The Press: Victory for Pearson

When Washington Lobbyist Charles P. Clark went on trial last week on a charge of punching Columnist Drew Pearson, he sprang an ingenious defense. Pearson, said Clark, had "verbally assaulted" him in his column when he charged that Clark had used undue influence to get Maine Senator Owen Brewster and Brooklyn Congressman Eugene Keogh to sponsor aid to Franco. Furthermore, said Clark, Pearson had menaced him with a "threatening gesture" just before he bopped Pearson in the lobby of Washington's Mayflower Hotel. But Pearson, a Quaker whose personal manner is as mild as his column is ferocious, proved to the jury...

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