Oral History Interview with Laura Miller, October 30, 2014 Page: 13 of 25
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could I just have some tea? They said, okay. So they brought me in and gave me tea and
cake, and seven hours later I left with the story. I drove back to Dallas, and we ran three
front-page, banner strip columns. That was my debut in Dallas as a columnist.
Chase: So the asking was a success?
Laura: Oh yeah. Absolutely yeah. It was awesome. So I did that. I was so happy with
everything. I came back, I was married, my husband and I had our first house in Oak
Cliff. I had this great job. We were in this newspaper war. It was so fun. Then, the Times
Herald sold, and the new publisher came in, and it was just a new day. There were so
many sacred cows, all of a sudden. And there I was, the ultimate kicker of the sacred
cows, and I just couldn't operate. It was just awful. And I, of course, kept trying anyway.
There was a great story that I wrote about Ross Perot, Sr. He was opposed to
strengthening the authority of the city's citizens police review board because he thought
it was unfair to the police. Well, it turned out that his daughter-in-law, Sarah, who is
married to Ross Perot Jr., Sarah was driving too fast through Dallas one day, and when
she got stopped and the police said give us your license and registration, she opened her
glove box and a gun fell out.
Chase: Oh no.
Laura: Oh yeah.
Chase: Oh man.
Laura: So cops could have arrested her, right? But to be nice to Ross Perot Sr., who they
loved, they let her go, but they had admonished her. They were these big motorcycle
cops. They admonished her, "Don't you ever do that again. You are lucky we are letting
you go." Instead of being grateful, she ran back to her father-in-law and sobbed in his
office that, "these big motorcycle cops were so mean to me." So Perot decided to have his
own little police review board, and he called the chief and said, "You bring those
motorcycle cops up to my office. I want to see them at 1 o'clock." They both came up
thinking that he was going to thank them, and instead he chewed them out. So anyhow, I
wrote this column. Awesome column.
Chase: Oh yeah, this is great making.
Laura: Awesome column. I loved it. As I got to the last paragraph, Dave Burgin comes
up, and he taps me on the shoulder and says, "They are not running the column." I said,
"Why?" "I don't know, Dean, the publisher, he just says no." I said, "Well they have to
run it. We got it nailed. It's nailed. It's done. It's fabulous." He said, "Not running it." So
I did what was unthinkable, I said, "Take me to the publisher." Which most editors would
never do; so he takes me to the publisher. We sat down in his office, and I said, "Why
don't you run this article?" He said, "Because my wife plays tennis with Sarah, and my
wife won't let me write the story." So I was like "shit". So I left. I went back to the
newsroom. Everybody in the newsroom knew about it. Some really funny reporter I
know went into the system, took out my column and sent it to the Dallas Observer. The
Dallas Observer said they were going to publish it.
Chase: Oh nice.
Laura: Yeah. So the Observer wrote about it, and it put enough pressure on us then that
we published it, and it ended up being in the paper. It was fun.
Chase: You guys were sneaky.
Laura: Oh yeah, it was really fun. But then it just ended. A year or so after I got there,
Burgin was out, and he was my mentor. He was great. I loved him. He has since died too.
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Carter, Chase & Miller, Laura. Oral History Interview with Laura Miller, October 30, 2014, text, October 30, 2014; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth586995/m1/13/: accessed June 20, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Frank W. and Sue Mayborn School of Journalism.