CBS News Sued For $50 Million By Gay Producer
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
An Emmy Award-winning former senior producer for the “CBS Evening News” filed a $50 million lawsuit against CBS News yesterday, alleging that he was muzzled from speaking publicly about being assaulted for his homosexuality.
The attack occurred in April of last year, when Richard Jefferson, who is openly gay, was vacationing in St. Maarten with another CBS News employee, Ryan Smith. The men were beaten severely, but the local police refused to investigate, the lawsuit says.
When CBS declined to report on the attack and the subsequent lack of investigation, Mr. Jefferson took the story to rival outlets such as ABC’s “Good Morning America,” MSNBC, and others.
The suit claims that a CBS News senior vice president, Linda Mason, told Mr. Jefferson he had to stop speaking publicly about his attack because it was a “controversial” issue, and that she fired him in November.
In an e-mailed statement, CBS News called the lawsuit “unequivocally baseless.”
“We will vigorously and aggressively defend ourselves against Mr. Jefferson’s unwarranted complaint,” it said.
