Pinsker Law of PR #72: Far more people read the headline than the story. That’s what they’re counting on.

On 5:03 p.m. on Thursday evening, People Magazine ran the following headline: “Ex-Casino Boss Claims Trump and ‘Best Friend’ Jeffrey Epstein Were Once Caught Bringing Underage Girls to Casino Floor.”

Gulp!

Along with the Wall Street Journal’s “naughty drawing” Epstein exposé, this was the mainstream media’s latest one-two punch, and you can bet your bottom dollar that it won’t be the last combo they throw. Like it or not, this is now an honest-to-God feeding frenzy.

It’s gonna get worse before it gets better.

That’s because we’ve reached the point of the Epstein story where the media smells blood in the water, and most of the blood is from MAGA-on-MAGA warfare. The first wound was entirely self-inflicted and kind of came out of nowhere: For reasons that remain unclear, Attorney General Pam Bondi wildly overpromised and underdelivered on the Epstein files. She pledged paradise and sold us a parking lot.

It felt like a big, stinkin’ bait-and-switch.

Weirdly, most of the follow-up wounds were self-inflicted, too. (And while we’re on the subject of self-inflicted wounds, have you noticed how certain influencers in the “America First” movement keep advocating outcomes that constantly put “America Last?” From protecting Iran’s nuclear program to writing love letters about stale Russian bread to fixating on the Epstein files, their priorities aren’t at all aligned with Trump’s. And now, today, instead of talking about Trump’s economic successes, new trade deals, or foreign policy breakthroughs, we’re stuck talking about Jeffrey Freaking Epstein. Thanks, guys.) 

It's a perplexing paradox, the ultimate headscratcher: Despite their noblest of intentions (they’re “peacemakers,” you know), they keep hurting our friends and aiding our enemies. Over and over and over again. (You’d almost think it was intentional.)

And now the Epstein issue has been weaponized against Trump. 

Related: Why Hasn't Steve Bannon Released HIS Epstein Tapes?

The Wall Street Journal and People Magazine, together, represent the business and entertainment wings of the mainstream media. Their strategy is now clear: It’s McCarthyism redux. They’re playing the “guilt by association” card to tar-and-feather the President. Instead of investigating who funded Epstein’s operation or which “clients” visited his island, they’re gonna run story after story about Trump and Epstein being buddies.

On the surface, there’s nothing newsworthy about ANY of this. Epstein was a multimillionaire (or possibly a billionaire) who hobnobbed with the rich and powerful. His houseguests included everyone, from an ex-Israeli prime minister to the to the Dalai Lama. We already knew about his famous friends, including Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, and Prince Andrew. None of this is new. 

But the mainstream media isn’t gonna let a silly little thing like a total lack of newsworthiness kill a story that damages Donald Trump.

Still, even by the media’s standards, People Magazine’s attack was so ridiculously misleading, the president should consider legal action. (We know the White House reads PJ Media — Hey, guys! — so I hope they run this by legal ASAP.) But either way, it deserves a sledgehammer of a rebuttal, because this was one of the sleaziest, most blatantly dishonest headlines of the last dozen-or-so years.

Again, here was People Magazine’s headline from yesterday evening: “Ex-Casino Boss Claims Trump and ‘Best Friend’ Jeffrey Epstein Were Once Caught Bringing Underage Girls to Casino Floor.”

“Underage girls,” eh? Question for the readers: When you hear the phrase “underage girls,” what enters your mind?

I’m guessing you’re imagining a girl who’s 17 or under. Maybe 16, 15, or 14. Or possibly even younger than that.

And if you work in media, you know that People Magazine — and others in the mainstream media — follow something called the AP format, a.k.a. the Associated Press style. It sets the rules for capitalizations, abbreviations, and more… including the cut-off point for referring to a female as a girl versus a woman.

From the AP Stylebook: “AP style tip: Girl is applicable until a subject’s 18th birthday. Use woman or young woman afterward.” [emphasis added]

So why did People Magazine refer to a 19-year-old tennis celebrity as an “underage girl” in its headline?

Remember, far more people will read the headline than the article. But if you hold your nose and get to the fourth paragraph:

[Ex-Atlantic City Trump Plaza Hotel employee Jack O’Donnell] claimed that one night in the late 1980s, Trump and Epstein visited Trump Plaza with three women and brought them onto the casino floor despite them being under 21.

O'Donnell said he found out about the incident the following day, when state casino commission inspectors were waiting for him in his office. An inspector, it seems, had identified one of the girls with Trump and Epstein as "the No. 3-ranked tennis player in the world."

"This [inspector] happened to be a tennis fan and he said, 'Jack, I know she’s 19 years old,' " O'Donnell said. "They had determined that the women that they brought down were underage to be in the casino.”

In the state of New Jersey, it is illegal for anyone under 21 to gamble on a casino floor. Despite the law, O'Donnell claims the commission gave Trump a "break" for the incident, but told him to warn the future president about the potential consequences.

Yeah, that’s the real story behind the headline: Thirty-or-so years ago, Trump once gave a V.I.P. tour to a 19-year-old tennis star who was visiting his hotel, and was (possibly) accompanied by Jeffrey Epstein.

Wow, what a scandal.

She wasn’t a “girl.” She was a 19-year-old woman. Nor was she “underaged” in the sense that most readers would assume if they only saw the headline. People Magazine’s editors were certainly smart enough to understand this, yet chose to put “Underage Girls” in its headline anyway.

It’s sleazy. It’s disgusting. It’s dishonest. And it probably violates U.S. libel laws.

Buckle up, MAGA Nation: This is gonna be our new normal for a while.

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