When Wisconsin's Senator Joe McCarthy called Columnist Drew Pearson a Communist tool (TIME, Jan. 8), he thought he was safe enough. As usual, he made his attack from the libelproof U.S. Senate floor. But last week litigious Columnist Pearson thought he had found a way around McCarthy's immunity, slipped a libel suit against him.
McCarthy, charged Pearson's lawyers, had made the same accusations in a mimeographed release to the press before he entered the Senate floor, was thus legally accountable to the extent of $350,000 damages. For good measure, Pearson demanded $250,000 for being "painfully grabbed by the neck and kicked in...
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