White CBS Anchorwoman Forced Out for ‘Implicit Bias’ Fires Back at Paramount’s Move To Get Her Discrimination Lawsuit Tossed

A white former Boston news anchor is fighting back against her ex-employer’s attempt to get the majority of her discrimination lawsuit thrown out. It’s the latest example of CBS facing litigation over its past, aggressive “diversity, equity, and inclusion” policies, which it has quietly reversed to accommodate the Trump Administration.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-TV 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 forced into a “constructive discharge resignation.”Months before Ms. Merrill filed her lawsuit, in February 2025, CBS had said it was significantly scaling back its DEI policies, ending diversity quotes and demographic data collection. CBS also settled in April with a white male writer for “SEAL Team” who’d filed a discrimination lawsuit. CBS does not, however, apparently want to settle with Ms. Merrill. In November, Paramount, CBS, and WBZ filed a motion to dismiss the majority of her claims, which included allegations of discrimination based on sex, defamation, tortious interference with advantageous relations, and untimely payment of wages. The attorneys said they “attempted in good faith but without success to resolve or narrow the issues presented.”Over the weekend, attorneys for Ms. Merrill pushed back on the motion to dismiss those portions of the complaint.The filing seeks to back up its allegations of discrimination based on sex by noting that the executives at WBZ took the step of announcing Ms. Merrill’s demotion, which the attorneys say WBZ did not do for “any male anchors” at the network. The filing also says that executives declined to discipline a male employee for making a “sexually-charged comment,” or another male employee for making a “‘Dirty Joke’ reference that was laden with racist undertones in on-air banter.”Ms. Merrill’s lawyers argue this shows “disparate treatment’ of WBZ employees based on sex.”Her lawyers also sought to bolster their case that WBZ defamed their client. They said, “Immediately after an investigation known to people at WBZ-TV to be into allegations that Ms. Merrill was racist, Defendants WBZ-TV, CBS, and Paramount … demoted Ms. Merrill.”“Taken together, the investigation, demotion and announcement of demotion immediately thereafter attributed racist animus to Ms. Merrill,” the filing says. While Ms. Merrill’s lawyers insisted that they have presented evidence backing up their allegations, they asked that if the court sides with the defendants and dismisses the majority of the lawsuit, it do so without prejudice so that they can amend her complaint to add more evidence to support her claims. Ms. Merrill is not the only white local anchor suing CBS. In July 2024, a former anchor at the CBS-owned Los Angeles local station, KCAL, Jeff Vaughn, sued, alleging he was “fired because he is an older, white, heterosexual, male.” That case is still pending.Ms. Merrill filed her lawsuit after the Skydance deal was approved. And in October, a white former Paramount executive, Joseph Jerome, sued, alleging he was subjected to age and race discrimination due to the company’s “DEI goals” when he was fired last year.

White CBS Anchorwoman Forced Out for ‘Implicit Bias’ Fires Back at Paramount’s Move To Get Her Discrimination Lawsuit Tossed

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