Letters Laura Miller’s Supporters Bite Back

AS A JOURNALIST, I AM OFFENDED BY D Magazine’s slipshod cover story on Dallas City Councilwoman and former Dallas Observer columnist Laura Miller.

The views of D’s publisher and editor-in-chief, Wick Allison, have been well-established in his columns. His beliefs-that Ms. Miller only cares about publicity, that she hates Dallas, that she practiced shoddy journalism-are echoed throughout Kimberly Goad’s story. As for D’s executive editor, Mary Brown Malouf, she has expressed her personal dislike of Ms. Miller in no uncertain terms to several Observer employees.

I am also appalled by the absence of reporting in Ms. Goad’s piece and her mischarac-terization of Ms. Miller’s tenure at the Observer. Ms. Goad made no attempt to contact me (the Observer’s, editor for three years and a colleague of Ms. Miller’s for five years) or several other people on the Observer staff who have known and worked beside Ms. Miller for years and would have provided, for the record, a balanced perspective. These individuals also would have corrected several inaccurate statements about Ms. Miller’s work at the Observer, including claims that she had “unofficial veto power over stories and staff hires,” couldn’t take criticism, had a “reserved spot next to [Peter] Elkind at the Monday editorial meetings,” and was a “prima donna.”

All in all, I expected much better from your magazine, particularly after reading Glenna Whitley’s fair and thoroughly reported account in the April issue of a recent lawsuit involving the Observer.

JULIE LYONS

Editor, Dallas Observer



Editor ’s response; Goad talked to many current and former Observer employees. Some declined to speak on the record.



WELL, WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG? I HAVE been waiting for the “powers that be,” i.e., D Magazine and the Dallas Morning News, to start their media assault on Laura Miller. Why does someone who dares to challenge the back room deals and corruption at City Hall “hate Dallas”? Laura Miller was and is the only journalist and council woman to ever openly challenge the “good old boy” system that has continually run the city of Dallas.

SUSAN H. ADAMS

Dallas



IF LAURA “HATES” AT ALL, SHE “HATES” PUBLIC corruption. She “’hates” public officials who say one thing out loud (for voter consumption) and something else behind closed doors. She “hates” office-holders who show favoritism and whose influence can be peddled; who take advantage of the public trust placed in them in order to gain advantage for themselves or for their friends and powerful allies. She “hates” when government doesn’t treat all citizens equally. Who do you think gets the most responsive attention when they call City Hall; Ross Perot Jr., or a neighborhood constituent whose pothole-ravaged street has been ignored for years?

H. WAYNE MEACHUM

Dallas



Sounding Off About Teen Drinking

AHA! NOW WE KNOW WHAT CHIEF DlXON OF University Park Police does respond to! Three hundred-plus kids at a warehouse in downtown Dallas, the Chief of Police of Dallas, undercover officers, TV news reporters, radio reporters, and a D Magazine article. No wonder I didn’t get responses when I called the police about underage drinking parties with groups of 15-30 kids in homes in University Park.

Thanks D Magazine!

JANE M.WHITE

University Park

EDITOR’S NOTE: Publisher Wick Allison’s monthly column will return in the September issue.