Tulsa County Commissioner Randi Miller reached out to KRMG listeners Friday morning in reaction to a story on the News on Six that took her to task for her attendance record for official meetings.

KOTV:

The News On 6 used multiple Open Records requests to compile the attendance records dating back to January of 2007. We started with the meetings all three commissioners are supposed to attend.

When Commissioner Miller was chairman last year, she was absent a lot. Last year she missed 11 meetings of the Employee Retirement System of Tulsa County. She did send a deputy to three of the meetings she missed. This year, Chairman Fred Perry has missed only one.

Last year, Chairman Miller missed 11 meetings of the Board of Tax Roll Corrections, sending a deputy to seven of them. This year chairman Perry has missed two, but instead of sending a deputy, he sent fellow commissioner John Smaligo.

Commissioner Miller's worst attendance record was at the Tulsa Metropolitan Area Planning Commission. She missed 29 of the Commission's 33 meetings last year.

As she joined me live this morning on KRMG, my first curiosity is to respond to this part of the KOTV report:

Commissioner Miller refused our requests for an on camera interview for this story

Miller's response to why she refused to be a part of the story?

KOTV is "deceptive and unbalanced on county affairs and me particularly," Miller claims.

Hear my entire discussion with Commission Miller here.

At one point, Miller claims, "If this is news, why is Channel Six the only one who covers it?"

While that is certainly meant as a shot at KOTV, the reality is it is more a statement about the shortcomings of other media than it is KOTV.

KOTV certainly has done a series of stories on Miller and the Tulsa County Commission. Find them here.

When you chair the County Commission, the Fair Board and other important positions in our community, you should have expectations of being held accountable (for better or worse) for your actions. The media (TV, radio, print, web) have a duty to let the public know when public officials fall short of that mark.

While I have friends at KOTV, I have had zero conversations with anyone there about Randi Miller.

Does someone there have a grudge against her? There was nothing in that report that spoke of a "hit piece."

Yet, as long as humans have a hand in reporting news, there will always be a bias of some sort - whether intentional or not.

From time to time, I work with political, community, philanthropic and business leaders on media training.

Rule number one - It's not personal.

Even if you think the media is out to get you, you cannot act like it. There's no better way to assure poor results than to blame the media for your woes.

My advice to Miller:

• Take a deep breath.
• If your position is defensible, than do so.
• If it is not defensible, be honest and offer an explanation/apology.
• Contact KOTV and offer yourself for questions.
• And stop blaming the media.
• Remember - nothing keeps a story "out there" longer than ignoring it

Blogger Michael Bates raises some other trouble spots for Commissioner Miller.