Trading information - Nicholas Jones

Don't believe all you read in the papers...Information has always been the currency of the media world, but in recent years the process whereby information reaches the media has undergone significant changes. The activities of Alastair Campbell and his spinmeisters have been well documented and seem to have met their nemesis in the David Kelly affair. Less exposed are the shadowy worlds of publicists like Max Clifford, who have fed the insatiable demand for celebrity stories and spawned a subterranean network of informants, and the extraordinary figure of Benjamin Pell - 'Benjie the Binman', who makes a living from selling information culled from his dead-of-night rifling through the rubbish bins of showbiz agents, publicists and lawyers. Nicholas Jones - whose exposure of the black arts of political spin has long been applauded by all but the most cynical practitioners - widens his focus to document the murky world of the information trade. Nicholas Jones retired as BBC political correspondent in 2002. His many books include "Soundbites and Spin Doctors", "Sultans of Spin" and "The Control Freaks" (Politico's, 2001).