Rupert Murdoch’s the News of The World is a trashy Sunday tabloid.
Really trashy, full of yellow journalism.
But today they have a sad story about a wild party night for Michael Phelps in Columbia, South Carolina.
The paper claims that he was smoking a cannabis pipe, and that’s the picture of the day.
The PR machine of the Olympic swimmer wanted to stop the publication of the picture.
And the News of The World, which sometimes pays for pictures and articles about scandals, this time did what any newspaper has to do.
In their own words:
“Phelps is represented by marketing giant Octagon, which works with huge brands such as Mastercard and HSBC.
They admitted proven cannabis use would be “a major taint” on Phelps’ character.
Spokesman Clifford Bloxham offered us an extraordinary deal not to publish our story, saying Phelps would become our columnist for three years, host events and get his sponsors to advertise with us.
In return, he asked that we kill Phelps’ bong picture.
Bloxham said: “It’s seeing if something potentially very negative for Michael could turn into something very positive for the News of the World.”
Another fallen hero.
And an expected end of a life that he once described as:
“All you do is eat, sleep, swim; eat, sleep, swim; eat, sleep, swim.”
What a compelling human story to tell!
That nobody covered.
Now we will get it.
Thanks — oh dear — to the News of The World.