Private Lives

6

Leif danced with Bodie Fuhrman, enjoying her moves. She was an energetic, almost reckless dancer, a young woman who moved the way she wanted to move. Several times Leif found himself having to duck if he wanted to avoid a flailing arm or a bumping hip.

By the time the music ended, Bodie had a faint sheen on her face and a twinkle in her emerald-green eyes. “‘Wild and crazy,’ that’s what everybody says about me.” She giggled.

“It just gives me something to keep up with,” Leif replied with a smile.

After a couple more wild dances, Bodie decided she needed a drink. Leif bought a simple soda. Bodie asked for one of those foaming, smoking concoctions that Alexis had been drinking.

Time to make my move, Leif thought. “So you work for the famous Tori Rush,” he said.

“I don’t know how famous she is in Sweden,” Bodie said, breathing out a puff of smoke. “But she’s a pretty big cheese over here. Just ask her! If you listen to her tell it, she’s a regular news diva.” Bodie’s eyes hardened as she looked sharply over her glass. “You’re not one of those low-wattage types who think she’s hot?”

“I don’t like blondes,” Leif lied. “For myself, I prefer a woman who looks like a woman.” He smiled. “Preferably with red hair.” He gestured at his own head. “Less chance to clash, you know.”

Bodie’s eyebrows rose in her round, expressive face. “Oddly enough, I’ve got a thing for redheads, too. We’ll have to see what we can do about that.”

“Ah,” Leif said. This was interesting, but not what he’d come here looking for. Time to prod a little. “Forgive me, but I don’t think you like Ms. Rush.”

“You could say that,” Bodie said. “One semester of being her personal servant has just about killed my desire to go into the news business.”

“As bad as that?”

“Worse,” she assured him. “I had this completely idealistic conception of what journalism was like. You know, the whole Fourth Estate thing.”

Leif must have looked puzzled, because she said, “You know, the press as the ‘Fourth Estate.’ Being European, you must know about the Three Estates of the Realm, right? The Three Estates were the basis of feudal society — the Lords Spiritual, or the Church; the Lords Temporal, or the nobility; and the bourgeoisie, or the common folk.”

Actually, Leif had learned about that in his history class. He’d forgotten it as soon as it was convenient, as he did much of the information that he learned in school and considered extraneous. Who’d have guessed he’d have a need for that little tidbit? But now he nodded. He remembered enough to get by.

“Well, a couple of hundred years ago, as the press came to have more of an influence on society, journalism was jokingly referred to as a new political force — the Fourth Estate. Then it turned out not to be a joke. By the late twentieth century, newspapers and television had actually helped to unseat one sitting president, and got fairly close to unseating another. Even today, when they get really stuffy and serious, media people like to talk about their responsibility to the public. ‘The news sets the agenda,’ they say, as if that were a good thing.”

“But you began to have your doubts,” Leif said.

“To put it mildly,” Bodie retorted. “I didn’t see anybody in HoloNews carrying the sacred flame. The place is a for-profit business, worse than most of the offices you see in the holos, with all the nastiest parts of Hollywood thrown in.”

She shook her head. “I’ve seen serious stories, mine and everyone else’s, pushed aside to make room for coverage of some stupid actor getting caught with his pants down. Other stories I broke got spiked — ignored — because they didn’t suit the great Tori Rush’s personal agenda. And even when I did get my hands on a hot story, something that was ripe for the headlines, I was just a grunt, the lowest level of employee. I’d do all the work to develop a story, only to see the news diva get the credit. Nobody at the station was ever told how Tori got her hands on the information.”

Her full lips twisted. “It was enough to make me sick. Sure knocked all my high ideals about a free press defending democracy right out of my head. A guy named A. J. Liebling had it right: ‘A free press is guaranteed only to those who own one.’”

“Tori Rush is that bad?” Leif asked, hoping for some dirt.

“She’d stab you in the back just to get a convenient opening in which to view the time of day,” Bodie said. “I’m an intern. I know what goes into the job. I could live with her stealing the credit for all the work I did, and giving me all her work to do on top of it, but then she’d send me out to deal with her dirty laundry and her shopping and her lunches and her bills.”

“But if you were handling most of her work and her personal responsibilities, what was she doing?”

Bodie glanced around, then her voice became conspiratorial. She wasn’t exactly whispering — who could, with that wailing music in the background? But she lowered her voice and moved her lips closer to Leif’s ears. “She’s working on setting up her own show.”

Leif looked surprised. “But she’s the ‘fresh new face’ on Once Around the Clock. She’s only been there a couple of years. Is she really such a star that the network would let her do that?”

