August 6, 2010

Cleveland Critic Loses in Suit Over Job Change

By DANIEL J. WAKIN

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. A younger writer was assigned to review the orchestra.
The affair became a cause célèbre among music critics, who charged that The Plain Dealer had caved in to complaints from a subject of its reviews, touching a raw nerve among those who review arts for a living.
Ms. Goldberg testified that after 14 months as editor, she had concluded that a “hefty chunk of the community was saying that Don Rosenberg was biased and unfair and that he was compromising our integrity,” according to an article in the newspaper. She said she had made her decision because of “growing concerns about Don’s fairness,” The Plain Dealer reported. Mr. Rosenberg had a closed mind about Mr. Welser-Möst, she testified.
The orchestra argued that in complaining to the newspaper about Mr. Rosenberg, it was merely making its opinion known. In a statement after the verdict, the Musical Arts Association called the jury’s decision a recognition of its members’ “First Amendment rights to express their opinion in defending their institution.”
The trial lasted four weeks and included video depositions from Mr. Welser-Möst and his predecessor as music director, Christoph von Dohnanyi. Thomas Goldstein, the director of the mass communications program of the University of California, Berkeley, testified for the orchestra’s management. Tim Page, a Pulitzer Prize-winning classical music critic, took the stand on Mr. Rosenberg’s behalf.
In a brief telephone interview, Mr. Rosenberg called his legal battle a fascinating, grueling process that was worthwhile because it highlighted the issue of critical independence.
“We gave it our best shot,” he said. “I stood up for what I believed. I don’t regret a moment of it.” Mr. Rosenberg said that his life at the paper had been “uncomfortable” since he was reassigned two years ago but that for the time being, he had no plans to leave. “I have a lot to think about,” he said.
After taking vacation and furlough time to attend the trial, he went back to work on Thursday. On Friday he and another reporter had a front-page story — about the city’s opera company.