Welcome
Getting the inside story of anything is always fascinating, and the book ‘Tabloid Man & the Baffling Chair of Death’ gets inside the inside story. It reveals for the first time how the supermarket scandal sheets REALLY get their Untold Stories, how they mislead the reader, force the famous into confessing their misdeeds, create those attention-grabbing headlines and generally go about their nefarious business.A former senior reporter at the National Enquirer who has worked for all the American tabloids from Star, Globe, and National Examiner to Weekly World News reveals in this book things that the gossip rags would rather keep secret.
Paul Bannister also tells just how he got some of those stories, paints a revealing portrait of the publisher who changed the American media for ever and tells in a brutally-frank memoir about his own dealings with ghosts, celebrities, talking animals, presidents, the future king of England and the CIA’s psychic spies.
He deals the scoop on classic tab tales like getting the Last Photo of Elvis and how the Enquirer found its annual, million-dollar World’s Tallest Christmas Tree as well detailing working secrets of his own career.
Listen to a ghost:
An excellent and rare example of a clear and intelligent Electronic Voice Phenomenon can be heard here. During a telephone interview with Rea Koch, the then-curator of the Old Stone House in Washington, DC, author Paul Bannister asked her about the number of ghosts reported in that very haunted place. As Bannister groped for the total, which is four males, two females and a child ghost, Koch started to answer. A whispery voice that neither heard at the time of the phone conversation surfaced on the journalist’s tape when he replayed the interview. The voice said distinctly: ”Four, two and a kid,” accurately reporting the number and correcting Bannister’s estimate.This, parapsychologists agree, shows evidence of an intelligence, as it interjects to correct the number at the exact, correct moment in the conversation. “Neither Rea nor I heard the voice during our conversation. It was not her, she was speaking when the voice is heard, and it certainly was not me,” said Bannister. “Every time I hear that recording, the hair on the nape of my neck begins to prickle. It isn’t a fake or a hoax, it was not audible during the interview. It only surfaced when I went back to listen to the tape.”
When the writer called the curator later to report the voice, Koch was nonchalant. “We have ghost sightings all the time,” she shrugged. In 2011, Bannister contacted the Old Stone House and spoke with a National Parks Service employee who answered the telephone. Bannister spoke of ‘Tabloid Man,’ saying this story is detailed in the book, and asked if the ghosts were still a major presence in the building. Today, it seems, the NPS does not acknowledge hauntings. “We pay no attention to that,” said the employee brusquely, declining to give his name before he hung up. Your call: now, you can hear the voice and judge for yourself.
Click this link for a 15 second audio which captures a voice from the dead.
Front Page News:
Links & Archives
PRAISE FOR TABLOID MAN *** The prestigious London-based magazine Fortean Times judged ‘Tabloid Man” a favorite read and called it: ‘Yellow press journalism at its most repellently amusing.’ The FT’s literary editor Valerie Stevenson (under the pen name William Darragh) wrote: “Paul Bannister’s book rollicks along with more than a little literary ability… the narrative weaves tales of rat-like cunning, psychic adventure, derring-do and the eventual decline of the National Enquirer after a change in the public’s taste – and an anthrax attack. Read all about it!”
*** Reviewer Nick Redfern’s judgment in the US journal The Anomalist called ‘Tabloid Man’ “a fine piece of work and a first-class account of what goes behind the scenes in the world of freelance journalism and its links to Hollywood, deep scandal, and all-things supernatural. But, Tabloid Man is far more than just that. It’s also a celebration of what it means to live rather than just to exist, of doing things on one’s own terms, of grabbing the proverbial bull by the horns, and of the always-unpredictable adrenalin rush that accompanies the words of your forever-demanding editor: “Get on a plane to Thailand; someone has just seen Elvis!” Or, something like that anyway!” http://forteanreviews.blogspot.com/2011/06/tabloid-man.html
*** Spirit Realm Investigation group leader Kendra Belgrad put ‘Tabloid Man’ at the top of the Pennsylvania organisation’s recommended reading list and commented:” The bizarre encounters Paul Bannister was lucky enough to experience are brought back to life with his witty banter and investigative approach. I found myself unable to put the book down, gobbling up the text, and eager to know what the author would run into next. Each tale, expertly told, brought me closer to understanding the strange relationship between the tabloid, and those who bravely worked under the iron fist or the owner. It also gave me a glimpse into days gone by, where strange occurrences fascinated readers through print and propelled inquiring minds to investigate the unknown.”
http://www.spiritrealminvestigation.com/illumination/featured-interviews/223-an-interview-with-the-qtabloid-manq
Radio
Host, “A World of Strange Happenings” Bi-weekly broadcast 6pm PST, beginning 9/16/11? www.liveparanormal.com – Listen LIVE or to ARCHIVES
Interviews & Reviews
The Anomalist with Nick Redfern (US), 6/11
http://forteanreviews.blogspot.com/2011/06/tabloid-man.html
Binnall of America with Tim Binnall Webcast, 6/30/11
www.binnallofamerica.com/boaa063011.html
Coast to Coast with George Knapp, 4/17/11?
http://www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2011/04/17
Fate Magazine (USA), 7/27/11
www.fatemag.com/?s=bannister
Mysterious America with Brent Raynes, Editor of Alternate Perceptions e-zine, 2/11
www.apmagazine.info/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=151&Itemid=53
Nightwatch Radio with Todd Sheets, 4/26/11
www.nightwatchuniverse.com/radio/NW-GarretJohnLoporto-Wayseers-PaulBannister-04-26-11.mp3
The Paracast show, with Gene Steinberg, 7/3/11
theparacast.com/podcast/now-playing-july-3-2011-—-paul-bannister-the-tabloid-man/
Register Guard (USA),?3/29/11
http://www.registerguard.com/web/newslocalnews/26008848-41/bannister-enquirer-tabloids-wrote-book.html.csp
Spirit Realm Investigation (USA)?
http://www.spiritrealminvestigation.com/illumination/featured-interviews/223-an-interview-with-the-qtabloid-manq
Understanding Spirit Radio Show with Alan Cox, 6/10/11?
wolftalkradio.com/cast/start/parax/ondemand/Understanding Spirit with Paul Bannister 6-10-11.mp3