Reynolds v. Pegler

Westbrook Pegler, the terrible-tempered columnist, had a task in prospect when he took the stand in a Manhattan court. His job was to prove that Journalist Quentin Reynolds, who is suing him and two Hearst corporations for $500,000 libel damages, was a nudist and a coward, as Pegler had written in a 1949 column (TIME, May 24 et seq.). Reynolds also charged that the column implied he was proCommunist. Last week, under cross-examination by Louis Nizer, Reynolds' attorney, Pegler cried indignantly: "You just don't know how to examine!" But it was soon plain that Lawyer Nizer knew pretty well what he was about. Time after time, Pegler admitted to making "mistakes" in his pre-trial testimony. And when pressed to prove his original charges, Peg found the going rough.

Pegler had written that Reynolds went "nuding along the public road [with] a wench." He also testified that Mrs. Heywood Broun, widow of the famed columnist, told him that "she was once in a rowboat . . . and that Reynolds was standing in the water and asked her to take him for a ride ... He then got into the boat and 'she was shocked to discover he was absolutely naked, and in her phrase, he didn't even have on a hairnet." Pegler could supply no corroboration for his public road scene, and Mrs. Broun had already testified that the rowboat story was false. She also denied Pegler's charge that Reynolds had proposed marriage to her on the way to Heywood Broun's grave. Cried Pegler: "[Mrs. Broun] lied under oath." Pegler furthermore admitted that Reynolds showed courage during the London blitz.

Had Reynolds done some pro-Communist writing? To test Pegler on his knowledge of Communism, Reynolds' attorney had read a passage from an unnamed author: "Communism represents the demands of the masses for a strong central authority." Did that sound like pro-Communist propaganda? It certainly did, said Pegler. Last week Nizer revealed the name of the author of the passage: Westbrook Pegler, 1937.

Witness Pegler had no kind words for anyone who had written or spoken well of Reynolds. Of the late Damon Runyon, who wrote admiringly about Reynolds' courage. Pegler said: "I disbelieved him on [a great many things]." Of Reynolds' old friend Heywood Broun: "He still looked like a bum when he got married . . . but at least he washed his face once in a while." Of Quentin Reynolds himself: "Free loader . . . big dope."

This week, in his charge, the judge told the jury that Pegler had clearly libeled Reynolds, and it was up to them to decide the damages. The award: $175,001.

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