Bloggers: Cincy settles with biz reporter McNair

The nightmare on Elm Street continues, bloggers are reporting, as fired Cincinnati Enquirer business reporter Jim McNair (left) says he prevailed in getting the paper to convert his controversial termination to a buyout. "This is what I can say,'' McNair, 54, told The Daily Bellwether blog. "My termination of last August has been converted to the voluntary acceptance of a buyout. That's all I'm legally able to say about the subject."

McNair made the same statement to Talking Biz News. Daily Bellwether blogger Bill Sloat has speculated that McNair was canned because of pressure from advertisers unhappy over his aggressive coverage. Sloat also says McNair has been a suspect as the blogger behind NewsAche, which disses the Enquirer as the nation's worst metro daily. (Whoo-hoo: No. 1!) However, McNair insists he's not NewsAche, Sloat says.

Anytime I see a Cincinnati reporter making news, I flash back to the 1998 Enquirer scandal over Michael Gallagher, fired for his role in the disastrous Chiquita Secrets Revealed project. One-time star Gannett editor Larry Beaupre lost his job, too, and sued GCI mostly unsuccessfully, in a complaint that alleged he had been scapegoated. (Beaupre eventually found work as the top editor at Pennsylvania's Scranton Times-Tribune.) The enduring question: How much did Corporate know in advance about the Chiquita project -- and why didn't more heads roll?

Cincinnati staffers: What more do you know about the settlement with McNair? Use this link to e-mail your reply. See Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the sidebar, upper right. Or leave a note in the comments section, below.

[Photo: Talking Biz News]