Kevin Scarbinsky is leaving al.com and the newspaper business as a whole. Will be working for the Brunos Golf Tournament. Brunos is closely aligned with UA, so in effect he was bought off.
Scarbinsky could be a pain, but he at least made the effort to be fair. His was the one and only voice at that pile of garbage al.com you could count on to see positives when it comes to Auburn. His was the only voice that ever gave any praise -- faint as it might sometimes be.
Everybody else on that site writes like it's a fanblog. Our beatwriters are relentlessly negative and constantly looking for something to criticize (see today's 'Carlton Davis decided not to play, Gus lied about it' entry as exhibit a).
His take on things will be missed. Without him to provide some modicum of balance, al.com will veer completely into being the promotional arm of all things Alabama.