Let the Buyer Beware

Is an editor responsible for everything his paper prints? Certainly. Editors often act, however, as if this responsibility did not extend to syndicated columnists. Unlike the rest of the staff, the absentee pundit rarely has to prove or go bail for his facts, or gossip, no matter how irresponsible or erroneous.

The Democratic Cincinnati Enquirer got fed up with the flap-jawed way some of its columnists were talking. In an editorial, it warned its readers that Westbrook Pegler and Walter Winchell often don't know what they're talking about.

Pegler, the Enquirer complained, had noted U.S. efforts to contain Russia and had "depicted them all as incitements to war." A fine ferret of union graft and a "castigator of crooners," said the Enquirer, Peg "is not among the world's most noted statesmen. . . . His competence in matters of foreign policy, in other words, is scarcely comparable to that of Secretary Marshall [or] Senator Vandenberg. . . ."

As for Winchell, he "has had us at the very verge of war with Russia almost every Sunday night for the last two years [with] ... his constant poisoning of the well of public opinion." How had transom-peeker Winchell become an expert in foreign affairs? He had trained for it on items about "who was going to divorce whom, and who was going to have a baby, and approximately when." And he was fallible even there. With a scandalized look at the ethics of columnists, the Enquirer quoted him: "'The Monocle Set . ... doubt the recent rumor (that Queen Liz is enceinte). . . . We stole the rumor from a London correspondent for an American newsmag,* which is what comes from stealing news from amateurs.' "

Winchell took his scolding without a word. Not so Pegler, who was still muttering last week. "The Enquirer may not know," said Peg in self-defense, "that, as a young reporter, I saw many statesmen, diplomats and soldiers in Europe. I have seen most of them since. . . ."

The Enquirer, unimpressed, whacked him again: "We wonder how highly Pegler would regard this array of experience if it were presented by someone else. . . . We still think that Pegler's rather notable talents are much more usefully applied in fields where his competence and experience are less open to question."

* The newsmag was TIME; the item was stolen from a confidential cable to its editors which relayed the London rumor (which TIME did not print) and concluded: "We have no reason to believe it is true."

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