Dangerous Business

"Reporting," says Philip Wittenberg, "is at best a dangerous job." No reporter himself, but a New York lawyer who frequently represents editors & publishers, Wittenberg came to this conclusion after four years' study of 4,000 libel suits. His Dangerous Words (Columbia University; $5), published this week, may keep some journalists from plunging over the libelous precipice, but is more likely to give them insomnia.

Most newsmen should know that to call a lawyer a "shyster," an author a "plagiarist," or a doctor a "quack" is usually libelous. But it may surprise them to learn that praising a doctor may be libelous. In Louisiana, a doctor collected damages after the New Orleans Picayune praised an operation he had performed. His claim: the story was, in effect, an ad for him; medical ethics prohibit advertising; his medical standing was therefore damaged.

Where & When. Libel depends on the where & when of the words used. What was libelous years ago may not be libelous today, and vice versa. "In the days of the bustle and crinoline [a description or] picture of a woman . . . showing her legs naked to the thighs, shoulders bare above the breast, with a scanty midriff covering, would have been libelous," says Wittenberg. "Today, women of the best families .'. . are depicted daily and on Sundays . . . [thus] scantily clad. . . ."

Newshawks must be alert--as courts are--to the changing meanings of words. "Racket," which once meant a mere trick--and was not libelous--now means an illegal business--and may be. The greatest danger, Wittenberg points out, is that newspapers, with no ready means of checking many of the stories they print, must rely on the accuracy of the wire services and news syndicates. Yet in 47 states (only Florida excepted), newspapers cannot avoid libel suits by blaming news services for mistakes. Wittenberg thinks a change is due, along the lines of a 1932 Florida decision, which ruled that complexities of modern newsgathering make the news source liable, not the newspaper.

Who Was Hit? But Wittenberg gives short shrift to slovenly reporters who think that they protect themselves by adding "it is alleged" or "it is said" or by quoting anonymous "sources." The law: "Divorcing one's self from a story by attributing it to others is not ... a defense in libel." Authors who preface their novels with the stock disclaimer--"Any resemblance ... is purely coincidental"--are also kidding themselves. Even a novelist who invents a wholly imaginary character can be sued, if a real person proves that the public could reasonably assume that he was being described. Says Wittenberg: "The question is not so much who was aimed at, as who was hit."

About actors, authors, painters there is almost nothing a critic cannot safely say --as long as he sticks to a criticism of their public performance.* Sample, from the Des Moines Leader, describing the Cherry Sisters at the turn of the century: "Erne is an old jade of 50 summers; Jessie is a frisky filly of 40; and Addie, the flower of the family, a capering monstrosity of 35. Their long skinny arms . . . swing mechanically [and wave] frantically at the suffering audience. The mouths of their rancid features opened like caverns, and sounds like the waitings of damned souls issued therefrom. . . ."

It is likewise always open season on politicians. They have usually found courts unsympathetic. As one judge said: "The fact is that public men must put up with laughing, caricaturing and sneering."

Despite the manifold dangers he describes, Wittenberg emphasizes that they should hot frighten any newsman into doing less than his job. And he repeats what every good reporter knows: "The [provable] truth [in the U.S.] is ... an absolute defense to a civil action for libel."

* When Critic John Ruskin accused Artist James Whistler of "wilful imposture," the jury held that this reflected on Whistler's personal integrity, not his art, and so was libelous. Whistler asked -L-1,000 damages, received one farthing.

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