$3,060,000 Worth of Guilt

As solemnly as a referee pacing off a long penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct, the clerk of the federal court in Atlanta read the verdict: "We, the jury, find in favor of Wallace Butts in the sum of $60,000. We find that Wallace Butts is entitled to recover punitive damages from Curtis Publishing Co. We assess punitive damages from Curtis Publishing Co. We assess punitive damages in the sum of $3,000,000."

It was one of the largest libel judgments in U.S. legal history.*

Like a Champ. The resounding figures reflected the Georgia jury's opinion of the casual journalism of the Saturday Evening Post, which had accused the former Georgia football coach of trying to fix a Georgia-Alabama game. "Butts was just a symbol," said a juror later. The jury had settled on $3,000,000 in punitive damages, he said, as the proper way to implement the judge's charge to "deter the wrongdoer from repeating trespass." As for the $60,000 general damages, that was simply the jury's calculation of Butts's future earning capacity. "Butts is 58 years old. We figured his life span at twelve more years and agreed on $5,000 a year."

However they were split up, though, the figures were more than satisfactory to Wally Butts. "I feel like a champ," he said as he headed toward a victory celebration. Would he grieve if the judgment should put the ailing Post out of business? "No, sir," said Wally Butts."I would not."

Like a Loser. At the Post and its parent Curtis Publishing Co., the verdict landed with a thud. Its secondary effects had yet to be studied as advertisers assess the damage done to the Post's reputation. "The Story of a College Football Fix" was only one entry in Editor Clay Blair Jr.'s program of "sophisticated muckraking," designed to rejuvenate the magazine. That program has already generated three other libel actions--one of them filed by Alabama Coach Paul ("Bear") Bryant for the very same article.

Even if current advertisers remain loyal, Curtis can ill afford such whopping penalties. In its struggle for survival, the publishing house, which traces its lineage to Ben Franklin, has lost ground. It is now $30.5 million in hock --most of that in short-term notes that fell due in mid-August; payment has been postponed by the possibility that Curtis may interest a group of banks in refinancing the company's debts. Revenue has plummeted from $260 million in 1960 to $205 million last year--and the figures are still falling.

To avert another deficit as bad as last year's $18.9 million, Curtis President Matthew J. Culligan has lopped 2,200 names from the payroll and pushed through other stringent economies. In an attempt to prop up failing circulation, the Post, having already eliminated half its summer issues, announced a plan to lower its newsstand price from 200 to 100 in almost all of the U.S., while raising the price to 250 in certain selected areas. But so far, the economy campaign has met with slim success. In the first six months of this year, Curtis reversed the trend, but still lost $3,456,000.

With unaccustomed modesty, Editor Blair, the only Poster whose name appears twice on the masthead, confined his response to the verdict to eight words. "We are very disappointed," he said, "and we shall appeal."

* Last year a New York jury awarded sometime Radio and TV Entertainer John Henry Faulk $1,000,000 in general damages and $2,500,000 in punitive damages for having been blacklisted after false accusations of Communist sympathies. But Faulk is likely to get no more than a fraction of the judgment. His wife has already bid for a helpmeet's share--by suing Faulk for divorce on the ground of adultery and naming all 21 corespondents. She is asking for $2,250 a month in temporary alimony. Furthermore, Faulk's lawyers, realizing that the judgment is so large as to be uncollectible, have indicated their willingness to accept less. The estate of one of the three defendants named in Faulk's action has settled for $175,000 out of a total liability of $333,333.33.

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