COCAINE: A NICE LINE IN SCANDAL

When Tom Parker Bowles was exposed as a snorter of cocaine this week,
condemnation from the British press came not so much in a mighty roar as a
muted squeak. Newspapers that might once have vilified PB Junior as a
privileged, well-educated man who should know better were conspicuously
liberal in their forgiveness.

"He deserves compassion as well as condemnation," said The Mirror's leader,
pointing to Parker Bowles's trauma over his parents' public marriage
break-up. The Independent and The Daily Telegraph decided to turn on the
messenger instead, accusing the News of the World, the paper which broke
the story, of executing "a classic tabloid sting".

Even the Daily Mail, that torch-bearer of family values and wholesome
living, conceded that the news that Parker Bowles, a film publicist, took
the Class A drug "hardly came as a shock" considering his job. The fact is
that, in the media world, cocaine use is more rife and socially acceptable
than ever before and to protest too indignantly risks sounding pompous or,
worse, naive.

After Richard Bacon, the Blue Peter presenter, was revealed as a
connoisseur of the white line, Chris Evans was moved to remark on national
radio that "half the Beeb" was on it. A rumour recently circulated around
the BBC that a senior executive had been caught taking cocaine at work and
given a formal warning. The rumour is known to all the tabloids, at least
one of which has attempted to investigate it.

Most showbusiness journalists will confirm that at PR-organised parties
cocaine is as readily available as three-pack condoms. Regular jokes are
cracked about a certain media haunt in West London where the porcelain
toilet cisterns have been given marble tops for their customers' convenience.

Phil Hall, the Editor of the News of the World, a paper which has exposed
more cocaine sniffers than most, accepts the habit is commonplace these
days but insists that that does not make it right.

He is dismissive of comments made by some broadsheets that no one is
shocked by cocaine use any more (Parker Bowles's boss said it was "part of
life"), and that journalists should not ensnare their quarry by means of a
"honey trap". (Parker Bowles was approached at the Cannes Film Festival by
a woman working with the paper who asked if he knew where to find cocaine.
He gave her instructions and talked about having taken the drug himself the
previous night.)

Parker Bowles was not stalked for months as some have assumed. In fact, the
story was stood up within three days. The News of the World had heard that
its rival, The Mail on Sunday, was investigating his cocaine habit but had
decided to wait until he returned to London to confront him. The News of
the World dispatched a team to Cannes and within hours Parker Bowles had
condemned himself out of his own mouth.

"Newspapers like the Telegraph miss the point when they say things like 'he
fell for a tabloid sting'," says Hall. "I mean, how else are we supposed to
investigate people? Do they imagine we just walk up to them in the street and

they admit everything to us? To get our stories we have to operate like the
police do.

"Sometimes it can take months, but in this case it took three days to turn
round. We don't target someone unless we already have strong evidence
against them. We get affidavits from our sources but they are no good
unless we then go out to find the evidence to back it up."

One of the cases that took longest to come to fruition was the News of the
World's revelation that John Alford, the London's Burning actor, was a user
and supplier. It took a year to come to court. Alford was found guilty and
is awaiting sentence. The newspaper also claimed that Johnnie Walker, the
Radio 2 DJ, had taken the drug at an hotel; he has now been suspended by
the BBC.

"Some people say we should not go after the users, only the dealers," says
Hall. "But if you take away the market there is no place left for the
dealers to operate. Taking cocaine is an illegal activity. If a News of the
World journalist took cocaine I would sack them. There is no way we can
preach to people about drug-taking and then do it ourselves."

The recent glut of cocaine scandals may be linked to the fact that, in
today's more tolerant society, old-fashioned adultery stories no longer
have shock value and have become almost dated.

It is now accepted that footballers, politicians and even vicars play away
from home. Privacy guidelines also mean that it is no longer acceptable to
expose the fact that someone is homosexual. There must be a public interest
defence to warrant publication of the information.

However, considering the rate at which celebrities are being caught with
their rolled-up UKP10 notes out, cocaine might, too, lose its power to
offend before long. Hall does not believe, however, that drug use is
replacing adultery as the new sin. "We have been doing this, exposing
drug-taking, for 150 years," he says. "It is true that there has been a run
of these stories recently but they have always been there and we were
absolutely right to run them.

"We knew that John Alford was supplying drugs to young people coming into
the (acting) industry. Richard Bacon is a man who had a huge influence over
children in his job. Tom Parker Bowles has a huge influence over Prince
William. These things are important."

This week, only The Sun seemed vehement in its support of this view,
remarking that Britain had "too many upper-class twits with fancy names who
flounce around London as if they own it".

One showbusiness agent said: "Anybody in the media who says they are
shocked is lying. Young, rich kids have access to money and money buys you
champagne, Ecstasy and coke. It's what people do and, whether the papers
like it or not, they are not going to stop."