Knight

With the caution of a stroller through a minefield, Miami Herald columnist Whited here writes an encomium to John S. Knight (1894-1981), founder of a newspaper empire. Knight, who saw himself as a self-made man, inherited the Akron Beacon Journal in the 1930s and added the Miami Herald , Detroit Free Press and Philadelphia Inquirer ; then he joined with the Ridder chain to form one of the nation's largest print media groups. He was a controversial newspaper tycoon: a Republican, he was anti-Roosevelt and anti-New Deal and a pre-World War II isolationist. Later, however, he was an early opponent of the Vietnam War. Knight maintained that he allowed his editors autonomy, yet he established a kind of political line via a column he wrote. Whited is clearly a loyalist, making a strong if arguable case for Knight as unyieldingly committed to freedom of the press. Photos not seen by PW. (Dec.)