Crane v. the Arizona Republic

972 F.2d 1511 20 Media L. Rep. 1649 Richard P. CRANE, Jr.; James D. Henderson, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC; Jack Anderson; Jerry Vann, aka Jerry Van Hoorelbeke; Jerry Seper; Darrow Tully; Alan Moyer; Phoenix Newspapers, Inc., Defendants-Appellees. No. 90-55071. United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. Argued and Submitted May 8, 1991. Submission Deferred Aug. 16, 1991. Resubmitted Aug. 13, 1992. Decided Aug. 21, 1992. Margaret M. Morrow, Quinn, Kully and Morrow, Los Angeles, Cal., for plaintiffs-appellants. Paul F. Eckstein, Brown & Bain, Phoenix, Ariz., for defendants-appellees. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California. Before TANG, REINHARDT, and WIGGINS, Circuit Judges. TANG, Circuit Judge: 1 In August 1984, The Arizona Republic published an article describing an ongoing investigation by a congressional committee and the Department of Justice into alleged corruption by James Henderson and Richard Crane, Jr., the then current and former heads, respectively, of the Justice Department's Los Angeles Organized Crime and Racketeering Strike Force ("Strike Force"). Crane and Henderson subsequently filed a lawsuit…