“She thinks she’s got the demographics,” Bodie said. “There was a time when even the best newsmen — or — women — needed a decade at the top before they’d get a shot at their own interview show. They had to stand out from the rest of the team on the magazine shows just to get a slot hosting those early-morning extravaganzas that start at six A.M. On Sundays they had to come up with probing questions for newsmakers on those panel-interview shows. But Tori-baby isn’t interested in actual work, just the perks that come with the job. She figures she can push her status as America’s Sweetheart to get what she wants — money and fame — right now.”

Bodie looked truly disgusted. “She spends more time on the phone with her agent, crafting the latest ultimatum to the network, than she does checking sources for her stories, even the stuff she’s purloined. Have you noticed that all the news she’s broken lately has been big scandals? Accusations that make headlines, even if they don’t stick? That’s ’cause they’re easy for her to do. She’s got a source even the network doesn’t know about. And those stories give her a high profile while she does development deals for her show. You ready for this? She wants to call it The Rush Hour.”

Leif shrugged. “Aim high,” he said.

“But to get there, she’s willing to go really low.” Bodie hesitated for a moment, then shrugged. “I shouldn’t really say this—”

Leif leaned a little closer, but she clammed up again.

“Ah,” he said, “this is — what do you call it? — the teaser?”

Stung, she swallowed the rest of her drink and glared at him. “Unlike some sources, I come through. The story will be out soon enough, and I’m quoted in it. Tori, the great news diva, has hired her own private eyes to dig up dirt for her. How’s that for investigative reporting?”

“Detectives?” Leif said in disbelief.

“No shinola, Sherlock. After her agent, the people Tori-babe called most were her professional peepers at I-on Investigations. They were supposed to give her ‘background reports.’”

Bodie’s lips curled in disgust. “But her highness just prettied them up into news scripts, didn’t even bother checking the facts or verifying the stories with multiple sources. I should know. She had me writing up the scripts while she took credit for her ‘investigative journalism.’”

“It sounds…irresponsible,” Leif said, hoping to get more.

“That’s the name of the game when you’re playing muckraker. Tori wanted and needed a good scandal to make points with the bigwigs. That story about the world-champion pitcher with three wives and three families? That was done based on an I-on report and my scriptwriting. Same thing with that report on the corporate president accused of looting his company’s assets.”

Leif remembered that one. His father complained that the story had been an unpleasant sandwich — a little bit of truth stuck loosely between thick slices of baloney. The actual dealings the corporate head had approved were perfectly reasonable and legal — but had been cast in an evil light by hysterical reporting, with the usual damaging results for the corporate head. By the time he’d managed to prove his innocence, nobody was listening and the damage to his career and the company had been done.

“Right now Tori’s convinced she’s latched on to something really good with this story about the Net Force guy killing that gangster,” Bodie interrupted Leif’s thoughts. “It’s got everything — dead innocents, Mafia kingpins, and a great unlikely villain. She’s been on the line with her connection at I-on for most of this week, screaming for more dirt.”

“And if there is no dirt?” Leif asked.

“Don’t be naive,” Bodie told him. “Nobody is such a saint that they haven’t done something. That Winters guy is history. By the time Tori gets done with the facts, people will be screaming to hang the poor guy.”

“Too bad that can’t be done to Ms. Rush.” Leif had to fight to keep his tone light.

“Oh, she’ll get hers,” Bodie assured him. “I’m out of the HoloNews internship program as of this morning. You could call this a celebration. I already took care of payback. With a little luck The Rush Hour is going to get stuck in traffic, thanks to a long talk I had with Arthur Wellman this afternoon.”

“Arthur Wellman?” Leif frowned. “Who’s that?”

“Just the founder and chief editor of Wellman’s Fifth Estate,” Bodie told him. “He’s great. If I stick with this journalism thing, that’s where I want to go to work.”

“I know about the Three Estates, and you explained the Fourth Estate,” Leif said. “But what is this Fifth Estate?”

Bodie grinned. “Professor Wellman taught journalistic ethics for years at Georgetown University. For years he watched the media become more powerful. You must know the old saying—‘Power corrupts.’”

Leif nodded. “The Duke of Wellington said it. ‘Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.’”

“The big media outlets — places like HoloNews — come pretty close to absolute power. And they tend to screw around with it. People used to complain that network news was slanted to fit the political views of the reporters. But now you’ve got lots of big outfits — like the Wolfe Network — where the owner tailors the news to fit his personal agenda or the agendas of his major sponsors. There are news organizations who won’t admit that their coverage might have ruined innocent people unless the victims sue successfully. And how many people can afford a long court case? If anybody complains about these abuses, the media giants wrap themselves in the flag and yell about freedom of the press.”

Leif nodded. “But I understand there are journalism reviews that discuss such mistakes—”

“Come on, Leif,” Bodie said. “Those things are put out by journalism schools. How far are journalism students going to go attacking the companies they hope will hire them? And even then, those things are only read by superbrain researchers. They’re like law reviews or medical journals. The only time people hear about anything from those scholarly publications is when their stories are picked up by the popular media.”

