Excerpts From Fired 'U-T' Veteran's Final Column

By: Dave Astor Neil Morgan doesn't know why The San Diego Union-Tribune fired him this week after 54 years, but wonders if influential advertisers and politicians had been complaining about his column. The newspaper wouldn't discuss the reason for his dismissal.

"I go after crooks in City Hall and crooks who are developers," he told E&P during a Thursday phone interview. "I'm an old reporter, so I get it right -- and make a lot enemies." But these enemies are not among most Union-Tribune readers and staffers -- who used words like "angry," "stunned," "shocked," and "confused" to describe their reaction to Morgan's departure. More than 100 staffers gave Morgan a standing ovation as he left the newsroom Wednesday. "What a wonderful way to go out," he said.

Morgan's last column was scheduled to run that day, but it was killed by the paper. A Thursday Union-Tribune article paraphrased Editor Karin Winner as saying the column was held because the paper and Morgan were in negotiations and because a Wednesday news conference Morgan held (in the office of attorney Milton Silverman) made it inappropriate to publish the piece. But someone at the Union-Tribune faxed E&P a copy of the column. In it, Morgan wrote, in part, "The Column was encouraged by three newspaper publishers who sometimes disagreed with it, but always allowed the newsman's right to share his own beliefs with you here. ... As in too many other scenes across America, The Column and its writer were victims of 'Job Elimination.'"

The 80-year-old Morgan was senior columnist/associate editor of the paper since the 1992 Union-Tribune merger. Before that, he served as editor of the San Diego Tribune for 11 years, and guided it to a 1987 Pulitzer Prize. Morgan also wrote a column for many years prior to becoming editor, and was at one time syndicated by Copley News Service.

He said the moderate-liberal approach his local column took in a conservative-leaning paper hadn't changed much over the years. But Morgan thinks some members of current "upper management" may not be as tolerant of this approach as Helen Copley was when she was in charge. "The climate has changed," he said.

Copley Newspapers Vice President/Chief Operating Officer Charles Patrick, when asked by E&P why Morgan was let go, said Thursday: "Our policy is we don't talk about personnel matters." Karin Winner had a similar answer.

Meanwhile, Union-Tribune staffers praised Morgan. Travel writer Alison DaRosa, a former assistant to Morgan, said: "Neil is the best journalist I've ever met. He's the paper's biggest asset, and has been for many, many years. He's the conscience of the city, so this is a huge loss not only for us, but for San Diego."

Union-Tribune columnist Peter Rowe said: "One of the things I found so impressive about Neil is that he still did a lot of legwork for his columns. And he is a very nimble, graceful writer. At 80, he hadn't lost a step." Rowe added that Morgan was "generous with his time and knowledge with many, many journalists -- myself included. He had a great regional and institutional memory."

Rowe, former president of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists, also said Morgan had "exceptional foresight" as one of the first people to insist that San Diego and Tijuana comprise a region with common issues such as crime, the environment, and transportation.

"I respected Neil as a journalist and colleague," said editorial cartoonist Steve Kelley, who worked for the Union-Tribune from 1981 until being let go in 2001 in a cartoon dispute. Kelley, now with The Times-Picayune of New Orleans and Creators Syndicate, added: "It's understandable that companies sometimes make personnel decisions that are unpopular. What's incomprehensible is the Union-Tribune's knack, on such occasions, for generating ill will both in-house and among its readers. Imagine giving 54 years of your life to a company, in a very public position, only to be fired when you're 80. Where's the dignity in that? It takes a lot of effort to be that insensitive."

Morgan, the author of several books, said he plans to continue writing in that medium now that he's no longer with the Union-Tribune. One project he's working on is a memoir of his father -- a liberal Baptist preacher from the South who believed in equal rights when that was very dangerous in that region.

According to Morgan, his 10,000-plus columns, along with correspondence and other material, have been trucked to the University of California/San Diego's Mandeville Special Collections Library.

Some paragraphs from Morgan's last, unpublished Union-Tribune piece:

"The Column has always focused on those who advance enlightened ideas. These have included more transparent government, regional cooperation in overcoming the present jungle of overlapping jurisdictions, wider library and educational opportunities, affordable housing, and restoration of urban planning.

"It has documented ethical lapses and apparent corruption in both public and private sectors. It led media in reporting a stonewalling mismanagement that led to a $1.1-billion deficit in the city employees pension fund.

"It has deplored City Hall obsession with sports facilities while neglecting basic city services.

"In advancing such civic goals, The Column was encouraged by three newspaper publishers who sometimes disagreed with it, but always allowed the newsman's right to share his own beliefs with you here.

"As in too many other scenes across America, The Column and its writer were victims of 'Job Elimination.' The newspaper offered no other explanation."