A Gadfly With Buzz

Mystery Dismissal

Vermont's governor is ticked off. So is the state's congressional delegation. And so are the leaders of the state's top newspapers.

The object of their ire is the Associated Press for firing the chief of its Vermont office, Chris Graff, a 27-year veteran, with no public explanation.

"Chris Graff is undoubtedly the most respected journalist in the state of Vermont," says Emerson Lynn, publisher of the St. Albans Messenger, who says he is considering dropping the AP over the dismissal.

Graff was canned because, as part of the industry's Sunshine Week -- in which the AP was a partner -- he put on the wire a package of stories that included a column by Sen. Patrick Leahy. The column was removed within an hour -- no readers saw it -- on grounds that the AP should not provide a forum for a politician. Graff had moved a similar Leahy column a year earlier without protest, and the Rutland Herald has called the rationale a "sorry excuse."

In their letter, Sens. Leahy (D) and Jim Jeffords (I), Rep. Bernie Sanders (I) and Gov. Jim Douglas (R) say they are "stunned, outraged and saddened" by the dismissal of a journalist they call "fair, objective, public-spirited [and] courageous."

In response, AP President Thomas Curley wrote that he cannot discuss "confidential personnel decisions," but that the politicians' suggestion "that AP might be bowing to political pressure" was "just nuts." (Fox's Bill O'Reilly recently criticized Graff's coverage of a Vermont judge who gave a child rapist a 60-day sentence.)

In a small state, Graff, who also hosts the public television show "Vermont This Week," provides the daily coverage that many papers cannot afford. The irony of the AP marking Sunshine Week by refusing to discuss his firing has been rather obvious. "I understand our inability to talk about it has made some people angry, but that doesn't change the facts," says AP spokeswoman Kathleen Carroll.

Graff, who cannot discuss the case because of a nondisclosure agreement, says he was "absolutely shocked" by the firing but "overwhelmed" by the show of support. "If I can bring together a Republican, Democrat, independent and socialist, it's for the good," he says.