Fact Magazine
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From January, 1964, to August, 1967, Ralph Ginzburg published a quarterly magazine named fact:, which could be characterized as a humorous, scathingly satiric journal of comment on current society and politics. fact: had surprisingly little erotic content. Rather, it contained articles such as 1,189 Psychiatrists Say Barry Goldwater is Unfit for the Presidency. The Goldwater article purported to find the senator paranoid, sexually insecure, suicidal, and "grossly psychotic." Goldwater later sued and won the suit.
Edited by Ralph Ginzburg and Warren Boroson, the magazine was notable for having been sued by Barry Goldwater over a 1964 issue entitled "The Unconscious of a Conservative: A special Issue on the Mind of Barry Goldwater." A federal jury awarded Goldwater $1 in compensatory damages (indicating his reputation had not really been harmed) and $75,000 in punitive damages, to punish Ginzburg and the magazine for being reckless. The United States Court of Appeals affirmed the award and the Supreme Court denied a petition for certiorari (review), Justices Black and Douglas joining a dissenting opinion, rather unusual at the time (1970) on orders denying "cert."
One of the editors of fact: was Robert Anton Wilson, a prolific science fiction author whose works include the Illuminatus! series.
References
- Ralph Ginzburg, Warren Boroson. The Best of Fact: Thirty-Two Articles that have made History from America's Most Courageous Magazine. Trident Press (1967) ASIN B0006BRBJG
- Goldwater v. Ginzburg, 414 F.2d 324, 337 (2d Cir.1969), cert. denied, 396 US 1049, 90 S.Ct. 701, 24 L.Ed.2d 695.
