On Wednesday, June 26, 2019, Wigdor LLP Founding Partner Douglas H. Wigdor and five award-winning female journalists represented by the Firm appeared on CNN in an interview with New Day host Alisyn Camerota. During the interview, the five women discussed their age and gender discrimination lawsuit against Charter Communications, Inc. (“Charter”), which operates the news channel known as New York One (“NY1”).
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Plaintiffs Roma Torre, Kristen Shaughnessy, Jeanine Ramirez, Vivian Lee and Amanda Farinacci, alleges that NY1 reduced Plaintiffs’ air-time, anchoring opportunities and promotional support in favor of younger women and men, and ignored Plaintiffs’ numerous complaints of discrimination.
“It doesn’t make sense that you would replace somebody who’s got gravitas and experience over many years, who has achieved a reputation that I think the community appreciates,” Ms. Torre said during the interview. Ms. Torre was NY1’s first on-air hire in 1992 and has won many awards for her reporting, including two Emmys, one of which was awarded in 2019. All five Plaintiffs have won numerous awards and have over 100 years of collective experience at NY1.
In a statement provided to CNN, Charter attempted to dismiss the allegations, claiming that it has adequate representation of women. Mr. Wigdor said:
“The statistics that they gave to you actually are very misleading. The point is not how many women there are versus men. The point is what type of opportunities are the women getting? How much air-time are they getting? What we’re claiming is that our five clients, because of their gender and because of their age, have been treated differently than older men and younger women.”