Deidre Malone gets hit with a lawsuit and Wendi Thomas gets her column taken away

First, it appears that my friend, and Democratic nominee for County Mayor, Deidre Malone, was hit with an interestingly-timed lawsuit regarding the nearly-defunct Sisterhood Showcase.  Deidre has a response:

CORPORATE STATEMENT
On Monday, June 2, 2014, The Carter Malone Group, LLC and Deidre Malone were notified they were named in a lawsuit filed by Christina Stevison and Stevison Group, the alleged owners of the Sisterhood Showcase. Apparently, The Carter Malone Group, LLC was named as a defendant in this lawsuit because its client, Minerva Little, the publisher of Spirit Magazine and owner of Sistahs Succeed 2, Inc., is producing a showcase event at the Memphis Cook Convention Center on June 6-7, 2014.

The Carter Malone Group, LLC and Deidre Malone contend that they were wrongfully included as parties in this lawsuit and that the allegations against them are patently false. It is our belief that this lawsuit is politically motivated and designed to negatively impact Deidre Malone’s race for Shelby County Mayor. This is particularly evident because Deidre Malone was named individually in the lawsuit, although The Carter Malone Group, LLC has the contractual relationship with Minerva Little and the Sistahs Succeed 2 Showcase.

Deidre Malone and The Carter Malone Group, LLC are strongly considering filing a counter-lawsuit against Ms. Stevison, Sisterhood Showcase and Grace Magazine for their abuse of the judicial system and defamation of character.

All further questions from media, should be directed to attorney Robert L. J. Spence, Jr. at The Spence Law Firm, PLLC, and (901) 312-9160.

In short, it's crap and an attempt to hurt Deidre's campaign.  If she were trailing, this wouldn't be happening, you know what I mean?  So, enough said about that.

In other news, the Commercial Appeal's first African-American Metro columnist, Wendi Thomas, was moved to another position yesterday, with her final column to appear this Sunday.  While she will be tasked with editing a new division regarding crime and justice in the area, it is still stunning that the newspaper of record for this metro area is silencing their major African-American voice.  Mediaverse Memphis has good coverage of this here.

While editor Louis Graham tried to put a good face on this, it is my opinion that this decision was made above his head, perhaps at Scripps' headquarters in Cincinnati.  It is no surprise that the CA kowtows to the suburban subscribers, who hate Wendi's columns regarding the problems faced by African-Americans of ALL economic levels in this area.  That the CA covers the only MSA in the US that is majority African-American and now has no major African-American columnist (no, Otis Sanford doesn't count, he's once-a-week), simply is mind-boggling.  

I have no doubt that Wendi, being the solid professional that she is and has been, will do a terrific job. 

However, the message from the CA is clear:  The suburbs matter, the city of Memphis does NOT.  Make of that what you will; outside of Kyle Veazey and the sports section, there seems to be less reason every day to subscribe to our major daily newspaper, and that's just damned sad.