Now It Can Be Told!

In the 1960s, I was sued for $2 million for libel by Barry Goldwater. The publisher (Ralph Ginzburg),  the  magazine (fact:), and I were sued for our part in publishing articles in fact: magazine arguing that Goldwater was psychologically unfit to be President.

OK, finally: the entire truth.

I had resigned from the magazine in anger before the Goldwater issue came out. I was angry because the publisher let David Bar-Illan, the Israeli pianist and a left-winger then, rewrite the article I had written about Goldwater. Bar-Illan's idea was that Goldwater was "schizophrenic"--whatever that meant. He took out much of what I had written and kept repeating that Goldwater was schizophrenic.
My article argued that Goldwater had doubts about his masculinity, and I relied heavily on a study of right-wingers called The Authoritarian Personality, by Theodore Adorno and others.

Bar-Illan didn't want his name used and wanted complete anonymity. I didn't want my name on the main article, but agreed to have my name on a report about a poll about psychiatrists about Goldwater.

The magazine's lawyer emphasized to me: The defense must seem united. Nothing about my resignation -- nothing about any disharmony. So I didn't reveal that Bar-Illan was mainly responsible for the published article. And that I had resigned in anger.

Anyway, the magazine and the publisher were fined $75,000. And the magazine, the publisher, and I were assessed $1 in damages. So I wound up being hit with 0.33 cents.

Probably the lawyer had given us good advice.