SOURCE: Hoyt, Michael. “Malcolm, Masson, and You.” Columbia Journalism Review 29, no. 6 (March-April 1991): 38-44.

In the following essay, Hoyt examines the Masson v. Malcolm libel case, and Malcolm's book The Journalist and the Murderer. Hoyt provides background information on both Malcolm and Jeffrey Masson, chronicles the genesis of the trial, and reviews the implications of the verdict.

“We are all perpetually smoothing and rearranging reality to conform to our wishes. …”

Janet Malcolm, “Trouble in the Archives,” The New Yorker, December 5, 1983

To your list of things to worry about, if there's any room, add the Jeffrey Masson-Janet Malcolm libel suit, which the Supreme Court heard in January and is expected to rule on some time before the middle of the year. Malcolm, journalism's grand inquisitor, is in the odd position of protecting the interests of journalists in a way not all of us are sure we want to be protected...