• by Sara Guaglione , June 16, 2020

The Washington Missourianhas named Tricia Miller interim editor and publisher, after the former editor and publisher, Bill Miller Sr., stepped down amid controversy.

Miller is the first woman to lead the Missourian. She comes to the paper after 33 years at the St. Louis Business Journal, where she was most recently editor and publisher.

According to multiple reports, Miller is the daughter of Miller Sr. She did not respond to multiple requests for comment.The Miller family has owned the biweekly newspaper since 1937.

Miller Sr. stepped down last Wednesday after sparking controversy for allowing the paper to publish a syndicated cartoon that pokes fun at calls to defund police departments. 

It shows a white woman calling for help as a masked black man grabs at her purse and says, “Good luck with that, lady ... we defunded the police.”

Miller Sr. remains a co-owner, according to The Washington Post.

In a note to readers posted on the Missourian website last week, co-owners and Miller Sr.'s daughters Susan Miller Warden and Jeanne Miller Wood said the cartoon was published “without our knowledge."

The co-owners of the paper resigned “in protest” Wednesday.

“We believe it was racist and in no circumstance should have been published,” Warden and Wood wrote. “We apologize to our readers and our staff for the obvious pain and offense it caused.”

“Had we known, we would have vehemently fought against publishing it,” Warden and Wood continued. “We believe this is the reason we were kept in the dark about its publication.”

As of Friday afternoon, the post was no longer up on the website.

Warden and Wood also voiced their support for the “Black Lives Matter” movement.

Miller Sr. apologized for the cartoon Wednesday afternoon, calling it “racially insensitive.” His decision to publish the cartoon showed “poor judgement on my part.”

Miller Sr. attempted to explain his thinking behind the decision: “The cartoon was intended to support our editorial position that defunding police departments in the aftermath of George Floyd’s senseless killing is not the answer to resolving the racial inequities and injustices that have occurred in policing in this country.”

Miller Sr. added that the Missourian will no longer use Stiglich’s syndicated cartoons.