Mar 04 2008
Easley Administration Fires DHHS Public Affairs Director
RALEIGH - The Easley administration today fired Debbie Crane, the state official who handled News & Observer reporters’ requests for information as they worked on a series about mental health.
Crane, 48, who was public affairs director at the state Department of Health and Human Services, said department secretary Dempsey Benton told her yesterday that Gov. Mike Easley “wanted me out. He had lost confidence in me.”
Crane was officially fired this morning by another department official, she said, after Benton went to Easley’s press conference about mental health issues.
Crane said her dismissal revolved around the Easley administration’s attempts to get former DHHS secretary Carmen Hooker Odom to talk to The N&O about her supposed opposition to the 2001 mental health reforms.
I’m a little confused as to how and what exactly went down here. The article isn’t all that clear either, but did Crane get canned for being honest?
“It does amaze me that y’all have done this series detailing all this waste of money, all the hurt people … and that the one person who gets fired is me,” she said. “It’s truly shooting the messenger.”
