Roger Hall

ISBN 10: 0964330466 / 0-9643304-6-6
ISBN 13: 9780964330467
Publisher: Maharatha Books
Publication Date: 1998
Binding: Softcover

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Freedom from the Press: A Personal Story of Libel: Synopsis

"Freedom From the Press" is a very personal true story of libel. On Labor Day Sunday in 1991 the Houston chronicle ran a front page banner headline story as a favor for a powerful Houstonian embroiled in a lawsuit. Their intent was to destroy the reputation of Douglas Wyatt, son of oil industry giant Oscar Wyatt and international socialite Lynn Sakowitz Wyatt-- and a member of a cult known as Eternal Values. In pre-trial haste the Chronicle ran a cutline under a two column wide color photograph of the author of "Freedom From the Press" indicating that he had once been a member of the cult instead of an unwitting recruit who had gathered information from actual former members in an effort to discredit the organization. The readership of the largest newspaper in Texas understood the article to mean that Roger Hall had participated in the cult's bizarre membership rites and adherence to virulent neo-Nazi dogma; allegations that even the author of the article openly admitted under oath were not true. Within ten days a reputation and business that had taken ten years to build were in ashes. "Freedom From the Press" really begins at the point of destruction. The madness had only begun as the author entered a legal war pitting him against the most powerful media organization in the world, an elected judiciary dependent upon newspapers, the law itself, and his own depression.