report without verifying first.
They have had to eat crow in many of their past exposes as well.
Some examples :
* In 1981, actress Carol Burnett won a judgment against the Enquirer after it claimed she had been seen drunk in public at a restaurant with Henry Kissinger in attendance. The fact that both of her parents suffered from alcoholism made this a particularly sensitive issue to Burnett. Under U.S. law, in order to be guilty of libel against a public figure such as Burnett, a publication must be shown to have knowingly, or with reckless regard for the truth, disseminated facts that were false and defamatory, making Burnett’s successful suit unusual in the world of American tabloid journalism.
* A 2002 article alleged that male members of the family of kidnapping victim Elizabeth Smart were involved in what the article termed a “gay sex ring.” Subsequently, two reporters from the Salt Lake Tribune were fired after it was learned that they had been paid $20,000 for the story, which they had fabricated.
The salacious details of the Smart story were retracted by the Enquirer, and a rare apology was issued to the Smart family. One of the fired reporters acknowledged that his behavior was unethical, but expressed surprise that the story had been taken seriously, stating, “When I dealt with the Enquirer, I never dreamed that I was accepting money for ‘information’.
* The Enquirer settled a libel lawsuit lost a lawsuit suit brought by actress, Kate Hudson in 2006.
* The Enquirer settled a libel lawsuit with the wife of Gary Condit out of court in 2003.
* The Enquirer had to issue a public apology to Actress Cameron Diaz. The apology concerned a story it had run in 2005 entitled “Cameron Caught Cheating” which turned out to be false.
.... and more.
Suffice it to say that they have been right and they have been wrong. CAUTION should be the order of the day for the sober reader.