Why did the Hartford Courant fire George Gombossy?

Could he have been fired for doing his job as the paper's consumer advocate columnist and for writing bad-but-true things about (shockhorror) an advertiser?<blockquote>The last column, which the paper refused to run, is about a Connecticut Attorney General investigation into mattress emporium Sleepy's. The chain is accused of selling used mattresses as new, and—even worse—<a href="http://ctwatchdog.com/2009/08/14/sleepys-the-bedbug-column-the-courant-refused-to-publish-about-its-prime-advertiser">selling used mattresses infested with bedbugs as new</a>. Ew. . . .

Gombossy is continuing his column as an independent blog, Connecticut Watchdog—<a href="http://ctwatchdog.com/">check it out</a>. He's looking for advertisers. Sleepy's has not yet signed up.</blockquote>http://consumerist.com/5338201/hartford-courant-consumer-columnist-fired-for-pissing-off-advertiser

Obviously nobody from the Courant is quite saying so, which is why I framed the slug as a question.

http://ctwatchdog.com/2009/08/14/sleepys-the-bedbug-column-the-courant-refused-to-publish-about-its-prime-advertiser
http://thelaurelct.com/2009/08/07/hartford-courant-losing-its-watchdog/

I'd say that this is pathetic and unacceptable, but it's probably more like par for the course.

 

It's a Tribune Co. property, correct? In that case, the advertiser is always right.

 

Oh, it's supposedly a damn mess over there.

New publisher -- comes from tv sales side -- magnet for trouble. A female reporter from the crosstown tv station he also runs recently filed an EEOC complaint-- for just about every bad thing you can think of-- sexual harassment (by said publisher himself), age discrimination, sex discrimination, and on and on.

But in the complaint, she alleges that the Courant publisher was taking payments for news stories. She found out about it and confronted her supervisor, who told her this was one she would not win, or some such.

Here's the complaint she filed if anybody's interested. It's a doozie.

http://www.ctnewsjunkie.com/upload/2009/07/veteran_reporter_files_agedisc/shelly1.pdf

 

Shelly, I hate to say it.

But, to quote Bob Rockstroh, "You are not going to win this one."

That's too bad, of course, but nonetheless true.

 

My subscription is up next week. I'm leaning to "No" on getting the local paper for the first time in my adult life.

 

Depends whether she has strong evidence to support her various contentions. A few salacious texts from Graziano may be all it takes, right?

 

A few more details:

http://ctwatchdog.com/2009/08/18/former-courant-watchdog-details-what-led-to-his-dismissal

 

And the Courant posted their story. Shameless bastards.

http://www.courant.com/business/hc-sleepys-0819.artaug19,0,7593076.story