In distorting the shape of U.S. journalism, the late William Randolph Hearst wielded no instrument with more effect than the American Weekly, his peculiar contribution to Sabbath reading. A supplement parasitically attached to Hearst's Sunday papers, and purveying what detractors called "the three Cs" (crime, concupiscence and corruption), the Weekly scored a conspicuous financial success in a newspaper barony frequently awash in red ink. Right up to the Chief's death in 1951, the Weekly, with nearly 10 million circulation, made money. But last week, the businessmen who now govern the remnants of Hearst's empire were jettisoning American Weekly clients right and...
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