The New York Post protection racket

Sure, he's just a freelancer.

The New York Post is cooperating with a burgeoning investigation into whether a suspended freelancer for its Page Six gossip column, Jared Paul Stern, tried to extort money from a billionaire fund-raiser for the Democratic Party, a spokesman for The Post said today.

The investigation arises from two videotapes that seem to show Mr. Stern asking the fund-raiser, Ronald W. Burkle, for a $100,000 payment with additional $10,000 monthly stipends in exchange for favorable coverage in the gossip column, authorities and people familiar with the investigation said.

Howard Rubenstein, a spokesman for The Post, said that lawyers for the newspaper were reviewing Mr. Stern's past work, and that there would not be a final decision on Mr. Stern's status until the federal authorities determine what happened. He said the newspaper was preserving computer disks and other data that may prove useful to investigators. Prosecutors have asked for no further information on other reporters at The Post, Mr. Rubenstein added.

Mr. Stern allegedly made his demands at two meetings with Mr. Burkle, a Los Angeles-based investor, at his New York loft apartment; taped conversations from those meetings have been turned over to prosecutors in the United States Attorney's office for the Southern District of New York.

Over the last several years, The Post has frequently needled Mr. Burkle by publishing pictures of him with fashion models and suggesting, often bluntly, that he is a womanizer and "party-boy billionaire." The newspaper has also written extensively about his business and political dealings with former President Bill Clinton and other Democratic party leaders. Mr. Burkle lodged several complaints with Post editors and its owner, Rupert Murdoch, "but to no avail," according to a statement from Mr. Burkle.

According to an account of the first meeting between Mr. Stern and Mr. Burkle at Mr. Burkle's New York apartment printed in The New York Daily News today, Mr. Stern offered Mr. Burkle "protection" on Page Six, one of the most widely read daily celebrity gossip columns in the country.

Mr. Burkle grew frustrated at the meeting by Mr. Stern's convoluted offer of "three levels of protection," according to The Daily News, and bluntly asked the writer: "How much do you want?"

Mr. Stern responded: "Um, $100,000 to get going and month to month, $10,000."

It is rather curious that a freelancer would think he'd be able to convince a guy like Burkle that he had that kind of power at Murdoch's paper. As Drudge might say, "Developing."