The ''Greenbelt News Review'' is a weekly newspaper that was established in 1937 as a volunteer

cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...

shortly after settlement of

Greenbelt, Maryland Greenbelt is a city in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States, and a suburb of Washington, D.C. At the 2020 census, the population was 24,921. Greenbelt is the first and the largest of the three experimental and controversial New Deal ...

, and was originally named the '' Greenbelt Cooperator'' until its name was changed in 1954. It has been published without interruption every week since its founding, and is distributed free by a network of carriers to all city residents. The ''News Review'' was always intended to be a newspaper created by and for the citizens of Greenbelt; "more than a voice in the town, it was meant to be the voice of Greenbelt as a whole." Since its early days, many of the prominent editors and newspaper staff have been women: Mary Lou Williamson held the job of editor for the longest, over twenty-five years, and frequently shared the role with Dorothy Sucher throughout the 1960s as a result of both of them having babies. Other female staffers include Virginia Beauchamp, editor in 1962; Mary Granofsky, editor from 1967 to 1972; Barbara Likowski, editor during parts of 1989 and 1990; and Elaine Skolnik, who began working at the paper in 1954 and served as editor from 1977 to 1986. Harry Zubkoff was also a prominent editor, holding the position four times throughout the 1950s and 1960s and impressing other staffers with his "firebrand opinions."

1970 Supreme Court libel case

In 1965, an article by reporter Dorothy Sucher in the ''News Review'' published two quotations of citizen remarks at City Council meetings in which they characterized as "blackmail" the actions of Charles S. Bresler, a local real estate developer and member of the

Maryland House of Delegates The Maryland House of Delegates is the lower house of the legislature of the State of Maryland. It consists of 141 delegates elected from 47 districts. The House of Delegates Chamber is in the Maryland State House on State Circle in Annapolis, ...

. Bresler filed suit in 1966, claiming that he had become "the most hated man in Greenbelt." Local volunteers formed a Freedom of the Press committee and went door to door to raise money for the paper's legal defense. Bresler received a $17,500

libel Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

judgment from the

Prince George's County ) , demonym = Prince Georgian , ZIP codes = 20607–20774 , area codes = 240, 301 , founded date = April 23 , founded year = 1696 , named for = Prince George of Denmark , leader_title = Executive , leader_name = Angela D. Alsobrook ...

Circuit Court, which was upheld by the

Maryland Court of Appeals The Supreme Court of Maryland is the state supreme court, highest court of the U.S. state of Maryland. Its name was changed on December 14, 2022, from the Maryland Court of Appeals, after a voter-approved change to the state constitution. The cou ...

in 1969. In 1970, the

Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

ruled unanimously in favor of the ''News Review'' and overturned the lower courts' judgments. The Supreme Court held "that as a matter of constitutional law, the word 'blackmail' in these circumstances was not slander when spoken, and not libel when reported in the ''Greenbelt News Review.''"

References

External links

The ''Greenbelt News Reviews website

The ''Greenbelt News Reviews searchable Archives

Greenbelt Archive Project

The ''Greenbelt News Reviews Greenbelt Photo Gallery

''Defending Utopia: The Greenbelt News Review at 80'', documentary film, by Susan Gervasi
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Trailer for the documentary ''Defending Utopia: The Greenbelt News Review at 80'', by Susan Gervasi
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''Greenbelt News Review's 80th Anniversary Celebration PSA'', by Greenbelt Access Television
at

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''The Cooperator'': An Unofficial History of the ''Greenbelt News Review'', by Heather Elizabeth Peterson
{{Greenbelt, Maryland Newspapers established in 1937 Greenbelt, Maryland Cooperatives in the United States 1937 establishments in Maryland Newspapers published in Maryland