A Beat Reporter Lands a Prime Anchor Job

Summoned to ABC News President David Westin’s office, John Miller did what anyone would when called by the boss: He wracked his brain to figure out what he’d done wrong.

“Sit down,” Westin commanded.

“Am I being fired?” Miller blurted out.

Quite the contrary. ABC’s busy crime and terrorism reporter was being offered a plum job, co-anchor of “20/20,” the network’s newsmagazine program, working with Barbara Walters.

Tonight he starts filling a chair that has been vacant since Hugh Downs retired in 1999.

In a business in which virtually everyone dreams of becoming a network anchor, Miller was an exception. He had never anchored a newscast of any sort, even during two decades in local New York City news. He was a cop reporter.

It was a job the 43-year-old Miller was virtually born into. His father was a syndicated newspaper gossip columnist and would take John, as young as 9, chasing ambulance and cop calls at night.

“Most kids grow up playing cowboys and Indians or cops and robbers, and they grow out of it,” he said. “I never grew out of the cops and robbers. I thought that stuff was fascinating, and I wanted to plug into it.”

Miller began his on-air TV career at 16. He stayed with it at three New York stations, including WNBC-TV, for two decades until, in 1994, he became a deputy to former New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton, in charge of communications.

“I knew an awful lot about the police, but not as much as I thought I did,” he said. “What was more interesting to me was [that] I thought I knew a lot about the press, only to find out I knew very little or nothing. Because when you’re on the other side, it’s all different.”

If he was plugged into the law enforcement community before, the Bratton connection only intensified the relationship. It was valuable when Miller joined ABC News in 1997.

Paged to report to work immediately on Sept. 11, Miller took out his police radio. By knowing what came over the scanner and calling his contacts, Miller was able to keep up a running commentary that startled ABC anchorman Peter Jennings.

Even more valuable during the last few months was Miller’s expertise in the Al Qaeda terrorist network. He was the last Western reporter to interview Osama bin Laden, in 1998.

At Bin Laden’s lair, the guards said the terrorist leader wanted to see Miller’s questions in advance. Miller said ABC didn’t do that, and a guard clicked his assault rifle in response. Miller submitted his questions.

Not knowing Arabic and not having Bin Laden’s words immediately translated, Miller tried to keep eye contact by nodding at his words and feigning fascination at what he said.

When the interview was over, Miller’s translator told him he had a big story: Bin Laden had said he was going to kill as many Americans as he could.

“What was I doing when he was saying that?” Miller asked his translator.

“You were nodding in agreement,” he replied.

Miller’s ascendance at ABC News coincided with Walters’ desire for an on-air partner. She had worked with a partner during most of her career, and working alone had left her few opportunities to take a night off.

She conceded that she wouldn’t have considered Miller before Sept. 11, not thinking he was ready. But she and Westin had the same idea later in the fall.

“Not only does he bring us the kinds of stories that John can do with the background that he has, but he also has humor, as you can see,” Walters said. Since Sept. 11, as Miller has produced stories for ABC newscasts, people who know him comment on his visibility. They mean well when they tell Miller that “the Sept. 11 thing really worked out for you.”

He sets them straight, naming friends who died, most notably former FBI terrorism expert John O’Neill, who had just left the FBI for a job as head of World Trade Center security.

“I think it worked out terribly for me,” Miller said. “If the devil came along and said, ‘You can have your friends back, but you won’t be the anchor of “20/20” and nobody will know who you are out there,’ of course I would jump at that.”