With obvious glee today's Times and Daily News went to task covering the Page Six payola scandal in greater detail.
Both papers managed to get a fair amount of milage out of the story. The News includes some great excerpts, like this one of Page Sixer Jared Paul Stern:
"You know, for whatever reasons, and it's not because there's any kind of agenda overriding or a conspiracy — I am saying you're not on the good list and the way you're headed you're even further down the bad list, so if you don't do anything about it, then there's no reason to think that it will change. I mean it is not going to change just by chance. It is going to change if you do something about it. And you need to do it right away. I mean you could hire consultants, media consultants, whatever, and pay them 10 times what you're going to pay me and they might be able to help you a little bit on a certain level but they're not really going to give you the ... (silence)"
So did the Times. The News especially seemed to relish covering Page Six editor Richard Johnson's third marriage yesterday. But still, we have to hand today's coverage to the Times. Where the News stopped with one overall story that didn't have that much new, the Times went all out. They ran a biographical sketch of Stern with quotes from Stern ("I can't defend my land of judgement here.") and Toby Young, of all people:
"I was always very impressed by how well treated he was wherever we went in New York. He was always treated like a man of importance. The various owners and maitre d's would come and kiss his ring, and free food and drink would materialize. He was like a prince of the city who never needed to carry money."
The Gray Lady also they produces excerpts of Stern's e-mails to Burkle. And Campbell Robertson's front page wrap-up of the case gives a great look at how Page Six actually works:
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.
We can only assume this is only going to get better before it gets worse. One of our friend called us and asked "is this what watergate felt like?"
Update: Gothamist just got an e-mail from the Stern with two first names asking us to "update your coverage and give me a chance to respond to any future reports." So hey, why not? For everybody who is keeping score Jared Paul Stern says that he was set-up. Oh, and his lawyer Joseph Tacopina says that “Mr. Stern has been the victim of a smear campaign, and expects to be fully exonerated and re-instated in his position." Don't say we never did anything for you Jared Paul!
