The Press: Hark, the Herald!

John S. Knight’s aggressive, ad-fat Miami Herald (circ. 258,764) supervises the public’s welfare like an honest cop—and sounds at times as if it were judge and jury as well. Last week, during trial of a libel suit brought against the Herald by former State Attorney George A. Brautigam, the Herald’s longtime Associate Editor John D. Pennekamp, 61, bragged from the witness stand about his paper’s vigilance, turned to the judge and cautioned: “We are keeping a box score on you, your honor.” The jury’s score: $100,000 damages for Plaintiff Brautigam.

The Herald thus paid heavily for its own hasty scorekeeping on Prosecutor Brautigam, who in 1956 objected to charges brought by a grand jury against a local judge on the ground that they were based on “imputation and innuendo.”

STATE ATTORNEY BRAUTIGAM RUNS OUT

ON THE PEOPLE, trumpeted a Herald editorial written by John Pennekamp. Ten months later Florida’s Supreme Court not only upheld Brautigam but, in an unusual aside, commended his “courageous public service.” The ruling came too late to help Brautigam. In a primary election held less than ten days after the Herald’s blast, he was trounced by a little-known opponent. In his libel suit for $2,000,000 Brautigam charged that the Herald had “maliciously” undermined public confidence in his integrity.

Explaining that it was “involved” in the case, the morning Herald piously restricted its coverage of the jampacked libel trial to stories carried by the A.P. But at trial’s end the Herald ran a side bar in which Publisher Knight reviewed his stand in the case. Brautigam’s attorney, famed San Francisco Trial Lawyer Melvin M. Belli (pronounced Bell-eye), promptly thundered that he would file another suit against the Herald for “republishing libels.” Crowed Belli: “Mr. Knight is a charming fellow. He promises to keep me in business for years.”