Coverage and Conjecture

Newspapers vigilantly protect their cherished Constitutional guarantee of freedom of the press. Occasionally some abuse that freedom. Such an abuse occurred in California last week as the incidental result of a minor auto accident.

Herman Mankiewicz is a moonfaced, top-flight Hollywood film writer. One night he was driving alone on Benedict Canyon Road in swank Beverly Hills. His car collided head-on with another driven by Leonora Gershwin, wife of Lyricist Ira Gershwin. Mrs. Gershwin and two women with her were hurt slightly. Scenarist Mankiewicz, unhurt, was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving, was later released on $500 bond pending a hearing. As news the accident was worth brief mention at most.

But in two of Los Angeles' four dailies the Mankiewicz accident got far more attention than that. The Times and the Daily News carried, in nine days, 14 and nine inches respectively about the case, and no pictures; but the Hearst-owned Examiner and the Hearst-owned Herald-Express went overboard with a cascade of type. Second day after the accident the story rated nearly 50 inches, with pictures, on the Examiner's page 3. Next day it moved to the top of page 1 and had a long runover with which there were more pictures, including a photograph of Benedict Canyon Road on which an artist had drawn dotted lines and arrows. Total Examiner coverage in nine days: 253 inches, 15 pictures. The Herald-Express gave the story the same sort of treatment: 205 inches, nine pictures.

Both papers' stories quoted policemen and witnesses at length as saying that Mankiewicz "stumbled and nearly fell. His gait was staggering, his speech slurred and he was quite talkative. His eyes and pupils were dilated. He admitted having been drinking." Both papers clamored for justice; Beverly Hills' Police Chief C. H. Anderson was quoted: "We are determined to protect the streets of this community against intoxicated and reckless drivers. The Mankiewicz case seems like a flagrant one, and we are determined that it shall be justly handled."

The reason for all these typographical fireworks could only be conjectured by Angelenos. But definitely not in the realm of conjecture were these facts: 1) two years ago Scenarist Mankiewicz had collaborated with Actor-Producer Orson Welles on the script for Citizen Kane, a picture which irresistibly reminded many of the career of William Randolph Hearst; 2) the film reportedly made Publisher Hearst seethe.

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