AFFLICTING THE COMFORTABLE: JOURNALISM AND POLITICS IN WEST VIRGINIA

14. The Threat of Libel

Chapter 14 THE THREAT OF LIBEL DURING A RECESS of the Republican State Convention at Clarksburg in the summer of 1964, Mary Heineman, a delegate from Randolph County, came to me and quietly asked, "How are you doing with your investigation?" By this time most of the insiders in both political parties knew what I was dOing, so there was no need to act coy. 'Tve hit a snag," I replied. I had my corporate chart all filled in. I knew that kickbacks for goods and services delivered to the state were being channeled into some of these corporations. What I lacked was an admission from even a Single source that he or she was paying tribute. I seemed to have reached a dead end and was beginning to think that I might have to forget the whole thing. I explained my problem to the delegate and was told, "Maybe I can help you." She gave me the name of Harry Cupp, an Elkins businessman and maverick political figure who had run for public office on both the Democratic and Republican tickets. I had been acquainted with Cupp for several years but didn't know how reliable he might be as a news source on so sensitive a matter. After my return to Charleston, I called him and received a promise of help with facts and figures. It wasn't until I went to Elkins a couple of weeks later that I came to respect Cupp as a gutsy guy who kept his word. The time had also come for me to pay a visit to Boca Raton, Florida, where some of the principal players in the operation had their homes and businesses. But first I wanted assurances from the Gazette editorial board that I had the members' full support for the story I was researching. My reason for asking for a speCial editorial board meeting- with our attorney, Paul Chambers, pres- 162 CHAPTER FOURTEEN ent- was my concern about a possible libel suit from one or more of those I might name as heavy players in this conspiracy. Barron had twice shown no reluctance in seeking a political advantage by filing lawsuits against his adversaries . I suspected that some of his associates might be equally aggressive if they found themselves trapped in a corner. The threat oflibel is often used to cool a newspaper's ardor for factual reporting . The economics of the newspaper business is loaded with traps. Most newspapers operate on narrow profit margins. With judicial action as expensive as it is, all too many papers are loath to go to court to defend their rights. Politicians and public figures are aware of this and more than a few of them take advantage of it. I was threatened with a libel suit on more than one occasion during my career in newspapering. When I was editor of the Register in Beckley, one of my reporters, Audrey Wood, spent weeks pulling her facts together for a hardhitting series of articles on inefficiencies in one particular branch of county government. The head of the department under scrutiny called our attorney, Herbert Stansbury, and warned him that if! didn't cancel the series, he would bring suit. Our information was sound, so I advised Stansbury to tell the official to "sue and be damned." The aggrieved county official left town until our series ran out of steam. A three-hundred-thousand-dollar libel suit was actually filed against the Register after we criticized the favored treatment given a jailed gambler. The suit was quietly withdrawn after the party who filed the suit learned of tapes of conversations we had in our possession. Another time in Charleston, a department head called me in a state of high dudgeon and threatened a libel suit if I didn't stop investigating an office rental deal he was negotiating. "As a lawyer," I told him, equally angry by this time, "you know better than to threaten me with libel when all I've done is ask questions. Wait until I start writing before you think about a libel suit." He never sued. I was fortunate in both Beckley and Charleston to have publishers who respected the First Amendment as the cornerstone of their profession. It is THE THREAT OF LIBEL primarily the larger and more successful newspapers that spend big sums of money in the courts defending their publishing rights. Few smaller...