The Press: The Machine Wins

Not all editors emerge triumphant from court after tangling in print with their readers. Last week Gene Wirges, 39, former editor of the weekly Democrat in Morrilton, Ark., was sentenced to three years in prison for perjury.

Wirges' conviction was only the latest incident in a long history of troubles that eventually cost him his paper. While he was in command, the Democrat attacked the well-entrenched local political machine of Sheriff Marlin Hawkins, a close ally of Governor Orval Faubus. After accusing the machine of election fraud, Wirges was threatened, beaten up and shot at. Harassed by every possible legal weapon his enemies could dream up, Wirges lost two libel suits for a total of $275,000. A $75,000 judgment was later overturned by the Arkansas Supreme Court; the $200,000 verdict has been set aside, and the case will be retried.

The perjury charge stemmed from one of his libel trials, and Wirges had little doubt that he would be convicted. The members of the jury, which included an illiterate and a man whose son is soon to stand trial for murder in the same court, were all well-known to the sheriff. Even before the verdict, Wirges' friends, including the defeated Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Winthrop Rockefeller, were busily getting ready to finance an appeal.