In Saturday’s (8/7) New York Times, Daniel J. Wakin reports, “A jury on Friday rejected the lawsuit brought by a classical music critic of The Plain Dealer in Cleveland who sued his newspaper and the Cleveland Orchestra management after being reassigned following complaints about negative reviews. The eight jurors in a trial in the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court dismissed claims of age discrimination against The Plain Dealer and its editor, Susan Goldberg, and of interference and defamation against the orchestra’s governing body, the Musical Arts Association; its executive director, Gary Hanson; its chairman, Richard J. Bogomolny; and its former president, James D. Ireland III. The plaintiff, the longtime critic Donald Rosenberg, 58, had written a number of negative reviews, mainly aimed at Franz Welser-Möst, the orchestra’s music director. Orchestra officials complained several times to the newspaper’s editors. In September 2008 Mr. Rosenberg was told not to review the orchestra anymore but was kept on the staff as a music reporter and dance critic who writes some music reviews but not of the Cleveland Orchestra. … The trial lasted four weeks and included video depositions from Mr. Welser-Möst and his predecessor as music director, Christoph von Dohnanyi.”
Posted August 9, 2010
