The Reluctant Crusaders

In the past five years, nine Albany newspapermen have been subpoenaed a total of 20 times by the Albany County grand jury. Each time, the jury has shown little interest in finding out about criminal matters that the newsmen have reported. Instead, it has investigated the journalists themselves--their private habits as well as their professional performances. The objective is obviously harassment. "In my 35 years as a newspaperman," says Gene Robb, publisher of both the morning Times-Union and the afternoon Knickerbocker News, "I have never heard of a comparable situation in the U.S."

The newspapers are scarcely standard crusaders. In the 46 years that crusty old Dan O'Connell has commanded the city's Democratic machine, the papers had fallen into the habit of ignoring stories critical of him. When Gene Robb, a longtime Hearst executive in Washington, took over the chain's Times-Union in 1953, O'Connell had no reason to expect any change. Christened "Mr. Nice Guy U.S.A." by Albany staffers, Robb concentrated on the business side of the papers, succeeded in purchasing the Knickerbocker News from the Gannett chain in 1960.

Indictment & Acquittal. Robb then turned to the papers' editorial side. "It was my conclusion," he says, "that our job should be a reporting job." The first full job of coverage was on a report by the State Investigation Commission condemning the city's purchasing practices. Then, in 1961, Reform Candidate Rev. Robert K. Hudnut ran for mayor against the machine-picked Erastus Corning II. The papers duly reported Hudnut's charges against the machine: that it had been controlling votes through tax assessments; that it had been making huge profits in settling tax-delinquency cases. Corning won anyway, but the machine was furious with the papers. The city canceled all legal advertising, worth $150,000 a year, in both papers. Robb explained the reasons to the Hearst home office, got its complete backing.

In June 1962, Knickerbocker News Reporter Edward Swietnicki wrote a front-page story about a Negro post-office clerk who had been arrested for disorderly conduct and been treated at a hospital for multiple head bruises and other injuries. The clerk claimed police had beaten him at the station. The grand jury opened an investigation, but it soon became apparent that the machine-controlled, overwhelmingly Democratic panel was interested only in investigating Reporter Swietnicki. Questioned for hours on end by District Attorney John Garry II, Swietnicki said at one point that he had discussed his story beforehand with his managing editor, Robert Fichenberg. Later, Fichen-berg testified that he did not recall such a discussion. On that ground, Swietnicki was indicted for second-degree perjury--a somewhat recondite and rarely used charge having to do with the changing of testimony on an issue not pertinent to the main inquiry. He was duly tried, but acquitted.

Direct Action. From then on, whenever the papers printed stories critical of the city government, staffers were sure to be called before the grand jury. Emboldened rather than intimidated, the papers lashed out in editorials against the machine. Last fall, Times-Union Executive Editor Dan Button, who had been Robb's right-hand man, took more direct action by running against an O'Connell man for Congress. While his opponent did not even bother to campaign, Republican Button ran hard on the issues his own paper had raised. He won an upset victory by 17,000 votes and gave the machine one of the worst scares of its career.

Though their man won, the papers did not let up. After the election, they ran stories citing widespread vote buying by the machine. Following its custom, the grand jury summoned reporters but failed to hear key witnesses. Last week it adjourned without returning an indictment. The papers shot right back at the jury's inaction. "We didn't set out to start a crusade," says Robb. "But when public criticism was made, we weren't afraid to carry it. We are finally opening windows in Albany."

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