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CASH FOR NO COMMENT

Badness at the New York Post:

A New York Post Page Six staffer solicited $220,000 from a high-profile billionaire in return for a year’s “protection” against inaccurate and unflattering items about him in the gossip page, the Daily News has learned.

In two 90-minute meetings, characterized by a shocking breach of ethics, Jared Paul Stern, a fixture on the city’s gossip scene who also edited Page Six The Magazine, asked for a series of payments from Ron Burkle, the managing partner of Yucaipa Cos., a conglomerate with interests in supermarkets, celebrity clothing lines, and media.

Part-timer Stern has been suspended pending an inquiry and his inevitable booting. These attempted deals aren’t unknown in tabloid journalism, although generally they are proposed by the target rather than the journalist.

Posted by Tim B. on 04/07/2006 at 11:12 AM
  1. Dear Tim,

    For a reasonable fee, I can arrange not to have you photoshopped into Margo’s thong pictures.

    Sincerely,

    A friend

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 04 07 at 11:18 AM • permalink

  2. Richard, you might get more money from Margo with that offer.

    Posted by Retread on 2006 04 07 at 11:22 AM • permalink

  3. Of course the amount might vary on which interpretation of “thong” is used - Australian or American.

    Posted by Steve-- on 2006 04 07 at 11:27 AM • permalink

  4. I could get Tim another tanga on my next trip to Brazil.

    Oops, did I say “another”?

    Posted by Mr. Bingley on 2006 04 07 at 11:33 AM • permalink

  5. Yes Binster-you did!

    Very interesting.  Protection against inaccurate stories.  That would seem to imply that they know an item is inaccurate before they publish it.  How else could they refrain?  Just asking

    Posted by yojimbo on 2006 04 07 at 12:08 PM • permalink

  6. Looks like he’ll be needing a lawyer.  With that medical case all wrapped up, perhaps Mr Sear would represent.  Is he licensed to practice NY?  Is he licensed anywhere? 
    Oh, never mind, the guy should just plead guilty, hope for mercy and take it on the chin.

    Posted by Texas Bob on 2006 04 07 at 12:17 PM • permalink

  7. Just fired?  Only, that looks like extortion to me.

    Posted by BrendaK on 2006 04 07 at 12:32 PM • permalink

  8. This is what The Sweet Smell of Success what have been if Rob Schneider had been cast instead of Burt Lancaster.

    Posted by chinesearithmetic on 2006 04 07 at 01:00 PM • permalink

  9. And all this time I thought these MSM types equivocate, fabricate, prevaricate, distort, mistate, falsify and generally make shit up just for fun. As a capitalist, though, I do admire the profit motive.

    Posted by Kyda Sylvester on 2006 04 07 at 01:11 PM • permalink

  10. I’ve not published any inaccurate or unflattering items about Ron Burkle, or anyone, and I have yet to see one thin dime!

    Who else owes me money?

    Posted by Bill Spencer on 2006 04 07 at 01:21 PM • permalink

  11. #5 OOPS!  That’s Bingster!  Sorry!  Geez!

    Posted by yojimbo on 2006 04 07 at 01:24 PM • permalink

  12. So was Margo unable to keep up with the payments, Tim, after all her blog bolding?

    Posted by andycanuck on 2006 04 07 at 03:03 PM • permalink

  13. I, for one, will help Mr Sear, Esq., get admitted pro hoc vice if he ever needs such in Illinois…

    Posted by Major John on 2006 04 07 at 03:03 PM • permalink

  14. Back in the 1940s in the US there was a popular publication called “Charley Jones’ Laughbook.” Jones was an insurance salesman in Wichita Kansas who started publishing a small collection of risque jokes and cartoons (the kind that feature a man and an impossibly buxom woman on a desert island wondering what to do with all the time) as a giveaway for his male customers.  (Imagine wooing your customers with smut today.) It grew into a national success; somewhere along the way, Jones also started publishing a society newsletter in Wichita (which hardly seemed big enough to have society worth chronicling, but never mind). 

    Anyway, it quickly became known that if you didn’t want your nightclub dalliance with your secretary to turn up in there, it was an excellent idea to have your insurance with Charlie.  This guy simply didn’t know how to play the game that subtly.

    Posted by Mike G on 2006 04 07 at 05:25 PM • permalink

  15. Of course the amount might vary on which interpretation of “thong” is used - Australian or American.

    Either way, Steve, do you think Tim really wants to be seen with a Margo wearing nothing but?

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 04 08 at 01:43 AM • permalink

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