First my son, now Brian McMillan. It’s been a terrible week for feeling jilted.
I was doing my biweekly check of the Observer at dawn this morning to see what they might’ve beaten me to. Brian’s farewell, goodbye and not amen was first up. I never saw it coming. Certain things aren’t supposed to change. The sun rises from the east, Catherine Robinson is the mayor of Bunnell, Brian McMillan is the editor of the Palm Coast Observer. How quickly we forget our David Hume, patron saint of journalism 101: don’t ever let your skeptical guard down, not even about the sun rising in the East.
I texted him immediately. Of course he didn’t reply. It’s not like him not to, even at 7 a.m., but he probably wanted his story to play for a while before FlaglerLive’s version mucked it up. As I surely intend to. I’m sure I speak for a good deal of the community when I ask: what the fuck, Brian?
No one can begrudge him the answer, as he explained it to me when we did speak a bit later. It was time for a change. Not that I’m suggesting he has 18 wives and 60 concubines, but he does have a zillion kids and you don’t shepherd a Rehoboam-size family on a community newspaperman’s salary. And print journalism’s salt mines are drying up faster than the Aral Sea. He told me that of the dozens of journalists he edited and mentored in his tenure, only two remain in journalism. This is not a profession for people who like to have a life, or a reasonably decent paycheck. There are exceptions. The Observer couldn’t afford to be one of them anymore than, say, the News-Journal. Not to its ranks, anyway.
So much for the mechanics of it, none of it a surprise. Still. This is a lot more consequential than mechanics. For Palm Coast and Flagler County especially. There’s the loss you feel whenever a great journalist leaves the profession before his time (forgive the sexist pronoun for now: Brian identifies as he/him). He is 42. He is at the top of his game. The community newspaper he led could have been the hoaky, puerile, narrow-minded chamber-of-commerce Pravdas most community newspapers are.
At its worst The Observer certainly could be that, especially around election time or when a particular issue rankles supercilious overlords like the homebuilders, realtors or check-writing sugardaddies a-la-Mullins who like to massage public opinion (just as the way FlaglerLive can sometimes read like insufferably woke catechism). But The McMillan Observer was most times serious, fair, searching and honest, its news pages driven by principle and ethics.
We all know John Walsh, the paper’s publisher forever in search of his next kingmaking, isn’t in it for the journalism. Most publishers these days aren’t. It’s a business to them, and business is anathema to journalism, if business is the driving factor. But Walsh was not without his strokes of genius: usually he left the paper’s content to his editor and staff, often saying he never knew what would appear in its pages until it hit his driveway. I doubt that would have been the case without Brian. He kept Walsh honest. Brian’s character–genuinely kind, forbearing, unassuming (a rarity among us chip-shouldered walkers of Grub Street) was the soul of the paper. His gift for prose at once spare and tender, direct and occasionally poetic, his periodic columns where he opened a vein and bled from the heart, were the paper’s unsung treasures. Social mierda is a daily holocaust of English. No one cares about good writing anymore, or notices it. He did. I did not learn enough from him.
We’re all replaceable of course, not necessarily for the better. The Observer is lucking out. If there’s one saving wrinkle in this curtain, it’s that Jonathan Simmons is taking over after nine years there. I’ve often wished he was with FlaglerLive: his work ethic knows its way around salt mines, his humane skepticism knows its way around the animal farm of knaves and snakes in our community. He even reads Arabic better than I do. He and I have been friends, to the extent that our time allows it, which it does not.
Pre-Covid we used to hang out covering trials or interminable meetings until he stopped the trial beat and we discovered more effective ways not to waste our time at meetings. But the Observer is in the surest hands Brian could have passed it to, assuming Walsh respects the succession. It’s his call. It’s also his paper’s funeral if he doesn’t. Jonathan is going to have to learn to be Svengali’s arete.
Of course I wish Brian and his family well. I wish him wealth and completely understand he had no choice. He’s doing what he must, honorably and courageously, leaving something he loves for something his family needs and, as he says, opening the way for others at the Observer to advance.
It is no less of a gut punch. John McEnroe’s words–see the headline–have been ringing in my ear all morning. We started our mutual enterprises almost simultaneously 12 years ago, have been rivals, colleagues and friends since, beat up each other, looked out for each other, admired each other, and I don’t think we would have managed to do what we have to the extent that we have without each other. McEnroe says he mourned for two years when Bjorn Borg left tennis, also at the top of his game, just as his rivalry with McEnroe was peaking. I’m not comparing Brian and me to those two. We’re better, of course. But that’s what this is. I’m losing, if not my North Star, at least my Pegasus, and I think the community is, too.
