The Page Six Scandal

I frankly haven't been following the Page Six Scandal so this is a bit of a recap. The NY Post and NY Daily News have been going at it for years, and in the past year alone - those two papers, along with the NYT and NY Newsday have had their circulation figures questioned (Post, News, and Newsday), seen problems with contests sponsored (Daily News), journalists making up stories out of whole cloth (New York Times), and now the New York Post is dealing with the allegation of extortion against a NY Post freelancer.

The New York market is extremely competitive and the gossip columns are no exception. I certainly believe that something like this could happen, but the question is whether it actually did happen. The FBI is involved, and did not find sufficient evidence to make an arrest. They don't have enough evidence to go after the freelancer, Jared Paul Stern.

So far, that is.

They're still investigating.

There are big name Hollywood types involved, major newspapers, and the kinds of sordid tales of extortion and intrigue that you've come to not expect in your typical Hollywood thriller. Which makes this all the more interesting to those not named Fox (their affiliates, sister companies, or print outlets). FoxNews is apparently not covering the story, which would make Fox no different than the NYT or CBS News, both of which denied there was a story there, until it was too late (see Blair, Jayson, and Rather, Dan).

There is a story here as well, but that's out of the New York Times piece, which goes into the relationships built between gossip columnists and their sources, and how the Post's Page Six actually operates:

Mr. Johnson, according to current and former employees of The Post, has virtually the final say on what gets into the column; Steve Cuozzo, a managing editor at The Post, gives the column a final review before it is sent to be published.

He pays particular attention to the lead item — the longest, and usually the most salacious item, which runs across the top, above the cartoon — and often rewrites it, several former Page Six reporters said. He also approves what the other reporters are pursuing on their own, or hands leads on possible items to the reporters.

Over a decade ago Mr. Johnson also revived the blind items — "WHICH married tycoon has a fondness for..." — the little "Just Asking" puzzlers that are all the more juicy for being not quite lawyer-proof. The first one he remembers running, he recalled in a lengthy Vanity Fair magazine article in 2004 about Page Six, was on Marla Maples and Donald Trump.

Mr. Johnson, who was set to be married yesterday for the third time on a yacht in Palm Beach, Fla., with a guest list of his column's regulars, can be seen in New York at cocktail parties and dinners. But he is not the one scouring the clubs for late-night gossip.

That duty falls to those beneath him in the gossip order: Ms. Froelich, a straight-talking woman from Ohio who has a side business appearing on celebrity gossip television shows and who once dated the celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain, and Mr. Wilson, a hard-partying, gregarious man from Baltimore.

For those who aren't aware, Steve Cuozzo is one of the regular editorialists commenting on the Ground Zero rebuilding. He's also a regular writer on real estate business dealings in New York City, and sometimes even throws in a restaurant review. Some of my Battle for Ground Zero pieces have been based on comments Cuozzo has made or gleaned from his contacts. The fact is that he's got his finger on the pulse of this city like no one else, and the question may become whether he knew more about this whole mess than we know thus far.

It's also interesting to read what gossip columnists regularly receive in the course of doing business:

In all the gossip world, Page Six included, freebies are endemic. But a favor of the kind that Mr. Stern was allegedly seeking — thousands of dollars for his assistance — is shocking to even gossip veterans.

"Never cash," Ms. Schoeneman said. "Favors. Like hotel rooms or designer handbags or free drinks, free bottle service, free meals, things that are not tolerated at other papers."

As a phenomenon, free merchandise from publicists is not rare and it is not new. Mr. Johnson, for instance, was flown to the Academy Awards last month and put up for three nights at the Four Seasons hotel, courtesy of Mercedes-Benz, according to a spokesman for the car company.

"I know that people used to be on the take in the old days, but not for money, nothing so vulgar," said Diana McLellan, who wrote "The Ear," a gossip column that appeared in The Washington Star and The Washington Post in the 1970's and 80's. "Caviar and champagne. In Washington I knew some social writer who got a case of champagne and case of caviar from an old Iranian ambassador under the shah."

Shocking. Shocking. I can't believe that there was quid pro quo in the world of gossip mongering. But one has to wonder whether there is any spillover to traditional journalism? And I think the answer to that question is yes (see Jordan, Eason at CNN).