Another voice
Scoop
Auberon Waugh
On Monday, the Daily Mirror's front page announced the start of a series of articles which were WORLD EXCLUSIVE. To those unfamiliar with the ways of Fleet Street, I should perhaps translate that claim. When the word 'exclusive' is used to describe a news story, it means that the newspaper has paid f2-3,000 for it — perhaps £5,000 in the case of a Sunday — and thinks that it has pulled a fast one over its competitors. When a newspaper describes something as 'world exclusive' it generally means that it has paid much more money — up to 00,000 for a daily, any sum you care to name for a Sunday — and hopes to sell syndication rights all over the world. In the days and weeks ahead, we may assume that the Mirror's 'world ex- clusive' will be hungrily read in the Wagga Wagga Globe and Winnipeg Monitor.
The entire front page of the Daily Mir- ror, on a day when other newspapers chose to give prominence to some optimistic if deeply boring forecasts by the CBI, was taken up by a very bad photograph of a young man in bathing dress, seen from behind, talking to a woman in a bikini. Neither is remotely recognisable, but the copy assures us that the man is Prince An- drew 'relaxing on a poolside patio with former model Vicki Hodge: 'What is the truth about that exciting week in the lives of the Prince and his playmates? For the first time, the girls have told their story — "to set the record straight". It begins in the Daily Mirror to- day. PLEASE TURN TO THE CENTRE PAGES.'
The economic news, to which the Daily Telegraph devoted 26 column inches on its front page — 'INDUSTRY IS RECOVERING SAYS CBI: output and orders expected to rise' — is awarded two and a half column inches on an inside page of the Mirror. 'SPLIT ON ECONOMY: top bosses disagree to- day over the prospects for Britain's economy. Leaders of the Confederation of British Industry say output is picking up. But Sir Peter Matthews, President of the Engineering Employers Federation, which has been badly hit by the recession, says "the immediate outlook for the growth in (sic) the economy in 1983 are (sic) not en- couraging".'
End of story. 'Andrew at Play', by con- trast, scores the entire front page (say 84 column inches) and the entire double-page centre spread apart from a Nescafe adver- tisement — a rough total of 220 column inches, although it is only fair to say that most of the space is taken up by further rot- ten holiday snaps. One shows Prince An- drew, in bathing dress, splashing around in a swimming pool, another shows him sitting at a luncheon table in the house of Mrs Janet Kidd, 74-year-old daughter of Lord Beaverbrook. A third picture does not show him at all, but the 36-year-old former model posing with two younger women called Tracie (21) and Lucy (26).
Generally speaking, one would decide that the Mirror had got its news values just about right. Its readers, despite their natural thirst for Vietnamese or Soviet pro- paganda on the organisation of Thailand's small industries, cannot really be expected to share anyone else's morbid interest in the state of British industry. It is only when one examines the story which accompanies the pictures that one begins to worry whether the Mirror's readers — many of whom are unemployed, or mentally retarded or other- wise ill — are really getting a fair deal.
By the Mirror's account nothing reprehensible occurred. As Lucy put it, 'it was all good fun'. Vicki, the former model, is more explicit: 'There was a lot of flirting in the water, but it never got out of hand. Whatever anyone thinks, nobody made any special conquests. Nobody can claim the Crown jewels.'
So the great world exclusive news story would seem to be that Prince Andrew splashed around in a swimming pool with a woman and two girls whom he met by chance: 'a chance meeting at a party aboard Andrew's ship, the carrier Invincible, turn- ed into a week of unforgettable memories'. So far as Mirror readers are concerned, Tracie and Lucy are still virgines intactae: `Tracie, the Prince's favourite, was also left feeling bitter when Prince Andrew said an abrupt goodbye ... "Our fairytale turn- ed sour," she said.' Vicki, they are told, 'angrily denies suggestions that from the beginning she set out to cash in on her friendship with Andrew'. Tracie is also quoted as saying: 'I definitely did not set out to meet him.'
So that is all the Mirror readers know. Readers of the News of the World on the day before were told an entirely different and rather more interesting story, however — that the whole stunt had been deliberate- ly set up by Miss Hodge. She was quoted as saying: 'I've got pictures of the Prince and some of his girls. They're going to be a bombshell ... it was a piece of cake to ar- range, and they're worth a hell of a lot.' By the News of the World's account, the pic- tures were sold for £40,000 — presumably to the Daily Mirror.
Certainly, the News of the World did not buy them. Perhaps if decided that it had the better story already — that Prince Andrew had been the victim of a trick, and that the 'royal sneak' may be expelled from Bar" bados for her behaviour. It seems to have done more homework on the story than the Mirror, revealing that Miss Hodge made a similar killing five years ago when she sold a picture of her former lover, the actor John Bindon, sitting next to Princess Margaret and wearing a T-shirt which bore the slogan, 'Enjoy Cocaine'. At the time, Bindon was awaiting trial on a murder charge, althongh he was subsequently acquitted. The kindest interpretation of the Mirror's behaviour would be that its editor had been taken for a ride by Miss Hodge, and somehow missed the main front-nage story in the News of the World the daY before. Even apart from the yardstick of objective truth, it was a much better storY, with its various important revelations about 2I-year-old Tracie Lamb: 'Trade, from Haslemere, Surrey, is 0° stranger to beach nudity. Last summer, she lazed topless at St Tropez ... and had 3 three-day fling with a man from Heathrow Airport called Chris.' The photograPh which accompanied this story (TOPLESS TRAC1E: on holiday in France last summer with an airport man named Chris) wa,s presumably bought from Tracie herself. it is also painfully obvious that she has forgotten Chris's surname, if she ever knew, it. News of the World readers also learrie'l that Tracie is in trouble from her rnothef' called Mrs lngrams: 'At home at Hasleinere yesterday Mrs Ingrams, 41, said she was "shocked".' An altogether better story than the Or; ror's and one which may have the ad.'e virtue of telling the truth — there was 'chance meeting', it was all set up for we newspapers. Gross incompetence, as I saYr, is the kindest explanation for the Aliri°,s editor's behaviour. But there are other, te'e kind explanations possible. Last week. printed a column by Anne Robinson in which she rebuked Prince Andrew for con; sorting with such people as Vicki Hodge f°s; fear he brought the monarchy into cli repute. That being so, why did this s„arris. editor then pay huge sums of money I°L, suspect story from a tainted source to the matter further prominence?
There seems to be something
rather going on between the Mirror and Princas Andrew. Last month it printed — agaig its most prominent front-page nevus st° — the information that the Prince [last', °tide new sweetheart in the person of Miss Burnett, an actess and former Bunny "laj This story was later revealed as at°.ng fabrication — Miss Burnett angrily denY1,11e that she had ever spoken to or,even met Prince. In a newspaper which made less of i_tcsi high moral purpose, one might be prenflo to shrug it all off as the sort of Mist which is bound to occur whenever Pe°,1"4.1 are employed who have been educate° , the Shirley Williams comprehensive systbeern_ But with the Mirror, there is bound to . high moral purpose behind it all. What Is 11
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