Newhall Signal Fires Embattled Editor : ‘Philosophical Differences’ Cited After Controversial Series

Chuck Cook, the editor hired a year ago to run the Newhall Signal, was fired Tuesday because of what both sides called “philosophical differences” with the newspaper’s management following a controversial series of articles on industrial pollution.

Signal General Manager Sammee Zeile said Cook, 44, would leave the newspaper today but remain with Morris Newspapers Corp., the Signal’s owner, long enough to complete a special project on education.

“There were some philosophical differences about what a community newspaper should be and about his obligations to the community,” said Zeile, who announced Cook’s departure at a staff meeting Tuesday afternoon.

Cook also said his dismissal was the result of “philosophical differences.”

Community sources, who asked not to be identified, said a committee of community leaders had asked for Cook’s dismissal because of his handling of a series of articles about the cleanup of toxic chemicals at Space Ordinance Systems facilities in Sand and Mint canyons.

Zeile denied that. She said, however, that the SOS series “kind of goes along with the philosophical differences.”

Link Alleged

In one of the SOS articles, members of a Sand Canyon family charged that there was a link between the contamination by the defense contractor and five deaths in that family. Cook later wrote in an editorial that a committee monitoring cleanup of two SOS plants was weighted “heavily in favor of the polluters and against the health concerns of residents.”

He wrote that it was a shame that community leaders such as Santa Clarita Mayor Pro Tem Jo Anne Darcy, who also is Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich’s field deputy, and Planning Commissioner Rita Garasi “would be part of such a sham.”

Darcy and Councilman Howard P. (Buck) McKeon, said that they had complained to the paper’s management about Cook’s running of the newspaper but denied asking for his dismissal.

“I know I complained about him,” McKeon said. “I had some real problems with this SOS story. It was overly sensationalized. . . . It was definitely overkill. This is not what you’re looking for in a small-town newspaper.”

He called Cook’s allegations against Darcy, Garasi and Mayor Jan Heidt, who also was named in one of the paper’s SOS articles, “cheap shots.” McKeon said he arranged a meeting between Signal Publisher Darrel Phillips and members of the committee who were upset by the allegations. Phillips was unavailable for comment.

“The trend of the editorials and the staff reporting indicated that there was a cover-up and that we, the committee that worked on these things, were either too naive or too stupid or in the pocket of the polluters--which was blatantly false,” Darcy said.

Allegation Denied

Cook denied that he implied the committee had covered up the health problems and defended the paper’s coverage of the SOS situation.

“Our reporters have done an exceptional job,” he said. “It was a very critical issue where public health and safety are at stake. . . . There never was any allegation of a cover-up. The committee has apparently done a very good job on seeing that the toxic situation has been cleaned up, but our stories focused on a lack of knowledge about the health effects.”

Cook, who specializes in investigative reporting, was hired to lead the Signal after the departure of Scott Newhall and his wife, Ruth, in July, 1988, in a dispute over stock ownership.

Cook also has worked for the Orange County Register, Arizona Republic and Los Angeles Herald Examiner. In 1988, he was a Pulitzer prize finalist for a series of articles for the Arizona Republic on drugs and the elderly.

Zeile credited Cook with turning the Signal from a newspaper that published three days a week into a daily with 44,000 circulation. “Certainly, Mr. Cook has been an asset to this paper,” she said.

Zeile said City Editor Joe Franco, 26, will serve as interim editor. Times staff writer Philipp Gollner contributed to this article.