Word: peglerizing
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Sound from the Neck. To nobody's great surprise, the lone journalistic voice raised in all-out defense of a ban on pretrial reporting came from Columnist Westbrook Pegler, who is having his own court troubles (see below). Said Pegler in his column: "The contention that [such a ban] would violate freedom of the press is only a neck-sound unrelated to the heart of the subject...
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...
...play The Front Page would have it, nothing can stop a good Hearstling from getting his story. Last week ex-Hearstling Quentin Reynolds, who is suing Hearst Columnist Westbrook Pegler for $500,000 for calling him an "absentee war correspondent" (TIME, May 24), told how he stayed true to The Front Page tradition as a Collier's war correspondent...
...courtroom Broun's biographer, Dale Kramer, offered his hand to Pegler, was rebuffed when Pegler thundered:"I don't want to shake hands with you. You're a bastard." "You're the same, " answered Kramer. Pegler hastily summoned a court attendant, pointed at Kramer and said: "This man was threatening me." Then the two were haled into the judge's chamber and ordered not to speak to one another again in the courthouse...