Max Clifford can rightly claim to be pre-eminent when it comes to using cheque book journalism to influence the news agenda. His credits include a string of sensational stories which have captivated newspaper readers.
The names David Beckham and Rebecca Loos immediately spring to mind. Here was a blockbuster which Clifford helped engineer and which it was said netted Loos in excess of a million pounds in fees for newspaper stories and television appearances. "Beckham's secret affair" (News of the World 4.4.2004) was the front page splash which heralded the start of a cascade of intimate disclosures which dominated the tabloid press for week after week.
"Becks, sex and me...by sleazy senorita Rebecca Loos" was the Sun's contribution (10.4.2004) to this steamy saga.
Clifford sprang to fame in the late 1990s during final years of the last Conservative government. "Sleaze" was the word which was slung around the neck of the outgoing Prime Minister John Major, a charge which the Labour Party exploited to the full with more than a little help from their friend Max. "Tory MP two-timed wife with under-age gay lover" (News of the World 5.1.1997) was just one a long line of kiss-n-tell stories which did immense damage to the Conservatives.
A decade later the Labour government became a casualty of Clifford's eye for an agenda setting story. "Prescott: The abuse of office" was the Mail on Sunday's follow up (30.4.2006) to the sensational disclosure that the Deputy Prime Minister had been having an affair with one his secretaries. Clifford negotiated on her behalf and Tracey Temple's "devastating interview and excoriating diaries" revealed how Prescott exploited "his power for his own sexual gratification".
When it comes to exploiting cheque-book journalism in order to command the news agenda the British tabloids have no equal.
Indeed the culture of paid for journalism has become so embedded within the British press that it rules the roost and collects the gongs when it come to doling out the accolades. This year's front page of the year at the British press awards was "Harry the Nazi" (13.1.2005), the Sun's front page picture of Prince Harry dressed as a Nazi soldier at a pal's birthday party. It fell to another tabloid to expose the student who sold the picture to the Sun: "Harry's Traitor" (Sunday Mirror 6.2.2005). Scoop of the year went to the Daily Mirror for "Cocaine Kate" (15.9.2005) for a series of photographs of the supermodel Kate Moss snorting "line after line".
When it comes to the trade in salacious stories London is the market place that calls the shots. Just as dealings in the City of London affect share prices around the world, so the popular press of Britain influences the daily reportage not just in the news media of this country but often for newspapers, magazines and television stations in countries far and wide. The tabloids' take on the news of the day is all pervasive; the front pages are devoured each morning in newspaper reviews on television and radio; and it is the issues which they report which invariably tend frame the questions for talk shows and phone-ins. Perhaps in a way most of us have become addicts, anxious to feed off the daily fare of an agenda setting industry that is becoming ever more inventive and ever more sensational.
http://www.spinwatch.org.uk/component/content/article/70-british-politics/3499-who-sets-the-news-agenda-for-the-british-press
