Federal Judge Tosses Out Key Parts of Former Boston Anchor’s Reverse Discrimination Lawsuit Against CBS

A federal judge dealt a setback to a former Boston news anchor in her reverse discrimination lawsuit against CBS.In August, a white former news anchor at CBS-owned Boston station WBZ, Katherine Merrill, sued the station, CBS, and Paramount for $4 million, alleging that she was wrongfully accused of “microaggressions” and “implicit bias” and discriminated against because she is white. Ms. Merrill alleges that WBZ adopted aggressive diversity policies at the direction of CBS and “exploited such policies and took career-ending action” against her to “advance a DEI agenda.” She says she was demoted and then forced into a “constructive discharge resignation.”WBZ and CBS filed a motion in November, seeking to dismiss large portions of her lawsuit, including her claims of discrimination based on sex, defamation, tortious interference with her career, and untimely payment of wages.A federal district court judge, Myong J. Joun, dismissed the claims of discrimination based on sex, defamation, and interference with her career, finding that Ms. Merrill “has not plausibly alleged that she was demoted because of her gender or that the reasons stated for her demotion were pretextual to cover up gender discrimination.”“The allegations regarding the corporate Defendants’ efforts to implement their DEI efforts are not sufficiently tied to any allegation of ill will against [Ms. Merrill] specifically,” Judge Joun said. Judge Joun also dismissed Ms. Merrill’s defamation claim — she had claimed that WBZ’s management defamed her by announcing her demotion at a staff meeting — writing, “The public announcement of Plaintiff’s demotion as compared to other demotions is not tied to any other conduct or speech … that can lead to an inference of ill will.”After the ruling dismissing three of Ms. Merrill’s claims, her lawsuit has three remaining claims: unlawful discrimination on the basis of race, untimely payment of wages, and failure to investigate her discrimination claim.Ms. Merrill’s lawsuit came after CBS’s parent company, Paramount Global, was acquired by Skydance Media. Last summer, attorneys for Skydance made written commitments to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion policies at Paramount. CBS has faced multiple lawsuits alleging that employees were fired because they were white. Last year, CBS settled a lawsuit brought by a white script writer, Brian Beneker, who alleged he was discriminated against and denied a staff writing job on the network drama “SEAL Team” because of an “illegal policy of race and sex balancing.” But the network has seen some success in getting such claims tossed out. In April, a federal judge in California granted summary judgment to CBS in a case brought by a former KCBS and KCAL anchor, Jeff Vaughn, who claimed he was fired because of his age and race.

Federal Judge Tosses Out Key Parts of Former Boston Anchor’s Reverse Discrimination Lawsuit Against CBS

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