Fact (magazine)

Fact Magazine was an American publication that commented on controversial topics.

History

Edited by Ralph Ginzburg and Warren Boroson, the magazine was notable for having been sued by Barry Goldwater over a 1964 issue entitled "The Unconscious of a Conservative: A special Issue on the Mind of Barry Goldwater." In Goldwater v. Ginzburg a federal jury awarded Goldwater $1 in compensatory damages and $75,000 in punitive damages, to punish Ginzburg and the magazine for being reckless. The American Psychiatric Association then issued the Goldwater rule reaffirming medical privacy and forbidding commenting on a patient that any individual psychiatrist has not personally examined.^[1]

The United States Court of Appeals affirmed the award and the Supreme Court denied a petition for certiorari (review), Justices Black and Douglas joining a dissenting opinion, rather unusual at the time (1970) on orders denying "cert."

References

Further reading

• Ralph Ginzburg, Warren Boroson. The Best of Fact: Thirty-Two Articles that have made History from America's Most Courageous Magazine. Trident Press (1967) OCLC 1368372
• Goldwater v. Ginzburg, 414 F.2d 324, 337 (2d Cir.1969), cert. denied, 396 US 1049, 90 S.Ct. 701, 24 L.Ed.2d 695.