MSNBC Panel Disses David Pecker For ‘Checkbook Journalism’ [Video]

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow hosted a lively panel Monday night about Trump trial witness David Pecker’s use of the term, “checkbook journalism.”

Pecker, the former publisher of The National Enquirer and other supermarket tabloids, was the first witness to take the stand in Trump’s business fraud trial. Prosecutors allege that Trump covered up a $130,000 payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels to keep their affair a secret so he wouldn’t look bad before the 2016 presidential election.

Prosecutors also allege that Trump and Pecker conspired to “catch-and-kill” negative stories about the GOP nominee — that is, Pecker paid sources large sums of money for exclusive rights to salacious stories, then buried the information so it wouldn’t hurt Trump in the election.

While on the stand Monday, Pecker explained:

On the celebrity side of the magazine industry, at least on the tabloid side, we used “checkbook journalism,” and we paid for stories. So I give a number …