JURY BEGGED NOT TO LET BUCKLEY 'PUNISH AND DESTROY' SPOTLIGHT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100200005-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 5, 2012
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: October 25, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/05: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100200005-7
ARTICLE APPEARED
Ot PAGE .,}0
Green has already ruled in a pre-
trial order that Spotlight libeled
National Review in two of four
counts in the defamation case.
The falsehoods included Liberty
Lobby's charge that National
Review had promoted the right of
"militant sex deviates to molest
small children" by publishing both
sides of the homosexual rights
debate, according to the judge's
order.
Also ruled as defamatory was
Spotlight's repeated claim that
National Review had surrendered
its editorial independence to "Zion-
ist financial power" through a deal
with the Anti-Defamation League in
order to bolster the magazine's cir-
culation.
Also before the jury is Spotlight's
accusation that Mr. Buckley had "a
close working relationship" with
George Lincoln Rockwell, founder
of the American Nazi Party.
about Mr. Buckley and his magazine,
said National Review attorney J.
Daniel Mahoney.
U.S. District Judge Joyce Hens
By George Archibald
~wsr+ara nMEs
Liberty Lobby attorney Mark
Lane ended his defense against a $16
million libel action yesterday with a
plea W the all-black jury to protect
continued publication of the organi-
zation's weekly, Spotlight.
Mr. Lane accused National
Review magazine and its conserva-
tive editor, William F Buckley Jr.,
plaintiffs in the lawsuit, of pursuing
a mission "to punish and destroy"
Spotlight because the publication
disagreed with Mr Buckley's con-
servatism.
"This is an effort to close down one
view that is different from Mr. Buck-
ley's view" - particularly Liberty
Lobby's opposition to Israel and sup-
port for controversial Black Muslim
leader Louis Farrakhan, Mr. Lane
said in his closing arguments.
"Do not allow an independent
voice that is a little different to be
stilled;' he urged the jury, which
today begins its deliberations in the
6-year-old case.
Spotlight had engaged in "mali-
cious and outrageous" journalism
by knowingly printing "vicious lies"
WASHINGTON TIMES
25 October 1985
Jury ed n
of to let Buckley
` urutsh and destroy' gp S~tliht
A fourth count is Spotlight's claim
that Mr. Buckley collaborated with
Rabbi Meir Kahane, founder of the
Jewish Defense League and, accord-
ing to Spotlight, 'a man "who often
posed as a 'Nazi' and 'KKK' sympa-
thizer" to publish "a muddled
smear" of Liberty Lobby founder
Willis A. Carto in National Review.
"If there was ever a case to deter
this campaign of lying and vilifica-
tion, this is that case;' Mr Mahoney
said.
The attacks "cut to the heart of
the reputation of any journal of opin-
ion;' he told the jury. The magazine
would be "in deep trouble" if Spot-
light's estimated 135,000 to 300,000
readers believed the statements, he
said.
Mr. Mahoney asked the jury for
"an appropriate and substantial sum
in punitive damages and nominal
compensatory damages for all these
vicious lies they have been
spreading about National Review
throughout this country." He sug-
gested that the magazine's attorneys
fees to date, amounting to $261,892,
would be "an appropriate
bench"mark" for deciding the
amount of the award.
In his summation yesterday, Mr.
Lane said National Review had pro-
voked Spotlight's attacks with "a
smear" against Mr. Carto in 1971,
following Liberty Lobby's vigorous
opposition to U.S. action in Vietnam.
He accused Mr. Buckley of work-
ing wi E. Howard Hunt, convicted
Watergate conspirator "to nut . fir-
hg tout of business "Hunt was
Bucklev's sunr+ryisor wh n he
worked briefly for the CIA in Mexico
City during-the- early 1950s, accord-
ing to Testimony in the present trial.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/05: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100200005-7