The Korp story has all the stuff that tabloid dreams are made of; murder, infidelity, goat sacrifices and now, a suicide video. So why won’t anyone touch Joe’s home movie with a ten foot pole? When did the tabloid media develop this sudden allergy to dirt?

The morbid movie is just the latest chapter in the Korp family saga, which began when Melbourne woman Maria Korp was found clinging to life in the boot of a car six months ago. The case has, to date, resulted in a nine year jail sentence for attempted murder for husband Joe Korp’s mistress Tanya Herman, a charge of attempted murder for Joe Korp and most recently, Joe’s suicide shortly after Maria’s funeral (she died after spending six months in a vegetative state and ten days after her feeding tube was withdrawn). On Tuesday, the Supreme Court reluctantly gave Gust Korp permission to negotiate a media deal for a video his brother made days before his death, as well as a written diary. The Agereports that members of the Sixty Minutes team were rumoured to be sitting in the stands salivating over the ruling. But Channel Nine’s publicity director Jamie Campbell said the network wasn’t negotiating the sale of the slimy story.

The Australian’sAmanda Meade calls Gust Korp’s enterprising offer the “grubbiest chequebook journalism offer to date” and it seems most of the media are turning their nose up at the macabre home movie. Channel Seven Melbourne News Director Steve Carey told ABC’s PM that his station won’t be bidding on it, despite the fact that muckraker TT aired an interview a few months ago with Joe’s stepdaughter, Laura de Gois.

Channel Ten’s Sydney news director David Breen told Crikey, “we don’t go into bidding wars.” But what about the ill-fated Douglas Wood story that Ten uncharacteristically paid a fortune for with disappointing ratings results? “That was a programming decision,” says Breen. And if Gust offered the flick for free? “Absolutely we’d consider it, depending on what’s on it and how much news relevance it has.”

Meanwhile, the Herald Sun has gone all high and mighty in its editorial today, calling Gust’s bid to “hawk a video” of his brother Joe’s last hours “deplorable.” (Anyone remember the Herald Sun front page from a few months ago with a photo of Laura de Gois at the bedside of the comatose Maria Korp?)

But none of this means the vultures have stopped circling over Gust and his deceased brother. New sources say they won’t be surprised if the video gets an airing once the moral indignation over paying for the material dies down. For now, the scavengers have been scared off by negative publicity and Gust’s unrealistic fee (around the $100,000 mark.) Gust, who maintained that he was just carrying out Joe’s wishes, has now said he’s withdrawing the offer, calling the video a “family treasure.” And Russell Robinson, the Herald Sun journalist Joe called shortly before he hung himself, is taking a dig at Gust today with the accusation that he could have saved his brother’s life.