Duel in Milwaukee

Spats between columnists and newspaper editors over altered copy have been known to grow bitter, but when the writer is a popular mayor and the paper is the main tentacle of what he calls a "political communications octopus," the fight can take strange turns. Milwaukee Mayor Henry Maier claimed to be so incensed over some fiddling with his column in the afternoon Journal that he canceled the weekly series and announced that he would no longer entertain press-conference questions from any representatives of the Journal Co. That includes the only other major newspaper in town, the morning Sentinel, and the WTMJ radio-TV stations.

The incident was the latest skirmish in a long war. Maier was unhappy with local coverage of the 1967 Milwaukee riots and the sympathetic press given Father James Groppi, who led street demonstrations in favor of an open-housing law. The mayor rarely misses an opportunity to belabor the Journal Co.'s monopoly, and he once tried to instigate a federal antitrust suit against the company.

Fifteen months ago, Journal Editor Richard Leonard, in the interest of fairness, offered the mayor a regular column. "Feel free," Leonard wrote, "to state your feelings toward monopolistic practices in the mass media." Maier accepted, and the columns appeared as written until Maier decided to answer a December article by Joel McNally, a Journal city hall reporter. "Fiction has its place," Maier wrote, "but not in public affairs. Time after time, city officials have unsnarled public issues thoughtlessly and carelessly tangled by false and reckless reporting."

The Journal printed the column --minus the offensive lines--and explained rather lamely that it had been concerned about libel charges. "The Journal couldn't keep the faith," retorted the mayor. The incident, he went on, "illustrates how channels of communication in a monopolistic situation are so clogged by the monopoly that the public is denied access to a free flow of truth." In announcing that he would be deaf to Journal Co. reporters, Maier was perhaps listening to the voice of political experience. He was re-elected overwhelmingly in 1968 after dueling with the press, and the next election is April 4.

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