“Editor-in-chief’s office,” said a bubbly female voice after four rings. “Can I ask who is calling, please?”
This was the gatekeeper. Pauline would need to get past her. “This is Pauline Kingsley,” she said. “Manager for Jake Kingsley and Laura Kingsley. I need to talk to Stan right away, please.”
“Uh ... Pauline Kingsley?” she asked, perhaps a bit taken aback. “Really?”
“Really,” Pauline said.
“Well ... Mr. Veneer is not available right now. I can take a message.”
“Make him available,” she said simply. “This is regarding the story your paper is planning to run in Friday’s edition. He needs to hear what I have to say and he needs to hear it now.”
“Uh ... well ... hang on a second,” she said. “I’m going to put you on hold and see if I can track him down.”
“You do that,” Pauline said.
She listened to the on-hold music for perhaps two minutes, long enough for the Muzak version of If You Leave Me Now to give way to the Muzak version of Sweet Caroline. She sighed, wishing that the Watcher would subscribe to the on-hold music company that Teach used to work for. Finally, there was a click and the music disappeared.
“Pauline?” a male voice enquired; a glad-handed tone clearly audible. “Is that really you?”
“It’s really me, Veneer,” she said. “We need to talk.”
“Well, it’s always a pleasure to talk to you,” he said. “What shall we talk about?”
“Cut the bullshit,” she said, deciding that an aggressive approach was the proper way of playing this out. “Your secretary already told you why I called. It’s about the smear story you’re planning to publish about Jake and Laura and Meghan Zachary, their nanny.”
“Uh ... yes,” he said, “she did mention that. I am aware that Jack Fenton is working on something along those lines, but I haven’t seen the final copy yet.”
“Bullshit,” she said. “You know every detail of the story. You’re probably helping to write it.”
“I’m sorry you feel that way, Pauline, but that’s simply not true. In any case, if you have some content you would like to discuss about the story, you need to contact Jack. It is my understanding that he is still waiting on any official statement from the parties involved.”
“He’s not going to get a statement,” she told him. “Your story is nothing but a smear job meant to sell your sleazy rag to morons in the supermarket checkout stand. Let me take a wild guess here ... you have the words ‘Naughty Nanny’ somewhere in the headline, don’t you?”
“We have not come up with the headline yet,” he told her. “But again, while we welcome any statements from the principals involved in the story, they really must go through Jack, as he is the primary reporter.”
“And you are the editor-in-chief, the one who decides whether the story actually runs or not,” she said. “This story had better not run.”
“Oh?” he asked, amusement in his tone this time. “And why would I decide not to run a compelling piece of journalism such as this?”
“Because you have no actual facts to back up your allegations,” she said. “You have nothing but baseless speculation from sources who do not even know Jake, Laura, or Meghan. You have no names to name, no pictures to show, nothing whatsoever to prove that what you are alleging is even remotely true.”
“I do not need to prove what the story is saying is true,” Veneer said simply. “In order for a charge of libel to stand, you would have to prove the allegations are not true. And, as you are no doubt aware, it is very difficult to prove that something is not true.”
“You’re going too far this time, Veneer,” Pauline said. “You’re crossing a line here. This is not the same as suggesting that Bigg G is actually the father of Jake’s unborn daughter. This is not the same as suggesting that there is a sexual relationship between Laura Kingsley and Celia Valdez, or between Celia Valdez and some lesbian pilot. They are all celebrities or people in close relationships with celebrities and fair game for you and your jackals. Meghan Zachary is a completely different ballgame here. You are preparing to defame the reputation and character of an innocent twenty-one-year-old girl whose family are pillars of the San Luis Obispo community, a girl who has done nothing to deserve this, and if you print these baseless allegations, we will go after you for defamation of Meghan Zachary’s character, and we will go to the fucking wall.”
“A nice job of sounding tough, Pauline,” Veneer said, unimpressed, “but we’ll take our chances.”
“I wouldn’t advise that,” Pauline warned. “I have some rather compelling information that you should be made aware of.”
“Such as?”
“Such as, your reporter is planning to report that Jake went on the internet and that is where he found Meghan. He is planning to report that Meghan was given an interview based on her looks and that she was told that sexual favors were part of the deal.”
“That is the information his source revealed to him,” Veneer said. “We are not required to verify it.”
“But you are required to follow up on valid information that disputes this account,” she said. “Meghan’s mother told Fenton the real story of how Meghan was hired. Her sister is a labor and delivery nurse who assisted in the birth of Cadence Kingsley. While taking care of Laura Kingsley, she told Jake and Laura about her sister Meghan, who worked in a day care center. It was Danielle the nurse who introduced Meghan to Jake and Laura. They did not know what she looked like before they met her. Meghan’s mother is willing to go on record as having provided this information to Fenton. Danielle is willing to go on record as to how the hiring of Meghan came about. How about we start there? You reporter was given this information and provably disregarded it. That would go a long way toward establishing that your publication is purposely attempting to defame Meghan Zachary, wouldn’t it?”
It took a moment for Veneer to answer. Finally, he coughed a little. “If that is true,” he said, “and I have no reason to believe that at the moment, then we will just cut that part of the story out. The rest will stand.”
“That would be the allegations that Meghan’s ‘friends’ advanced that she is required to provide sexual services as a condition of her employment?”
“Exactly,” he said. “How she came by the job is really not the issue here. It’s what happened after she started work.”
“What happened after she started work is that she takes care of their daughter while they are working on music every day in Los Angeles. She lives in a guest bedroom in their home and that is the extent of the relationship.”
“That is your side of the story,” Veneer said, “and if you tell that to Jack, he will include it in the article, as required by journalistic ethics and standards.”
Pauline laughed. “Listening to you spout about journalistic ethics and standards is like listening to fuckin’ Saddam Hussein spout about human rights and justice.”
“That is uncalled for,” Veneer said huffily.
“I don’t really think so,” Pauline countered. “In any case, what if I were to tell you that Meghan Zachary does not really have any friends?”
“That’s absurd,” he said. “Of course she has friends. Jack talked to many of them. That is his primary source for the article.”
“He talked to townspeople and probably some college students at Cal Poly,” Pauline said. “People who do not even know Meghan personally, but have just heard of her because she now works for Jake Kingsley. If you publish this story, we will file a defamation suit against you. And we will demand in court that you name the sources of your information.”