Jeff Bercovici takes a political perspective of sorts on the New York Observer‘s Judith Regan profile, zeroing in on Leon Neyfakh and Doree Shafrir‘s reporting on Regan’s rejection of a $6.5 million settlement from HarperCollins.
If one of the major premises of Regan’s complaint against her former employers is that her relationship with Bernie Kerik provided her with access to information that could completely torpedo Rudy Giuliani’s presidential ambitions, to the point where News Corp. allegedly asked her to lie to cover this information up, then, Bercovici says, we have a problem: “With Giuliani leading the Republican field in national polls, Regan is considering a deal—one that would presumably, in exchange for cash and some words of regret from News Corp., include a promise on her part to keep quiet about the information she’s now threatening to divulge in court. Whether or not what Regan knows would actually change voters’ minds about Giuliani is irrelevant. She believes it would. But she’s willing to withhold it from us—she’s willing to change the course of American history—for the right sum.”
Well, maybe she’s still planning on moving to Dublin, so she doesn’t care if Giuliani gets elected or not. But, Jeff, we’re getting awfully close to questioning her motives here—and as we all know, that way lies totalitarianism.