An Abject Retraction

When the New York Post ran a 24-part series heavily attacking him as inaccurate, unreliable and vindictive, Columnist Walter Winchell replied in a counterattack that went on for months. In the 200-odd dailies that carry his column, and over his Sunday-night radio-TV broadcast, Winchell called the Post everything from a "pinko-stinko sheet" and the "New York Ivan" to the "New York Posterior," the "New York Pravda" and the "Compost." He also suggested that the Post's staff was riddled with subversives. For Post Editor James A. Wechsler he had a separate set of Winchellisms, e.g., "Cherry Coke Wexla," "James Jake Ivan Wechsler," "New York Post's General Pinko," and "Pinko Punko." In reply, the Post and Wechsler brought a $1,525,000 libel suit against Winchell, his sponsor (Gruen Watch Co.), Hearst Corp., King Features Syndicate and American Broadcasting Co. (TIME, Dec. 29, 1952). This week, in settlement of the suit, Winchell issued the most abject retraction of his career. Because of his trouble over this and other libel suits, he also broke off his $12,500-a-week contract with ABC.

No Communists. On Winchell's Sunday-night broadcast, the announcer read the retraction: "Walter Winchell has authorized ABC and Gruen Watch Co. Inc. to state that he never said or meant to say over the air or in his newspaper columns that the New York Post or its publisher or Mr. James A. Wechsler are Communists or sympathetic to Communism. If anything Mr. Winchell said was so construed, he regrets and withdraws it. The American Broadcasting Co. and Gruen, also, wish to retract any statement, which were subject to such construction."

The Hearst Corp. agreed to print a similar retraction in all its dailies, as well as to send out a statement to non-Hearst papers that buy Winchell's column. Furthermore, to make the Post's victory complete, Winchell's employers agreed to pay $30,000 to the Post to cover the legal expenses of bringing the suit and taking depositions (TIME, July 13, 1953). Winchell also agreed to drop his $2,000,000 countersuit for libel against the Post, Publisher Dorothy Schiff and Editor Wechsler.

No More Protection. In his contracts with the network and Hearst Corp., Winchell is insured against libel suits; he does not have to pay damages. But Winchell does not think that with ABC he has enough protection. For example, the $1,000,000 in insurance policies that ABC has taken out does not cover Winchell for punitive damages, i.e., where the court orders damages paid to "punish for maliciousness," as in the $175,000 paid to Author Quentin Reynolds in his suit against Hearst Columnist Westbrook Pegler (TIME, July 5). Winchell asked that his protection be changed to make it "foolproof." When ABC balked, he asked to end his four-year-old lifetime contract, and the ABC board agreed. By June, said Winchell, he expects to change to another network (probably NBC), and he may even produce his radio-TV program through his own company.

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