Fictional corrupt politicians are a mainstay of The Wire, David Simon’s celebrated television series about life on the Baltimore streets. But the show’s creator says he fears a real-life explosion of rampant corruption in American political life if the newspaper industry, in which he worked for more than a decade, is allowed to collapse. In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, the award-winning writer and producer launches a tirade against newspaper owners who, he says, showed “contempt for their product” and are now reaping the whirlwind. But he rejects the idea that newspapers should seek ways to embrace the new world of free information, arguing that they must urgently start charging money for content distributed online. “Oh, to be a state or local official in America over the next 10 to 15 years, before somebody figures out the business model,” says Simon, a former crime reporter for the Baltimore Sun. “To gambol freely across the wastelands of an American city, as a local politician! It’s got to be one of the great dreams in the history of American corruption.” The only hope, Simon insists, is for major news outlets to find a way to collaboratively impose charges for reading online, and to demand fees from aggregators such as Google News, which profit from their journalism. “If you don’t have a product that you’re charging for, you don’t have a product,” he says. “If you think that free is going to produce something that’s as much of a cost centre as good journalism – because it costs money to do good journalism – you’re out of your mind.” The number of readers willing to pay a small fee each month might never rival the heyday of newspaper circulation, but it would attract enough “people who care what’s going on in the world” to fund crucial reporting, he maintains. “And once they do that, and go to Google and Yahoo and every other search engine and say: ‘No, ain’t no free.’” He scoffs at the notion that amateur “citizen journalism”, or new online-only outlets, might take the place of newspaper reporters: “The internet does froth and commentary very well, but you don’t meet many internet reporters down at the courthouse.”
Critics of the paid model for online news argue that it has been tried and rejected – notably at the New York Times, which abandoned its TimesSelect service in 2007 – and that those instances in which it has proved successful, including the Wall Street Journal, are exceptional cases. They say media outlets must find ways to embrace and profit from the exposure offered by aggregators such as Google News, and that walling off their material will hasten their irrelevance. Anti-trust laws also present severe legal obstacles to collaboration between news organisations. Jeff Jarvis, a new media consultant who writes a column for the Guardian, said: “The traditionalists are trying to transplant elements of the old business model into a new business reality … when you put your content behind a wall, you lose more than you gain. You lose a lot of readers and the advertising revenue associated with them, you lose the ability to be discovered by new readers, you lose out to free competitors, of whom there’ll be an unlimited supply, and you lose influence, because you’re taken out of the conversation.”

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2009

Jet Set Lifestyle Of Turks And Caicos Prime Minister Leads To Corruption Probe
With two private jets on call and a Hollywood wife, the Turks and Caicos prime minister lived like the rich and famous who have made the Caribbean island chain one of the hottest stops for celebrities. Michael Misick says his lifestyle allowed him to court high-end developers and helped put the British territory southeast of the Bahamas on the map. But his financial dealings are now the focus of a British investigative commission that is wrapping up hearings this week on the main island of Providenciales.

The Turks and Caicos still answers to a London-appointed governor, who formed the commission last summer after a British Parliament report found complaints of rampant corruption on the islands. The commission could call for a criminal investigation based on what it finds. The hearings that began Jan. 13 at the Regent Palms Hotel have included sworn testimony from Misick’s estranged wife, actress LisaRaye McCoy, that she used a government-leased jet to vacation in Africa, visit her daughter in Switzerland and commute from Los Angeles. The couple also leased a Rolls-Royce and spent more than $1 million on the interior design of their home. Misick has denied abusing public funds. Investigators said in the hearings that eastern European developer Mario Hoffman acquired resort land at a deep discount and received special tax breaks around the time one of his bankers gave the prime minister a $6 million loan – part of $20 million in personal loans that Misick has amassed from banks, a developer and political appointees. Misick, 43, a London-educated lawyer and realty broker, testified himself that he continued to collect sales commissions after being elected prime minister. But he makes no apologies.

When he was criticized for more than doubling his salary and earning more than British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the stocky leader with a slightly graying goatee replied: “Sir, I submit I have done more for Turks and Caicos than Gordon Brown has done for England.” Now in his second term, Misick is also the tourism minister, the Turks and Caicos’ promoter-in-chief. Since he took office in 2003, the gross domestic product in the territory of 22,000 people has more than doubled to $750 million _ largely through a resort-building boom. Island aficionado Mark Amherst of privateislandsblog.com said the Turks and Caicos is “the new No. 1 holiday retreat for A-list celebrities.” It’s the place where Ben Affleck married, Eva Longoria honeymooned and Bruce Willis built a home.

Misick helped feed the buzz by party-hopping with McCoy, a Chicago-born actress who starred in the television series “All of Us” and appeared in the movie “Beauty Shop.” But his troubles started in July when the commission, led by former British judge Sir Robin Auld, began probing a range of allegations, including claims that Misick and other island officials profited from the sale of government-owned land. According to the testimony, Misick spent $275,000 in a jewelry store, chartered a jet for a Paris shopping spree and charged more than $1 million to an American Express account with his wife after they married in 2006.

McCoy acknowledged she spent as much as $200,000 a month, but she said it was necessary to buy new hats, gloves and suits to fit her “first lady lifestyle.” The prime minister last month said his government “may have made mistakes,” but he is confident no laws were broken. But the prospect of criminal charges has added to a growing list of problems. In December, leaders of Misick’s own party said they had lost confidence in him. He and McCoy had an ugly breakup, with Misick accusing her of attacking him in August. Misick urged the commission to consider his finances in the context of the territory. Across the Caribbean, he said, politicians routinely receive personal donations of tens of thousands of dollars with no strings attched. But he does concede some excesses. Looking back, he said it would have more prudent not to keep two Gulf Stream jets on call. Misick said he now flies commercial.

Leader                                                                                                              Funds embezzeled

Mohamed Suharto     President of Indonesia, 1967–98                         US $ 15 to 35 billion
Ferdinand Marcos     President of Philippines, 1972–86                        US $ 5 to 10 billion

Mobutu Sese Seko     President of Zaire, 1965–97                                      US $ 5 billion
Sani Abacha     President of Nigeria, 1993–98                                              US $ 2 to 5 billion
Slobodan Milosevic     President of Serbia/Yugoslavia, 1989-2000     US $ 1 billion
Jean-Claude Duvalier     President of Haiti, 1971–86                                  US $ 300 to 800 million
Alberto Fujimori     President of Peru, 1990–2000                                     US $ 600 million
Pavlo Lazarenko     Prime Minister of Ukraine, 1996–97                           US $ 114 to 200 million
Arnoldo Alemán     President of Nicaragua, 1997–2002                           US $ 100 million
Joseph Estrada     President of Philippines, 1998–2001                             US $ 78 to 80 million