He played a vital role in one journalistic coup.
"I fully credit them for that pioneering spirit," Mr. Westerfield said, "but not for journalistic integrity". One journalistic flashpoint has been the centralized newscast operation that feeds many of Sinclair's stations, always including the conservative commentaries by Mr. Hyman.
One journalistic account of his last months in Galveston, Tex., described him as wearing "large-frame eyeglasses that were completely covered with tape except for a small triangular opening over one lens".
In a seven-page confidential letter written to Mr. Ovitz, then the company's president, Mr. Eisner, the chairman and chief executive, tallies his professional and personal complaints with Mr. Ovitz, and takes particular issue with one journalistic interaction.
Perhaps the very reality of money explains one journalistic oddity: I found it far easier to get people worth $100 million to talk about their wealth than the typical lawyer, consultant or recently promoted corporate manager.
But the twin scandals — one journalistic, one political — do prompt one new question: Has Fleet Street's freewheeling past prepared British newspapers better than others for the anything-goes ethos of the Web?
