Short Takes

> How many votes do newspaper endorsements mean to a candidate? No one can be sure, but certainly a series of four laudatory front-page editorials in one of Texas' largest newspapers gave William Hobby, 40, a boost as he campaigned for the Democratic nomination for Lieutenant Governor. The last editorial in the Houston Post (circ. 295,000) appeared the morning of the runoff, which Hobby won easily. There were two curious things about the Post's quadruple blessing of Hobby: the paper declined to take a stand on any of the other statewide contests, and it neglected to mention Hobby's position as president and executive editor of the Post. His mother, Oveta Culp Hobby, 67, also happens to own the paper and sit on its editorial board. Said the winner: "I didn't have to give any instructions to ensure that the paper would handle this race fairly. This is a highly professional newsgathering operation."

> Until last fall, Joe Eszterhas, 27, was a bright and sassy reporter for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Then he was fired for having written a piece in Evergreen Review that criticized his paper, himself and all others concerned with the merchandising of Ronald Haeberle's exclusive photographs of the My Lai massacre. * Eszterhas, backed by the American Newspaper Guild, protested the dismissal, and the case went to Arbitrator Calvin L. McCoy for judgment. In ruling against Eszterhas, McCoy asked: "Can you bite the hand that feeds you and insist on staying for future banquets?" Eszterhas, now writing for Rolling Stone, maintained that the Plain Dealer "hired me to do a job for 40 hours a week and I did that job. But outside that job I have rights as a human being, and when something strikes my conscience, I have a right to speak out."

> Years ago, when Sydney Gruson was running the now defunct New York Times international edition from Paris, his wife, Flora Lewis, sometimes used the telephone, office facilities and chauffeur-driven car of the paper's Paris bureau. In the absence of the bureau chief, she would sometimes occupy his private office--a practice that ended when one of the correspondents installed a special lock. The arrangement was curious because Lewis, a skilled journalist of wide experience, was then writing a column for Newsday. The couple then returned to New York, where he became a Times vice president and she continued with Newsday.

Now the Grusons have separated and, effective July 1, Lewis becomes chief of the Times Paris bureau. A number of jaws went slack at the news that an "outsider" was moving into one of the paper's choicest overseas jobs. "It is an unusual situation," conceded Foreign Editor James Greenfield, while denying rumors that the appointment had caused a minirevolt. A few local employees of the bureau consulted their union about whether they could resign as a group without violating their contract. (They could not.) Correspondent John Hess--the chap who had locked the door--asked for and received a transfer back to New York. Was Lewis concerned about the rumblings? Said she: "I'm not worried."

* The Plain Dealer first published the photos. Haeberle, with Eszterhas' help, then sold the photos to LIFE.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.