Editor Naedine Hazell has a different account than George Gombossy regarding his departure from The Courant:

Since the elimination of George Gombossy’s position at the Courant, there’s been a great deal of conjecture and misinformation floated in the blogosphere. First of all, there is no relationship between the change in that job and any story George was working on.

One of those stories, a version of which he posted on his personal blog is being held by the newspaper to get answers to certain questions. We are all familiar with the practice of stories being held for more reporting or comment.

Our readers and advertisers do and should expect us to report stories we know are accurate and fully reported. Our advertisers have no influence on what we report, including stories that may include them. In fact, George’s farewell column, which appeared yesterday, was critical of CL&P, an advertiser.

And finally, George knew his job was being eliminated while we moved to a Courant-Fox 61 newly-defined consumer reporter position. He did not express interest in the position. 

Bloggers may be questioning the Courant and its standards for however long this story lingers but it’s important that we all know that our own journalistic and ethical standards have not, and will not, be compromised or altered by our relationship with the subject, whether it’s an advertiser, a powerful politician or even a former colleague.

George, on his new blog, responds. You’ll want to look at the bottom of the post for his reply, but here is an excerpt:

Maybe someone also wants to ask her for the email that informed me of why my column was not running and what question did I fail to answer. Her problem is going to be that no such an email exists and no such conversation took place between me and any of my editors.