Bias case vs. NY1 settled
5 women journos agree to leave
The rancorous discrimination lawsuit filed by five veteran female anchors against NY1 was settled quietly Thursday, with the plaintiffs agreeing to leave the all-news station as part of the confidential deal.
The New Year’s Eve agreement came 18 months after the news veterans, in an explosive Manhattan Federal Court filing, charged they were marginalized by new management in favor of younger and less-experienced female colleagues. The quintet includes Roma Torre, the 24-hour channel’s first on-air hire back in 1992.
“We are pleased to announce we have reached a confidential resolution of our lawsuit against Charter/NY1,” read a statement from the journalists. “After engaging in a lengthy dialogue with NY1, we believe it is in everyone’s interest — ours, NY1 s and our viewers — that this litigation be resolved and we have mutually agreed to part ways.
“We want to thank everyone who has supported us through these times — please know that the support from each and every person has made a real difference.”
No details of the settlement were provided by either side.
Torre, along with fellow plaintiffs Amanda Farinacci, Vivian Lee, Jeanine Ramirez and Kristen Shaughnessy, collectively claimed more than a century’s worth of experience at NY1.
When the lawsuit was filed in
June 2019, Shaughnessy chided the station for shifting from its local-friendly approach to a embrace a slicker and more superficial style.
“Appearance seemed to be the overriding thing,” said the anchor, who joined NY1 in 1995. “Age and experience are sort of looked down on instead of being considered a plus.”
According to the lawsuit, the station was overhauled and the women’s roles diminished in 2017 after Charter-Spectrum absorbed
NY-1 s parent company, Time Warner Cable, in a $65 billion mega-merger.
“We are pleased to announce we have reached a confidential resolution of the lawsuit filed by Roma Torre, Kristen Shaughnessy, Jeanine Ramirez, Vivian Lee and Amanda Farinacci and as a result, hhave mutually aagreed to ppart ways,” saids a statement from Spectrum Networks.
“We want to thank them for their years of dedicated service in reporting the news for New Yorkers and we wish them well in their future endeavors.”
Three other female NY1 employees subsequently filed their own lawsuits against the station.
Veteran television news producer Karin Garfin filed a sexual harassment and hostile workplace lawsuit earlier this year against NY1. And a separate 2019 lawsuit filed by former on-air NY1 journalists Thalia Perez and Michelle Greenstein charged their pregnancies led to their firings from the allnews station.
Perez was allegedly dismissed in October 2017 while in her third trimester after complaining station officials denied her opportunities due to her condition. Greenstein said she was fired two months later after a supervisor questioned whether her new motherhood would allow her to handle additional anchoring work.