“Yet the information is on the Net—”

“Sure, if you’ve got a decent search engine,” Bodie shot back. “And enough interest to look. And enough knowledge about the topic in the first place. And a big enough platform to get people to listen to you.”

“Wouldn’t the networks provide that platform?” Leif said. “I’d expect that a competitor’s mistakes would be news.”

“That’s part of the power problem of the press,” Bodie replied. “There seems to be a conspiracy of silence — or maybe it’s a gentleman’s agreement. Except for a few rare exceptions — usually when a competitor gets sued by another huge corporation and has to shell out big bucks in a court settlement — the networks don’t cover those kinds of stories.”

Bodie tossed her wild red curls, but her cynical smile turned hopeful. “Professor Wellman intends to change that with The Fifth Estate. The magazine is almost out of startup now. It’s going to be a regular newsmag, aimed at a general audience, with advertising and everything.”

Leif appreciated Bodie’s hopes, even shared them, but a little voice in the back of his mind had a nasty question. And where is the professor going to advertise? Through the very media giants he hopes to embarrass?

Frankly, Leif wondered if The Fifth Estate would be around when Bodie went looking for a job. But he didn’t say so. She’d told him a lot more than he’d expected to hear.

Apparently, Bodie thought the time for talking was done, too. “Enough of the whys and wherefores,” she said. “Tonight I’m celebrating my escape from HoloNews and Tori Rush. And you’re gonna help me, right, rich boy?”

She showed Leif a mouthful of small, sharp teeth in a smile that was downright carnivorous.

So now I know what a man-eater looks like, Leif thought as Bodie dragged him back onto the dance floor.

The things I do to discover the truth….

Next morning Leif got out of bed in slow stages. All his parts and bits seemed to creak as he put weight on them. It was the worst wake-up call he could remember in quite a long time. He was sure of just two things. Bodie Fuhrman took her celebrations seriously, and she had a downright frightening amount of animal vitality.

Leif needed a shower, breakfast, and several cups of strong coffee before he felt up to contacting Megan O’Malley.

She took one look at him over the holo and asked him archly, “Have a nice evening?”

Leif shook his head and regretted it. “You don’t want to go there,” he said. “Trust me on that. But I did find out a few things.”

Quickly he ran through the information Bodie Fuhrman had given him. Megan looked impressed — maybe the evening had been worth the price he’d paid.

“I’m going to see if I can find out a little more about I-on Investigations,” he said. “Maybe you can take a whack at this magazine, The Fifth Estate. If this Wellman guy was a professor at Georgetown University, he might be operating out of D.C.”

“I’d rather concentrate on Tori Rush,” Megan replied.

“We’ve got the barest fingernail between the stones in this wall we’ve been beating our heads against,” Leif said. “Do you want to alert this nationally famous newswoman that we know what she’s doing? If it’s something she wants to deny, all the evidence will disappear.”

“And how do you expect me to get at these magazine people?” Megan wanted to know.

“I’m sure you’ll figure out a way,” Leif said. “Maybe you can be a Net Force Explorer who’s worried about the going-over Rush is giving to the captain, searching for a fair venue in the press. That even has the advantage of being the absolute truth.” He didn’t want Wellman & Co. realizing that Bodie Fuhrman had leaked her knowledge of the story. That was his main reason for having the contact come from Washington rather than New York. Besides his wish to keep his source secret and safe, Bodie might yet be useful.

He ran over a couple of other ideas with Megan, then went for more coffee. Yes, Bodie might indeed still be useful. If he could just survive her….

Megan easily found a Net directory listing for The Fifth Estate in the D.C. area. When she called on the holophone, she found herself speaking directly to Professor Arthur Wellman himself. He looked like a Hollywood casting director’s idea of what a professor should look like. Wellman was plump, with wispy white hair surrounding a large bald patch. He had a carefully trimmed white mustache, and a thread of smoke rose from the pipe sitting off to one side on his desk.

The professor had a surprisingly young smile. “You’re surprised to speak to the head honcho rather than a receptionist?” he said lightly. “This isn’t exactly a multinational conglomerate yet. No receptionist so far. And I’m interested in seeing who seeks us out.”

“Well, I’m interested in talking to someone who wants to take on the news business,” Megan said, honestly enough. “The other magazines my Net search turned up seemed too…” she reached for a word.

“Schoolie?” Wellman suggested.

“Pretty close, although I didn’t expect a professor to say it,” she said. “I’m a Net Force Explorer, and I like to think of myself as a friend of Captain James Winters. Until recently he was pretty anonymous, just a regular guy, but you might have heard of him lately.”

