Randy Miller
The new publisher of the East Valley Tribune, Randy Miller, is expected to announce any day now that the Mesa newspaper, which was on the brink of closure just six months ago, is profitable again.
At a Wednesday staff meeting, Miller told his employees the good news and promised to talk to any outside journalist who wishes to interview him about the success. Any journalist, that is, except for yours truly.
According to multiple sources inside the newspaper, Miller told staffers he has blacklisted me from any interviews, presumably because he doesn’t like my coverage of the Tribune’s financial woes before he bought it or my stories about the massive cuts he made when taking over.
Heat City, after all, was the first to break news that the Tribune’s former publisher Julie Moreno, as well as numerous other Freedom Communications executives, pocketed huge financial bonuses leading up to the company’s bankruptcy. The site later reported extensively on the massive cuts Miller made when he bought the place. And Heat City also pointed out that Miller was telling readers the newspaper was now “locally owned,” when in reality it is held by a company in Reno, Nevada.
That Miller is lousy on transparency issues is on par with past publishers of the Tribune. One such publisher, Karen Wittmer, was famously given the Brick Wall Award by the Arizona Press Club in 1999. The reason? While serving as head of the newspaper, Wittmer also sat on a government board that voted to ban journalists – including her own newspaper – from attending its meetings. Those meetings, by law, were supposed to be open to the public. (The board later reversed its decision after being threatened with lawsuits.)
Wittmer is long gone from the Tribune, but the new publisher is apparently doling out a news ban of his own. I left Miller a message seeking comment on Thursday, but, of course, he did not call back.
It’s unusual for anyone in a high-profile position, be it government or otherwise, to institute a standing ban on a particular journalist. Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, for whom the Brick Wall Award has since been renamed, is one of the few known locally to have a similar media blacklist.
Miller, according to several sources, is planning to attend this year’s Arizona Press Club banquet, being held Saturday at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in downtown Phoenix. While it’s too late to nominate someone for this year’s Brick Wall Award, Heat City would like to make an early nomination for 2011: a dishonorable mention for Randy Miller.
[Full disclosure: I am a former staff journalist of the East Valley Tribune.]