“Whenever you see the press out for the blood of some powerful figure, you will not be far wrong in concluding that behind the attacks there is the story of a refusal to pay or to render some service or other. Blackmail arising out of their private lives is the special terror of rich Englishmen and is a major source of secret revenue for the English press, which is far more depraved than our own. We are children in comparison. In England they will pay five or six thousand francs for a compromising letter to sell again.”
Honoré de Balzac, “Lost Illusions”
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