UPDATE: 'Olympian' Publisher Takes on Columnist Cal Thomas, And He Replies

By: E&P Staff John Winn Miller, publisher of The Olympian, the Knight Ridder daily in Olympia, Wash., says he's mad as hell and he's not going to take it anymore -- especially from popular syndicated columnist Cal Thomas.

"I'm tired of hearing radical columnists like you besmirch the good men and women who struggle daily to put out the very best newspaper they can," Miller writes in his paper today. Ironically, The Olympian itself carried Thomas' offending column on Sunday.

"Once again you've trotted out that stale cliche that newspapers like mine are undermined by what you claim is a liberal bias," Miller charges. "I know I can't change your mind. But I'll be doggone if I'm going to let your slander of my colleagues go unchallenged anymore."

Thomas had written that journalists hold different values than a majority of Americans, and the press needs an affirmative action program to "aggressively seek out more conservative reporters and editors who will report more stories that reflect something other than a consistently liberal point of view." This is something he has expressed in E&P several times in recent years.

Miller replies that "any publisher who subjects journalists to a political or religious litmus test should be fired. I know that any reporter or editor working for me who shows a bias one way or the other is in deep trouble." Journalists "are acutely aware of the need to be fair. We seek all sides to a story. We agonize every day on whether we have been balanced in our coverage. No one is harder on editors for mistakes or bias than editors.

"Since I've been here, I've had left-wing protesters at my door and right-wing protesters cancel their subscriptions. That's how I know we are being fair."

And, he adds: "The public appreciates what we do. That's why I find your column so incendiary. By undermining the media's credibility for your own political purposes, you chip away at one of the keystones of democracy itself."

Contacted by E&P this afternoon, Thomas responded, saying the findings of a Project for Excellence in Journalism survey show "continuing distrust of the major media in this country. Rather than defending the bona fides of his newspaper staff, Mr. Miller might consider the findings themselves. If people are not persuaded of the fairness and balance he asserts, they won't buy the newspaper, anymore than people will patronize fast-food establishments they believe serve spoiled hamburgers."

The columnist, who's syndicated to nearly 600 newspapers by Tribune Media Services, added: "In business -- and newspapers are a business -- it matters less what the publisher or editor thinks than what the readers believe. As the survey shows, only 7% of journalists identify themselves as conservative and 33% say they are liberal. ... Rather than criticizing me, Mr. Miller should be directing his energies at closing the credibility gap between newspapers and readers, or non-readers."

Thomas concluded: "I'm trying to do my small part in encouraging conservative people to subscribe to their local newspaper, especially those that carry my column. I also try to tell editors and publishers that if we are to preserve our great industry, we have to listen more to the public and stop sinking deeper into denial."