Back in September, I wrote about Donald Rosenberg, music critic for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. I was appalled to find that this local newspaper had demoted their classical music critic for, well, being a critic. The story continued today when Rosenberg filed suit against the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Cleveland Orchestra, alleging that the orchestra and newspaper conspired to remove him from his position for being too critical of the orchestra’s conductor, Franz Welser-Möst.

It’s rather a remarkable situation. After all, if the Cleveland Browns conspired with the paper to remove every sportswriter critical of the team, there would be a new reporter every week of the season. The story goes back to 2004, when Welser-Möst made some very impolitic comments about Cleveland and the “blue haired ladies” who support the arts in the United States.

If you ask me, the wrong guy lost his position.