Cleveland Plain Dealer Managing Editor Thom Fladung today said Browns beat writer Tony Grossi has not been fired or disciplined for his disparaging tweet of Browns Owner Randy Lerner, but he “will not be covering the Browns” going forward. Fladung said the tweet, in which Grossi wrote Lerner is a “pathetic figure” and the “most irrelevant billionaire in the world,” was “inappropriate and unprofessional, and it’s not the kind of opinion a journalist covering a beat can express.” Fladung said what Grossi tweeted was “not an opinion, that’s an insult.” Fladung: “There are lines and there have to be standards and he crossed one.”
Fladung said he has received e-mails “from a lot of people who are calling me a spineless coward,” and e-mails from a “lot of people who said they were very offended by what Tony tweeted and now question his credibility and his ability to cover the Browns.” Fladung: “That’s not the determining factor in this, who was offended? The determining factor in this … is don’t do something that affects your value as a journalist or the value of your newspaper or affects the perception of your value and the perception of that newspaper’s value. That’s the line when you express opinions like Tony expressed on Twitter that you cross” (WKRK-FM, 1/25).
