Hearst Hero

To eager Hearst editors it looked like a natural: one Private Joseph McGee of Worcester, Mass., billed as "in the regular Army since 1938 with an honorable record of service," had been sentenced to two years for slapping Nazi prisoners (TIME, June 11).

Roared Columnist Austen Lake in the Boston American: "If Private McGee--God bless him--socked nine Heinies for refusal to follow work orders it is no more than nine million other guys in our Army have been yearning to do for years." In Boston and New York, Hearstlings set "storm of protest" experts to work, got shocked statements from statement-givers, bombarded Congressmen with telegrams. Upshot: Private McGee was reinstated. (Other newspapers went along cautiously; some suspected that there might be something wrong with a private of seven years' standing.)

Last week the Hearstmen picked themselves up off the floor. Their "hero" had exploded right in their faces. At Fort Devens, Mass., Private McGee had just been sentenced to six months for being AWOL and drunk, and for making false statements under oath. The false statements: that he had been in combat, had won the Purple Heart and Silver Star. The conviction, the court-martial revealed, was the thirteenth of McGee's Army career.

Said determined hero-maker Lake: "I still think McGee got a bum rap, and I'd handle the story the same way if I had to do it over again."

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