I don’t know George Simpson, but I do know American Media’s main mouthpiece Stu Zakim. Stu and I started in motion picture PR together, and in fact, I gave him the lead on his first job in publishing (at Wenner Media) when he was getting antsy toiling for Dino DeLaurentis. Yes, Mr. Simpson’s observation concerning the “quality” of David Pecker’s growing media empire is a subject worthy for debate – especially when one considers Mr. Pecker’s previous employer, Hachette-Filipacchi. Still, Stu’s public support for his employer didn’t merit the snarky personal comment in spite of the reason for it: one of AMI’s magazine’s tasteless inclusion of a burn victim in its “ugliest people” issue. Stu was only brought in to clean up the mess some editor at the magazine created. “…the editors responsible for the story were fired.”