Gossip Page Becomes Focus of Scandal

April 9, 2006 — -- If there's a burning scandal among the rich and famous, chances are it played out on Page Six of the New York Post.

But the column is now at the center of it's own scandal, under investigation by the FBI and accused of taking tabloid journalism to entirely new depths.

For years, Jared Paul Stern was an influential contributor to the Page Six dish, and late last month, he was captured on a secret surveillance video allegedly offering to keep supermarket tycoon Ron Burkle out of the column in exchange for a $100,000 down payment, and $10,000 a month.

Vanity Fair media columnist Michael Wolff called Stern's alleged request for money "astonishing" because if true, it would reduce the back scratching that may go on in gossip pages to "hard cash."

"I don't think it is common or if we find out it is common, then we enter a whole new realm of this tawdry business," Wolff said. "What is at issue is the idea of a transaction. Everything that happens on that page and in most gossip columns and gossip magazines is a transaction … so in a very real way, nobody has clean hands. In a very real way, nobody is supposed to have clean hands."

The extortion allegation follows a number of embarrassing Page Six items on Burkle, a fiercely private billionaire. One story had Burkle buying a modeling agency as a gift for his friend Bill Clinton. Another claimed he was dating supermodel Giselle Bundchen while he was still seeing his girlfriend at the time.

In December, Burkle reached out to Post owner Rupert Murdoch in frustration. In a letter published by the Post's competitor, the New York Daily News, he wrote: "I can't sue a friend. … Every time I am mentioned in your newspaper the facts are just plain wrong. … If I did something wrong I could understand being hung by your newspaper. However, when I'm simply minding my own business and inaccurate stories appear, it is out of control."