Categories: OLD Media Moves

The CEO and the editorial page editor

Susanna Rodell, the former editorial page editor of the Charleston Gazette in West Virginia, writes Friday about her encounter with Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship, who runs the mining company where 29 people died earlier this year in an accident.

Rodell writes in the Atlanta Constitution: “He arrived at our office with a PR guy in a green suit and regaled our little gathering with his Local Boy history: childhood in rural Mingo County, graduation from West Virginia University, working his way up from the bottom of the industry. He then told us he thought it would be only fitting for us to give him a regular column.

“We didn’t do that. We told him we’d be happy to treat him as any other member of the community and consider any contribution to our op-ed page, but that we weren’t in the habit of handing out weekly space to anyone who asked for it. To him, I’m sure, it only seemed fair that he should have his own regular forum in the paper to ‘balance’ the aggressive and dedicated reporting of our coal beat reporter, Ken Ward.

“What I remember most about the encounter, however, was Blankenship’s quiet arrogance: He was clearly a man used to getting what he wanted and utterly convinced of his right to walk into the local newspaper and demand a forum. Once he figured out that wasn’t going to happen, we paid a price: He slapped the paper with a $300 million defamation suit. He lost the suit eventually, but it cost our little paper dearly in legal fees.”