Rivals in the Muck

The London sex scandal that has ousted two members of the Heath regime detoured into Fleet Street last week. It developed that two giant Sunday papers had been involved in questionable Peeping Tom activities while competing for salacious muck. The News of the World (circ. 6,000,000) revealed that one of its photographers had taken sneak pictures of Lord Lambton romping in bed with Prostitute Norma Levy and another doxy. NOW's rival, the Sunday People (circ. 4,600,000) admitted paying for film and tapes of Norma's upper-crust bedroom festivities.

Neither paper published the pictures --the only good thing many critics could find to say about their behavior.

Both papers dealt with Norma's husband and pimp, Colin Levy, who is also wanted for questioning about narcotics offenses. In early May he learned that police evidence implicated him in vice activities. Desperate for getaway money, Levy offered to sell NOW movies and tapes starring Lambton and the girls. The paper was not equipped to process movie film, and it said that taped evidence was not sufficient. So it gave Levy an infrared still camera and a tape recorder and told him to come up with new documentation to support his story. Contrary to the paper's statement, considerable evidence suggests that a NOW photographer, rather than taking clandestine shots himself, taught Levy how to use the equipment.

Busy Life. In any event, new and conclusive pictures were obtained. After some discussion, NOW editors decided not to print a story exposing Lambton by name. Instead, they gave the photos and tapes to Levy, sent him packing without a penny and informed Scotland Yard of what was going on (the police already knew). The paper then published an article saying that authorities were investigating an unnamed politician entangled in a vice ring. Levy, meanwhile, took his enlarged stock of material to People and demanded -L-45,000 ($112,500). He quickly settled for $1,875 down, with a promise of $ 13,125 later. The cash was enough to take Levy and Norma to Morocco.

When People staffers got around to listening to Levy's tapes, they heard the voice of a NOW reporter identifying the material--a helpful fact in case the tapes ever become evidence in court.

People had been skunked by NOW and by events; Lambton resigned before People could get much return for its investment. So it published Norma's unsubstantiated story, telephoned from Morocco, that a third minister was involved in her busy life. For their efforts, People, and to a certain extent NOW, earned widespread opprobrium.

Normally, the British press stands united against outside attacks. Not this time.

The buying of stories from tainted sources--"checkbook journalism"--is frowned on by the British Press Council, an influential body that monitors journalistic ethics. Said the Times of London: "Bought evidence is bound to be suspect evidence." The notion that Operation Peep was in the interest of national security holds little water; Lambton's career was doomed before the press intervened. Journalist and M.P. Winston Churchill, Sir Winston's grandson, argued: "Saying that hiding photographers in brothel keepers' cupboards is in the best traditions of journalism is really grotesque." In this case, it is also harmful to the British press's hope that laws limiting the disclosure of government information and certain legal proceedings will be relaxed. Said Conservative M.P. William Deedes:

"The predictable reaction of many will be to declare that the press is not to be trusted with the freedom it already enjoys." The Press Council, meanwhile, began an investigation, and Lord Lambton has been to see his solicitor.

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