N&R ed page editor Allen Johnson –who was editor of the Winston-Salem Chronicle back in the ’80s–weighs in on the Chronicle’s city loan:

I have deep respect for Publisher Ernie Pitt’s achievements in starting the Chronicle from scratch in 1974, for letting us do our journalism with almost zero interference, and for reinvesting in the news operation with people and resources. I also appreciate the opportunity he gave me.

But we’ve agreed to disagree on this one. Ernie cited the loan as being no different from a daily running legal and public notice advertising. But that’s nowhere near the same. Selling ads to a government does not financially obligate the paper to that government.

Ernie has a UNC journalism degree. He has to know this is an icky ethical proposition. And he has to wonder if this proud little paper’s integrity is worth $100,000.

Again — Pitt’s ethics have been called into question before –and not just for the $50,000 loan he got from the city back in ’84.