The paragraphs below brought back memories of a conversation I had with a co-worker back in 2003.
She was dating a D.C. lobbyist at the time and told me that Trent Lott had been secretly videotaped having sex with 2 blonde lobbyists (by the lobbyists) and was being 'blackmailed'. It was apparently a well known 'secret' in DC.
It now makes me wonder if it was part of this same tale:
Such an inquiry would, undoubtedly, consider the unsettling tale of how former Senate minority leader Trent Lott, R-Mississippi, seemed to lose interest in challenging media consolidation—an issue on which he had been a good player—after Murdoch’s publishing house offered Lott a $250,000 book deal for the senator’s forgettable memoir, Herding Cats.
In the fall of 2003, a piece of Rupert Murdoch’s sprawling media empire was in jeopardy.
Congress was on the verge of limiting any company from owning local television stations that reached more than 35 percent of American homes. Mr. Murdoch’s Fox stations reached nearly 39 percent, meaning he would have to sell some.
A strike force of Mr. Murdoch’s lobbyists joined other media companies in working on the issue. The White House backed the industry, and in a late-night meeting just before Thanksgiving, Congressional leaders agreed to raise the limit — to 39 percent.
One leader of the Congressional movement to limit ownership was Senator Trent Lott, Republican of Mississippi. But in the end, he, too, agreed to the compromise. It turns out he had a business connection to Mr. Murdoch. Months before, HarperCollins, Mr. Murdoch’s publishing house, had signed a $250,000 book deal to publish Mr. Lott’s memoir, “Herding Cats,” records and interviews show.
http://www.newshounds.us/2007/06/25/new_york_times_suggests_fox_news_owner_murdoch_bought_off_top_us_senator.php