Thanks for the ping.
Justice William O. Douglas holds the honor of being the subject of the first article that I independently recognized as what is now called a "puff piece".
In the mid-fifties, Collier's (I believe it was) published a fawning essay on Douglas, including 4C photos of him pondering the law in his chambers and as a hunter in the field (posed next to a downed moose). The overall effect was entirely unbelievable, so that one instinctively recognized it as full of exaggeration and (probably) misrepresentations and untruths.
At 14-or-so, one isn't overly concerned about politics. But I don't believe I ever took Douglas seriously from that point forward...