Word: libels
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...their books banned in Massachusetts. Supposedly there is no irony in the statement. But the recent action by the State Commissioner of Public Safety is suspicious in another way. He warned book sellers in the state that if they sell U.S.A. Confidential, they would be held responsible for any libel and obscenity suits. Immediately after this "advice," virtually every store in Massachusetts hastily withdrew the book and tucked it away...
Technically, the Commissioner of Public Safety has no legal power to give such "advice." First, any libel action would be civil suit and therefore, unless the state were a plaintiff, outside its jurisdiction. Secondly, if the state did file a bill of equity, the action would have to come through the office of the Attorney General...
Governor Dever has disclaimed any participation in the affair; he has pointed out that the safety commissioner's warning was "just advice" and in no way constituted banning or suppression. Dever may be entirely correct and the commissioner's action may have been a public service; yet the libel laws themselves prevent such "advice" by either the commissioner or the attorney general to be dismissed as suggestions which would have no bearing on any further jurisprudence...
...favorite Bee campaigns), exposed corruption in state and local government, lashed out at the political power of the Southern Pacific railroad, a big advertiser. "The ship of journalism," said C.K., "is too often steered from the countinghouse and not from the editorial office." At one time, he had 19 libel suits on his hands...
Daniel I. Murphy, Massachusetts Commissioner of Public Safety, said that complaints from "some Harvard graduates and Wellesley students" that the book is foul and libelous brought about the action. Despite the fact that police merely "advised" that sale or lending of the book might bring about libel suits, most book-stores in the Square immediately took it off display...