Newspapers: The Reluctant Crusaders

In the past five years, nine Albany newspapermen have been subpoenaed a total of 20 times by the Albany County grand jury. Each time, the jury has shown little interest in finding out about criminal matters that the newsmen have reported. Instead, it has investigated the journalists themselves—their private habits as well as their professional performances. The objective is obviously harassment. "In my 35 years as a newspaperman," says Gene Robb, publisher of both the morning Times-Union and the afternoon Knickerbocker News, "I have never heard of a comparable situation in the U.S."

The newspapers are scarcely standard crusaders. In...