Fight continues between Hartford paper, ex-consumer columnist

The Hartford Courant ran a short story on Wednesday regarding consumer complaints and an investigation of a mattress retailer — the subject of which led to the resignation of its consumer columnist earlier this month.

The short story can be read here. The former consumer columnist, George Gombossy, writes on his site that the story excluded some key information.

Gombossy writes, “In their rush to print, you will notice several things that were in my column that I had posted on this website that aren’t in The Courant’s article this morning, that was put together by Business Editor Dan Haar — an award winning,  ethical journalist, a great reporter, businesss editor, columnist, and a friend of mine (not to mention a great father). I wonder what pressures were exerted on him by Jeff and Rich –- or they simply made Naedine do their dirty work.

“What was left out was the the Better Business Bureau, which has had hundreds of complaints about Sleepy’s, tells consumer to be careful dealing with this company because of continuing complaints about the same issues it has been receiving for years. The BBB report also notes that Sleepy’s paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines and restitutions in New York and New Jersey.”

Read more here. Gombossy has also posted an e-mail exchange he had with the Courant’s editor before he was fired about the future direction of the consumer column and blog. It’s should be required reading for anyone who writes such stories.