The Press: The Fine Print

The byline of the New York Herald Tribune's Marguerite Higgins, which has decorated Pulitzer Prizewinning stories from Korea and weighty dispatches from world capitals, popped up last August in Reader's Digest and other magazines. Under the headline ONE BILLION UNFILLED CAVITIES MUST BE WRONG! ran a pseudo-news story by "Noted Journalist" Higgins, plugging Crest toothpaste. Washington-based Maggie Higgins, 37 (married to Major General William E. Hall), took her $500 fee and thought nothing more of it until she got a letter from the Standing Committee of Congressional Press Gallery Correspondents, questioning whether she had violated its rule against "paid publicity or...

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