Word: pegler
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Cassandra" of the London Daily Mirror, biggest daily (circ. 4,535,687) in the world, owl-shaped, sharp-tongued William Neil Connor, 45, is the hardest-hitting and most-quoted columnist in Britain. Cassandra combines the terrible temper of a Westbrook Pegler with the calculated irreverence of an H. L. Mencken. "It is a pity," Sir Winston Churchill once said, "that so able a writer should show himself so dominated by malevolence." Even his own paper often finds his comments hard to take, but suffers them because of his circulation-building appeal. Says Mirror Editorial Director Hugh Cudlipp: "Cassandra disagrees...
When a federal jury in Manhattan awarded $175,001 to Reporter Quentin Reynolds in his libel suit against Westbrook Pegler, it intended to punish Columnist Pegler and his publishing sponsors within the court's jurisdiction. It had deliberated more than twelve hours over the charge of Judge Edward Weinfeld pointing out the difference between punitive damages and "compensatory" damages, i.e., those to make up for any loss in Reynolds' earning power. Said the court: "Where it is established that a defendant was inspired by actual malice . . . the jury may award . . . punitive damages ... or 'spite money...
...week's end Defense Counsel Charles Henry argued that the verdict should be set aside because the award was excessive in view of the token compensatory damages. One of the troubles, he implied, was that Pegler's rambunctious courtroom manner had a poor effect on the jury. Replied Reynolds' attorney, Louis Nizer: "In a day when [reckless] extremities of certain writers have caused a serious problem, [we require] just such a lesson...
...Judge Weinfeld, who will rule in a fortnight, lets the verdict stand, Pegler will probably take the case to a higher court...
...Among other dailies that publish Pegler's column: Miami Herald, Cincinnati Enquirer, Nashville Tennessean, Washington News...