Turmoil at the Asheville Citizen-Times

Susan Ihne has filed suit against current Asheville Citizen-Times publisher Randy Hammer. Ihne's lawsuit speaks for itself. She claims verbal abuse, age and sex discrimination. With layoffs and the planned closing of its Asheville printing facilities, it appears that the only daily newspaper that covers western North Carolina (at least that's their intent), is in complete turmoil, and I really wonder not only what's going to happen to this once great newspaper, but just what the hell is going on at the Citizen-Times.
The Citizen-Times has been steadily going downhill over the past few years. My biggest complaint, particulalry now, is that they hardly ever cover the Eastern Band of Cherokees. When they do, it's usually about the casino, and usually nothing that qualifies as hard news. Their coverage of Principal Chief Michell Hicks' administration has been particularly softball.
I must give credit to a couple of exceptions: Jon Ostendorff and Kerra Bolton, who now works for the North Carolina Democratic Party. Chief Hicks has expressed personal displeasure with Ostendorff to me personally as he disparaged him while berating me in my office over what he said was a misquote. Both Bolton's and Ostendorff's bylines were on a story that brought the chief major embarrassment, one that exposed Hicks as misleading the public about how well gaming compact negotiations with Gov. Easley were going. Ostendorff, I know has been willing to do the hard stories. I also have to give credit to John Boyle, an often controversial columnist, who reported my termination from the One Feather while tribal officials tried to pretend I resigned.
Unfortunately, the majority of the paper's coverage of Principal Chief Michell Hicks mirrors this powder puff example by then staff writer Jill Ingram, who's now on the PR staff for Western Carolina University - A major piece about the chief and his wife handing out Christmas boxes in Big Cove.
These puff pieces in and of themselves aren't so bad. What made it hard for me as editor of the One Feather arguing the case for solid journalism was when such examples were held up for me to follow. Marketing and Promotions Director Mary Jane Ferguson, who was my supervisor, even suggested that I could win awards filling the One Feather with such garbage. At one time I could count on the Citizen-Times for support from journalistic colleagues fighting for the same principles. My last few years, I really felt as if I was on my own.
I wish Ihne well, and for the sake of so many talented writers and journalists at the Citizen-Times, I hope things turn around for them and that things change for the better. While the economy can partly be blamed for what's wrong at that paper, I also feel as though the paper has been mismanaged in recent years as well.