On a not-unrelated note to the A.J. Blake situation, N&R editor John Robinson says that reporter Lorraine Ahearn has won a fellowship to pursue a Ph.D in journalism at UNC Chapel Hill. For many years, Ahearn has personified the term “advocacy journalism” down at the N&R.

Robinson says that Ahearn “written wonderful story after wonderful column” for the N&R, but her byline has been sparse since her controversial role in reporting the David Wray controversy, which was capped off by an angry and erroneous column in response to the acquittal of Detective Scott Sanders, a key figure in then-City Manager Mitchell Johnson’s bogus case against Wray.

Ahearn later later shifted from metro columnist to “investigative reporter,” though I have noticed much investigating going on.

Robinson says this “unfortunately means she’s leaving us,” though he’s “damned glad that she won’t be gone from our pages forever.” I’m sure more than a few N&R readers won’t be holding their breath.

Update: Roch Smith notes that Robinson has disabled the comments; Robinson responds in the comments to Roch’s post.