The Press: Passing of a Giant

In the 42nd Street skyscraper that houses the tabloid New York Daily News, the monster presses were still, resting like exhausted giants from the ordeal of grinding out 4,500,000 fat Sunday newspapers. Upstairs in Ihe city room, a handful of early-trick Newshawks dawdled over Sunday-morning chores. They paused as a telephone buzzed, and stared at the deskman who picked it up. A quiet voice on the wire said, "He died at 10:25."

"He," as every Newsman instantly knew, was restless Joseph Medill Patterson, 67, the maverick journalistic genius who sired the slick, expert,...