Goldwater v. Ginzburg

Goldwater v. Ginzburg was a 1969 court ruling on defamation.[1]

History

Fact magazine was edited by Ralph Ginzburg and Warren Boroson. The magazine was sued by Barry Goldwater over a 1964 issue entitled "The Unconscious of a Conservative: A special Issue on the Mind of Barry Goldwater."[1] The magazine polled psychiatrists and asked if Goldwater was psychologically fit to serve as president.[2] 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]

References

  1. ^ a b c Richard A. Friedman (May 23, 2011). "How a Telescopic Lens Muddles Psychiatric Insights". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/24/health/views/24mind.html?ref=science. Retrieved 2011-05-24. 
  2. ^ "LBJ Fit to Serve". Associated Press. May 23, 1968. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=D24hAAAAIBAJ&sjid=F4cFAAAAIBAJ&pg=882,4721408&dq=ralph+ginzburg&hl=en. Retrieved 2011-05-24. "Publisher Ralph Ginzburg, defendant in a libel suit for an article on a poll of psychiatrists on Barry Goldwater that he conducted in 1964 says ..."