'Esquire' Apologizes to William F. Buckley, Yet Again

By: E&P Staff Memo to editors: Before reprinting a decades-old article always make sure that it was not the subject of a libel suit the first time around. If you don't, you may run into the same problem faced by Esquire magazine and its parent, Hearst Communications, which has had to apologize (again) to columnist William F. Buckley, shell out some money, and temporarily stop the distribution of a book. Buckley is currently writes a column distributed by Universal Press Syndicate.

According to ?An Open Letter to Our Readers Concerning William F. Buckley Jr.,? slated to appear soon in both Esquire and National Review (the magazine founded by Buckley), the story goes like this:

In 2003, Esquire re-published a collection of essays from the magazine, one of which was a 1969 article by Buckley's arch-nemesis Gore Vidal that had been the center of a libel action. Esquire had settled the original by apologizing to Buckley and compensating him for legal costs.

?Present management was not aware of the history of this litigation, and greatly regrets the re-publication of the libels in the current collection,? the note that will appear in Esquire and National Review affirms. ?That book will no longer be distributed by the publisher unless the Vidal article is removed from the book.?

The Esquire book was titled ?The Big Book of Great Writing.?

The latest settlement stipulates, however, that Hearst denies that the Vidal essay defamed Buckley and caused him damage, and that it contends that its publication is protected by the First Amendment. But in the spirit of a stated ?compromise,? the two parties agreed that Hearst would pay $55,000 to Buckley's counsel and $10,000 to Buckley himself; publish that open letter in the February issue of Esquire; Hearst will provide a copy of Buckley's response to Vidal to anyone who requests it and also post it on its Web site for two months starting this January 15; and will halt distribution of the book until the essay is removed.