Wellman looked a little less amused. His pale blue eyes grew sharper. “Like it or not, he’s become a figure in the news.”

“More like a target,” Megan said. “And the one who started everybody shooting at him is Tori Rush.”

“So you’d like to make her a target of ours?”

I guess Wellman earned his degrees, Megan thought. He’s certainly no dope.

“Just a question or two. How’d she get all that dirt on Captain Winters? It was all old history, history that made the captain into a hero, not a criminal. Nobody else came up with that stuff, certainly, until she led them there. Who has she got digging?” Megan knew she was pushing her luck but hoped the result would be worth it.

“Has someone approached you?” Wellman seemed almost eager.

Megan shook her head. “I just…hear things.”

The professor’s sharp blue eyes took her in again. “Considering the side you claim to be on, I don’t think you heard any such rumor from HoloNews. And I know you didn’t hear anything from my operation.”

He glanced away from the holo pickup for a moment. “How refreshing. You actually seem to be who you claim you are. Megan O’Malley…” Wellman reeled off her address, her age, and several other pieces of information about her.

“How did you—” Megan asked, a little surprised.

Wellman glanced back from the off-pickup display he’d obviously been reading. “The Fifth Estate is supposed to be in the journalism business,” he said. “You didn’t take any extraordinary precautions in contacting us, so it was easy enough — and entirely legal — to trace your call. No different than using Caller ID a generation ago.”

His smile was back, perhaps just a tad grim. “You introduced yourself at the beginning of this call. Perhaps you’re not aware how much seemingly private information can be accessed from public sources.”

“That’s not what happened to Captain Winters,” Megan shot back. She decided to go for broke. “I heard that Tori Rush hired private eyes to go after him, and they weren’t exactly scrupulous about how they did it.”

“And I wish I knew where you heard that rumor,” Wellman replied.

Megan grinned. “I have to protect my sources — isn’t that what all the media types say?”

“And for my part in the game I’d have to answer, ‘No comment,’” Wellman said.

“Off the record?” Megan suggested.

Slowly Wellman shook his head. “There’s no such thing in the media. And I’m sure you know that.”

Megan dropped all pretense of playing reporter. “Professor, I’m trying to help an innocent man who’s about to get his life ruined.”

“There’s a lot of evidence against him, from what I hear.”

“Maybe I’ll sound like a silly schoolgirl when I tell you this,” Megan said. “But I know Captain Winters. Until they find an unimpeachable witness who saw him blow up Stefano Alcista, I’ll never believe the charges against him. Everything they’ve got, as far as I can tell, is circumstantial. I know he didn’t do it.”

“You believe the evidence is fabricated?” Wellman asked.

“Worse. I suspect that the captain is being intentionally framed. I’m not sure why, but he’s being put in a box,” Megan responded angrily. “And Tori Rush seems to be the one hammering down the top.”

“Interesting.” Professor Wellman looked silently at Megan for a long moment.

“Let’s consider a hypothetical situation,” he said abruptly. “What has been the fastest-growing specialty in the news business in the last fifty years?”

“Overseas reporter?” Megan offered.

“Not a bad answer.” The professor nodded. “The global economy has affected the networks, and not necessarily for the better. Foreign audiences have forced broadcasters to give more world news. That’s good. But competition from abroad means more competition for national audiences here and abroad. It started more than thirty years ago, when British broadcasters started sending satellite newscasts to the U.S. Now most of Europe and quite a few Pacific Rim nations are competing for the world news market share. It’s affected the quality of the news.”

“How?” Megan asked.

“After politics, scandal is the easiest sort of news to sell — both inside this country and around the world. Think about the worldwide obsession with the scandals of the British royal family for the past fifty years. Even though they have very little relevancy to most people’s lives, we’re all interested in them. That news plays everywhere, so you can’t escape it.” Wellman gave her a lopsided smile. “Most news appeals very differently to different audiences. Local news, for example, rarely plays anywhere out of its home turf. Business news, too, has a limited international audience — investors who can afford to play in the big leagues. But some news hits just about everybody where they live — a juicy scandal is like that. It’s got all the lowest common denominators of humanity — sex, money, and murder. Which leads back to my original question: What’s the fastest-growing news specialty?”

Megan admitted defeat. “What?”

“Being an expert in front of the cameras. When there’s a war, the networks trot out ex-generals to explain the strategy. If there’s a financial crisis, economists try to put it in perspective. Lawyers become part of the coverage of big trials. When a serial killer is caught, or some terrible crime is committed, psychologists appear like magic all over the HoloNet.”

Professor Wellman shrugged. “Given this influx of specialists into the news — and we’re being strictly hypothetical here, remember — we have to ask a question. How long could it be before someone brought in investigative specialists to help — or replace — investigative reporters? Perhaps we are now looking at the results of that very process.”