Former Courant consumer columnist George Gombossy, now the proud operator of his own consumer website empire, is being uncharacteristically tight-lipped about his withdrawal of the unfair termination suit he filed against the newspaper.
You will recall that the 40-year veteran journalist claimed — often and at length — to have been wrongly dismissed because he would not go easy on an advertiser he wrote about as the subject of a consumer complaint. The Courant of course denied the claim as it ricocheted around the blogosphere for months.
But now the state Judicial Department website’s records show that Gombossy’s amended complaint was withdrawn on Dec. 16 of last year, shortly before it was set to go to trial.
Nary a word was spake.
Sometimes this kind of development can mean that there was a settlement that included a non-disclosure clause. Or it could mean that the plaintiff just decided not to spend more money on an uphill fight… and the Courant mercifully agreed to let the issue quietly die.
George ain’t saying.
“You need to ask [Courant publisher] Rich Graziano about that,” he writes.
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I have no doubt George was defending himself against advertiser interference when he was laid off or fired. But his lawsuit claimed that he had a right to have his story published the way he wrote it. Indeed, he said a state law granted him this right that the Courant was illegally denying him. That always seemed far-fetched to me, and I can’t imagine the Courant was much concerned about losing the suit. If it was settled, it must be because the Courant didn’t want George’s accusations concerning the power of advertisers over Courant content to be aired in open court. That’s understandable, although only the 38,000 readers of the JI would have read anything about the trial.