When the Department of Justice filed antitrust suit against Ohio's Lorain Journal (circ. 21,143) last year, Owners and Isadore Horvitz admitted there was a basis for the charges; had indeed canceled Journal contracts with advertisers who also patron a competing radio station. But they denied any wrongdoing. The Horvitz defense: freedom of the press gave them the right to reject any ads they pleased.
Last week Cleveland's Federal Judge Emerich B. Freed gave the defense short shrift. He could "not conceive" that freedom of the press was even involved in the case. The Horvitz brothers, he found, had made a "bold, relentless...