3 WVa reporters who condemned interview of ex-coal CEO fired

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Three reporters from a Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper in West Virginia say they have been fired after publicly criticizing an interview conducted by their company president with a former coal executive who was convicted of a safety violation in connection with the worst U.S. mine disaster in decades.

Charleston Gazette-Mail reporters Caity Coyne, Lacie Pierson and Ryan Quinn said Tuesday that they were fired due to their comments on Twitter about the video interview, now removed from the paper's website, with former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship.

Quinn said no specific policy was cited. “The person who fired me said it was because I had publicly hurt the company on social media,” he said.

Pierson said she was told “it was insubordination that we committed on social media” and “that was something they couldn't accept.”

In separate interviews, the three reporters said they did not receive invitations to a staff meeting with other reporters and editors Monday, several days after the interview was posted. Instead, they said they were diverted to an upstairs conference room, where they were fired one-by-one behind closed doors.

HD Media President Doug Skaff, who hosted the interview with Blankenship, did not return a telephone message or an email seeking comment Tuesday.

The “Outside The Echo Chamber” feature is posted regularly on the Gazette-Mail’s website and hosted by Skaff, who also is a Democratic member of the state House of Delegates and the chamber’s minority leader.

Last week the newspaper posted the interview with Blankenship, whose former company owned the Upper Big Branch mine where a 2010 explosion killed 29 men in southern West Virginia. Blankenship was convicted in 2015 of a misdemeanor for conspiring to violate mine safety...