John Miller, CBS News' 'Inside Man,' Might Be Going Back Inside
Shortly after Sunday night's episode of 60 Minutes aired, Page Six's Richard Johnson reported that John Miller was leaving the network to rejoin the NYPD.
.It now looks like John Miller's troubled report on the National Security Agency's intelligence gathering operation will be his 60 Minutes swan song. Shortly after Sunday night's episode aired, Page Six's Richard Johnson reported that Miller's departure from CBS to the New York Police Department is all but a done deal.
As a former FBI and NYPD employee, Miller's law enforcement contacts are the envy of the journalism world, but rumors of an impending move back into police work followed Miller everywhere last week. The Daily Beast’s Christopher Dickey first reported that newly appointed NYPD commissioner Bill Bratton is "expected" to call on Miller to “revamp the NYPD intelligence division.” Bratton is an old friend of Miller, who has worked for the Commish more than once in the past. But the CBS News correspondent went full Sgt. Schultz on the initial rumors. Miller told The Huffington Post's Michael Calderone he has not "had any formal offer for any particular position," and that for all intents and purposes, "you know as much about this as I do." Miller saw nothing, knew nothing.
On Sunday night a source close to the newsman says the deal is "99.44 percent done," according to veteran gossip Johnson. "He wants the badge, the gun and the adrenaline — to be in the center of the action," the source says. That sounds like Ts might need crossing, and Is dotting, but Miller is probably on his way out the door.
Miller has spent the last two decades jumping between law enforcement and journalism jobs. He left NBC News in 1994 to work for the NYPD for the first time under Bratton, before leaving for ABC News, and then heading to the LAPD in 2003 to work under Bratton again. Before joining CBS in 2011, Miller worked for the FBI and the Director of National Intelligence, too. That's three major news networks and four of the most important law enforcement agencies in the U.S. over 19 years.
Miller has never kept his desire to play policeman a secret. "Whenever something big happens, you watch it," he told Men's Journal in March. "But then you remember the last time you were there, how you saw the reporters and said, 'Look at those guys out there. They probably know more than we do.'"
On Sunday night, Miller's deep law enforcement history was on full display when he admitted his attachment to the DNI office ahead of an embarrassing 60 Minutes story on the National Security Agency. "Full disclosure: I once worked in the office of the director of National Intelligence, where I saw firsthand how secretly the NSA operates," Miller acknowledged, before delivering a report on intelligence gathering that didn't challenge the NSA on any of its most dubious claims.