Left-leaning Media Outlet, Asheville Watchdog, Faces Lawsuit Alleging Patient Privacy Violation
The left-leaning media outlet, The Asheville Watchdog, faces a lawsuit seeking a restraining order from a disabled person. In the complaint, Tiffany Dobbs, the Power of Attorney and Legal Advocate for her son Eric Penland, a ventilator-dependent quadriplegic adult, filed a complaint seeking an Emergency Temporary Restraining Order (RTO) and Preliminary Injunction to prevent Andrew Jones, Watchdog Media, and any affiliated editors or agents from publishing additional stories about her son.
Key quotes from the complaint:
On or about June 11, 2025, Defendant Andrew Jones, a journalist with Watchdog, contacted Plaintiff to inform her that his editor had directed him to write and publish a follow-up article regarding Eric Penland Jr., despite Plaintiff’s explicit request not to do so on April 12, 2025, via text message.
A prior article was published without Plaintiff or Eric’s consent, which included misleading content, mischaracterized facts, and deep personal information about Eric’s medical history, hospitalization, court transfer, facility name, and family background.
The proposed new article contains additional private details, which, if published, would constitute a continuing and irreparable invasion of privacy, cause significant emotional distress to Plaintiff and Eric, and subject them to public scrutiny and harm.
Plaintiff believes Defendants are acting recklessly and with disregard to journalistic ethics, showing no attempt to verify facts directly with her, and instead relying on misrepresented or outdated reports.
The publication of this story is not a matter of public interest that outweighs the substantial harm and trauma it would cause to a medically fragile individual.
The Blue Ridge Times reached out to Asheville Watchdog to get their reaction to the suit. In response, Managing Editor Keith Campbell declined to address the claims laid out in the complaint and said, “Asheville Watchdog stands by our reporting. The stories we have done and plan to publish are of public interest, given that Asheville’s primary hospital took legal action against a patient who has been there for nearly four years. We will defend ourselves vigorously.”
The patient referenced is Eric Penland, who had the complaint filed on his behalf against the media outlet.
What’s next: The lawsuit asks the judge to prevent the outlet from publishing additional information and to retract the current article published by Watchdog. A hearing date will need to be set, discovery will commence, and Watchdog will likely file a response. If the evidence revealed in this case supports the complaint, the left-leaning media outlet will have a substantial reputation problem.
Background on the situation.
Last April, Asheville Watchdog published a story about Eric Penland Jr.’s predicament. Penland is a ventilator-dependent quadriplegic who needs constant care. The article focused on the disagreement between the hospital and his family over long-term care options. The motion filed by Dobbs now disputes the accuracy of this story.
Asheville Watchdog started in 2020 to serve as a non-partisan news organization. NewsMatch, an arm of the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN), lists Asheville Watchdog as a participant. The Institute for Nonprofit News receives substantial support from George Soros-linked groups and other liberal foundations.
