Now We Know Where That "Pecker" Story Came From

In the tabloid tradition, a good headline must do three things: 1. it must communicate the news
2. it must commit some act of wordplay
3. it must trigger a certain popping of the eyes in its reader, ideally accompanied by some kind of involuntary subverbal response—a squawk, a snort, a guffaw, a gasp . . .
Tabloid-headline excellence was achieved, when HuffPost declared, on its home page,
“Bezos Exposes Pecker.”
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The Current

New Yorker writers respond to the news.

The Story Behind the Instant Classic “Bezos Exposes Pecker” Headline

By Eric Lach

February 8th, 4:12 P.M.

" . . . The headline was the work of Hayley Miller, a HuffPost reporter in New York whose workday had already ended when the Bezos news came out. She was on the subway, heading home, her phone running out of battery and her reception going in and out between stations, when . . .

The idea for “Bezos Exposes Pecker” came to her quickly, but she hesitated before sharing it. . .

Both Miller and Snyder shrugged off the fact that the New York Post —a tabloid famous for its headlines—ran “Bezos Exposes Pecker” as the headline on its Friday front page. They were willing to accept that great minds had arrived at the same idea simultaneously, like Newton and Leibniz. “I think anyone in that business is brainstorming headlines with the word ‘Pecker,’ ” Snyder said