The Press: Pearson in Bongoland

Among newsmen in Havana last week, a tall tale or an outright lie drew the same jeering rejoinder: "Even Drew Pearson wouldn't believe that!" The catch phrase was inspired by a recent seven-day vacation in which, Columnist Pearson explained, he planned to "get away from the incessant drumbeat of American politics . . . into the more romantic bongo drumbeat of Cuban politics."

But Drew Pearson thumped the bongo drums for President Fulgencio Batista too fervently. In return, Havana's leading newspapers and magazines last week were busy thumping Pearson. "If Truman called Drew Pearson...

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