I smile every time I see the line "he made his excuses and left".
If your work is effectively paying for a free fuck, why wouldn't you?
Because the entire encounter is audio recorded and will be played back by his bosses and there will usually be another reporter lurking nearby with the photographer who would know if he switched off the tape to have a quick shag. If any kind of legal challenge resulted from the story all of this evidence would have to be produced and could end up being played in court. Every step of the information-gathering also has to stay with the limits of various codes of conduct.
Also, you (along with every TV drama ever and everyone else in the whole fucking world) have got it wrong about tabloid reporters. These are usually young, friendly, super-smart and straight-ahead people with wives or GFs, young families very often, and they don't screw around (or at least not on work time).
I used to be very close to that world and every time I see a sleazy, conniving, repellent snake of a reporter on EastEnders or whatever, I marvel at the writer's ignorance.