The Press: Lid on the Sewer

Four recent libel suits did not faze Confidential magazine (TIME. July 11) and caused no change in its up-from-the sewer journalistic formula of sex and sin. But in Washington last month, Postmaster General Arthur Summerfield threw a scare into the magazine that rattled every skeleton in its closet; he barred Confidential from the mails after a "number of complaints." Post Office officials objected to among other things, a racy description of a stripteaser's gyrations and a "questionable cheesecake photograph of Hollywood Starlet Terry Moore. Hereafter each issue of Confidential must be cleared by the Post Office before it will be accepted for mailing. Publisher Robert Harrison promptly appealed to the U S Distict Court in Washington. Without mailing privileges, he said, he would be forced discontinue publication." Though only about 30,000 readers of Confidential are subscribers, millions of copies sold on newsstands are distributed through post offices.