Chapter 2 - Ralph Ginzburg

Summary

In this chapter, I show how the infamous Fact magazine episode of 1964 began. What motivated Ralph Ginzburg to publish his “survey” of psychiatrists and to create a psychological profile of Barry Goldwater? I reassess Ginzburg’s controversial but now almost forgotten career as a provocateur and alleged pornographer (a charge that conservative politicians made loosely, based on his conviction for distributing the highbrow Eros magazine). Ginzburg remained committed to free speech and journalistic freedom in an era when television, newspapers, and direct mail advertising were flourishing. But was the survey ethical? Was Goldwater mentally ill and a danger to the country, as Ginzburg and many psychiatrists claimed? I make use of rarely explored sources, including the transcript of the Goldwater v. Ginzburg libel case, Ralph Ginzburg’s papers, and an original interview with Fact managing editor Warren Boroson. In an era when the Supreme Court decision in New York Times v. Sullivan had dramatically loosened libel law and established a new standard for libel called “actual malice,” Ginzburg had every reason to believe he might prevail in the courts, and in the court of public opinion.