TRASH TALK
10 years ago
March 5, 1999 | Seth Mnookin shadowed the National Enquirer’s executive editor David Perel at the publication’s offices in South Florida.
“Perel spends much of his day on the phone with various Enquirer correspondents around the country. Around 11 a.m., he does his daily checkup with New York: ‘And then we always have the drugs to add to the other story.

The Surgeon General's job is largely symbolic, we're told, and so the qualifications for becoming SG are largely related to how recognizable you are, how good you are on television, how many surguries you've performed on camera . . . and apparently how difficult it is to pronounce your name, since this indicates an allegiance with the incoming admin's narrative of worldliness and diversity.