Pierre Tristam is FlaglerLive’s editor. Reach him by email here. a version of this piece aired on WNZF.
justbob says
A surprise and surely a lost to the community. Brian is a stand up guy and he’ll be missed.
Stephen Bickel, MD says
Great guy, great journalist, great contributor to the community. Glad you’re staying in town, Brian, and I wish you and your family all the best–you certainly deserve it!!
MarWoo says
Nice conceited coverage by Pierre
Jan says
Yes, Brian will be missed! Pierre, don’t you dare get any ideas…..
Jane says
We surely need some great journalism here in Flagler county. We can surely be replaced but some individuals are irreplaceable .
Shelley T Ragsdale says
Brian, I have come to admire your business acumen, professionalism and your professional Values. You have added Admiral to your resume. Your editorial work will be missed but knowing you the Observer Staff is well prepared.
Best of Luck to You -From your Friends at the Flagler County NAACP
Respectfully,
Shelley Ragsdale, Flagler Branch NAACP-President
Jane Gentile-Youd says
Yes – Jan and Jane are both right. Sent my personal sad note to Brian this morning, A loss for Flagler County
Protonbeam says
Brian was great and continually put in between a rock and a hard place with “leadership” that was an unscrupulous used car salesman whose selfish ambitions outweighed the integrity Brian refused to compromise.
Michael Cocchiola says
It has been an honor and a pleasure knowing Brian. He is going to be sorely missed. Jonathan Simmons will become a worthy successor if John Walsh gives him a chance to grow into the job.
Brian McMillan says
Thanks, Pierre, for the kind words. You always pushed me to be better, and the community is better for your continued watchdog gutsiness.
Thank you also for sharing your praise of Jonathan Simmons. You know him better than most; I am happy that the rest of the community will soon get to know him like we do.
Most of all, thanks for your friendship. I’ll always remember the couple of hours we spent in the WNZF parking lot talking about books a few years ago. Maybe it could be a regular thing, if we can agree on the books :) Best wishes to you and your family.
See you around town.
celia pugliese says
Only and excellent family man will put the financial needs of his family first! I congratulate you Brian for your stoic sacrifice and wish you the successful happy trails you deserve!
Michael says
In addition to the NAACP, NAMBLA also wishes Pierre a happy Pride Month
Pierre Tristam says
And this, ladies and gentlemen, is what Brian and I, and now Jonathan and I, and the folks at AskFlagler, occasionally have to deal with. This is one of your neighbors, Flagler County. This is you.
joseph hempfling says
Despite all the accolades must say I was disappointed in Brian, perhaps for personal reasons, but disappointed just the same.
I had moved to beautiful Palm Coast from Santa Fe and must admit had brought some of my righteous political causes with me
thinking naively, that I perhaps could save the world, if not the community where I lived. And yes admit to having been a Peace Protestor during the Vietnam era, been a member of Occupied etc etc and now was intent on educating others about the inherent dangers of creeping 5-G and numerous times tried unsuccessfully tried to have Brian at least address the issue honestly since there were now so many scientific studies of its health dangers;” infertility” being just one of them.
And had even made a copy of a Webinar thumb drive of some forty or so world experts honestly and scientifically speaking out and left a copy at his office with one of his staff as he seemed out most of the time I had been there. Three times I can remember.
Again NADA, not one word not even saying it was a “conspiracy theory” ! And as a regular reader of the Observer could not understand why the Censorship or had Big Tech gotten to him as well. And in closing happy to say Palm Coast in it’s wisdom;
mainly I suspect, thanks to Nick who sits on the City Council, has decided to go with Fiber Optics and is to be lauded.
Pierre Tristam says
Mr. Hempfling, the reason the Observer didn’t pursue your concern is probably the same reason you’d be hard-pressed to find any reputable news organization, let alone a scientific journal, give credence to it. There’s a difference between having a cell phone stuck to your ear 24/7, which may not be especially wise, and a 5G pole down the street.
Wow says
So much hate in this world. I hope being snarky made your day.
Ray W. says
As my paternal grandmother used to say: “Most people are just about as happy as they want to be.”