3 Charleston Gazette-Mail reporters say paper fired them for criticizing publisher's fawning interview with ex-coal baron

Three reporters from West Virginia's Charleston Gazette-Mail say the newspaper fired them after publicly criticized their company president's video interview with former coal baron Don Blankenship, "who was convicted of a safety violation in connection with the worst U.S. mine disaster in decades," reports John Raby of The Associated Press.

Doug Skaff

Caity Coyne, Lacie Pierson and Ryan Quinn said they were fired because of comments on Twitter about the interview by HD Media President Doug Skaff of Huntington, who is leader of the Democratic minority in the state House of Delegates. He didn't reply to messages seeking comment.

The interview, part of the “Outside The Echo Chamber” feature on the paper's website, was posted last week but is no longer there. "In response to a question about the dwindling coal industry, Blankenship calls climate change 'an absolute hoax.' The comment goes unrebutted," Raby reports. "Blankenship also is asked to promote his 2020 book about the mine disaster, in which he repeats his claims of innocence and blames the administration of then-President Barack Obama."

Don Blankenship

Blankenship once ran now-defunct Massey Energy, which owned the Upper Big Branch mine where a 2010 explosion killed 29 miners. He was convicted in 2015 of a misdemeanor for conspiring to violate mine safety laws and was sentenced to one year in federal prison.

Skaff told Blankenship at the end of the interview, “Thanks for what you did for the community down there. I know your heart’s in the right place. And you want to see southern West Virginia built back to the best that they can.”

Quinn said in a series of tweets, backed by Pierson and Coyne, that Skaff shouldn't have given Blankenship a platform without giving journalists the opportunity to ask follow-up questions.

“I don’t have the words for how screwed up this is,” Coyne, who had previously announced she was leaving the paper, told AP. “I’ve met families whose loved ones died in UBB. I’ve watched them cry as they remember their relatives and their fight for answers after the disaster. Who cares where Blankenship’s heart lies? What a slap in the face to them.”

On his WestVirginiaVille newsletter on Substack, former Gazette journalist Douglas John Imbrogno recalls the newpsaper's storied history and laments this episode.

Imbrogno's post includes a screenshot from an old "Meet the Press" on NBC-TV, right, in which one of the questioners was then-Publisher Ned Chilton, whose main marching order to the Gazette staff was "sustained outrage." Imbrogno says this meant "to stick like a bloodhound to a story of misuse of power, corruption, and naked self-interest."