Santa Fe newsman E. Dana Johnson had quite a story to tell — in this case about what happened to him, not about what he covered.

Johnson was the editor in 1917 when The New Mexican uncovered malfeasance by the prison warden who doubled as the political boss of Socorro.

The boss bit back, using a home-field advantage to get the Socorro prosecutor to file criminal libel charges in the court of a friendly judge. When Johnson violated a gag order, the judge jailed him for contempt of court.

In time, Johnson beat the contempt and libel charges, but the whole affair stood as proof that rivals in New Mexico's combative politics often slugged it out using the press and the courts as their own.

Johnson stood up to a bully, obeyed principle under threat of jail and clung to faith in final justice, but not without feeling the sting of a political machine willing to punish its enemies in the pursuit of power and profit.

Not that Johnson was some timid weakling. He was the outspoken editor working for Bronson Cutting, the rich owner of The New Mexican who rode his paper's influence all the way to the U.S. Senate.

Through the territorial period of the late-1800s and early-1900s, writers often blurred the line between journalism done to inform and journalism meant to persuade, and in the early days after statehood in 1912, remnants of that head-knocking style led to Johnson's jailing.

Johnson later guaranteed his fame by helping Will Shuster think up Zozobra. But outside Santa Fe, his legal fight became one of the last chapters in the colorful era of Santa Fe newspapering that continued past World War II.

Colorful aptly described reporters' work from the time they began telling Santa Fe stories in 1834.

A rich piece of history was the Spanish-language press that protected the Hispanic culture and language against the Anglo invasion from the east, according to historian Doris Meyer. Three editors who left an imprint on Santa Fe were Enrique Salazar, Hilario Ortiz and Nestor Montoya, all sharing a newspaper pedigree — La Voz del Pueblo founded in 1888.

Salazar, a Santa Fe native and the stepson of a newspaper owner, made his paper an influential voice for liberal causes and statehood. He later was a federal land administrator.

Ortiz, too, was born in Santa Fe and started Spanish newspapers in Socorro and Albuquerque. After journalism, he worked in education and practiced criminal law.

Montoya left La Voz after two years and returned to his native Albuquerque to enter public service and participate in the constitutional convention.

One of the first crusading Anglo journalists was Charles Greene, whose New Mexican pushed land development. He later moved south to promote mining and irrigation.

At the turn of the century, one of the loudest voices in Santa Fe belonged to publisher Max Frost, soldier, lawyer, political broker and protector of the Ring that used legal tricks to gain title to blocks of land.

Newspaper editor Will Harrison patrolled Santa Fe as its watchdog in the 1940s and '50s. He had a nose for scandal and a hunger to tell all, but also kept the secrets of Los Alamos before Hiroshima. Reputed to carry printers' lead wrapped in a handkerchief for protection, Harrison made enemies by fingering an attorney general who pocketed corporate legal fees on the side, by exposing a politician who misused the highway department to pave his private road and by carrying on a feud with a governor Harrison dismissed as a pawn of the bosses.

Tony Hillerman, a decorated World War II veteran and Oklahoma-trained newspaper man, was editor of The New Mexican and later a journalism professor. Before his 2008 death, he wrote widely read mysteries set in Navajo country.

Richard McCord inspired award-winning reporting at the Santa Fe Reporter, promoted independent journalism and published an influential book in 2001 on the monopolistic practices of Gannett, the largest U.S. newspaper chain that tried to capture Santa Fe in the 1970s.

Was it only a man's game? Not in recent years, when three women stood out as publishers. Hope Aldrich ran the Reporter through most of the 1990s. Robin Martin succeeded her father to become owner, editor and publisher of The New Mexican in 2001. Ana Pacheco returned to her hometown in 1994 to launch La Herencia, which for 16 years celebrated Hispanic culture.

Contact Rob Dean at 986-3033 or rdean@sfnewmexican.com.