Columnist Jack Mabley of Chicago's American is an old hand at journalistic coups. He was the first reporter to turn over the John Birch Society rock; more recently he exposed a sales-tax swindle that was costing the state of Illinois $100 million annually. Mabley, 48, also devised the 1951 "plumber's poll" that documented the fact that Chicago's water pressure fell substantially during television commercials and proved that many Chicagoans deserted their sets at such opportune moments.
Mabley's latest coup concerned the courts. In one day's column he reported in detail remarks made by Judge Joseph Wosik to defendants in the...