Sewell Chan’s abrupt firing as editor of the CJR raises a lot of questions. So far, there are no answers.

I hope we learn more soon about why Columbia Journalism Review executive editor Sewell Chan was abruptly fired on Friday. In the immediate aftermath, he has been portrayed as the boss from hell, while Chan himself has claimed he was the victim of a toxic workplace culture.

I’ve never heard anyone say a bad word about either Chan or Columbia Journalism School dean Jelani Cobb, who fired him. Like Chan, Cobb is a high-quality, serious journalism leader, and social-media posts suggesting that Chan was done in by the mishegas into which Columbia has descended can’t be right. But what was it?

I’m sharing this New York Times story because it does a good job of laying out what we know, which isn’t much.

Earlier this week, Chan wrote what struck me as an exceptionally fine analysis of what went wrong at Houston Landing, which announced on Tuesday that it was ceasing operations. Chan also sent a friendly email to my What Works collaborator Ellen Clegg and me after Ellen wrote a story about Sonal Shah’s announcement that she would leave as CEO of The Texas Tribune at the end of the year. (Chan is a former editor of the Tribune.)

There was no indication in Chan’s email that there was anything amiss at the CJR. And now this.