Fox now faces suit over racial attitudes

NEW YORK — A Fox News Channel anchor who is black has joined a racial-discrimination lawsuit against his company, saying Wednesday that the network marginalized him and has little interest in promoting diversity.

Kelly Wright, who primarily works an overnight shift at Fox, said at an emotional news conference that his efforts at promoting diversity at Fox have largely failed. He said former Fox host Bill O’Reilly rejected a piece Wright had prepared after racial protests in Ferguson, Missouri, because it showed blacks in “too positive” a light. “This hurts,” Wright said. The lawsuit adds to troubles at Fox that had largely been focused on the treatment of women. Former Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes lost his job last summer and O’Reilly was fired last week after harassment charges surfaced.

Fox said late Tuesday that the latest racial-discrimination lawsuit contained “copycat complaints” and denied its allegations, and it didn’t have any comment after Wright’s news conference.

Wright said he was moved to speak after off-air colleagues complained publicly about racial hostility, primarily coming from a recently fired comptroller at the network, Judith Slater. She has denied any wrongdoing through a lawyer. Thirteen people — eight who still work at Fox — joined the lawsuit.

“I can no longer sit in silence, collect my paycheck and act like I didn’t experience racial bias on my own level as an on-air personality,” Wright said. He said he admires and likes many of the people at Fox, “but I don’t like what they do.”

He said his career has stalled with promised opportunities never materializing.

The lawsuit alleges that Fox employees took their complaints about Slater in 2008 to Dianne Brandi, chief counsel at Fox, and were told that nothing would be done about her because Slater “knew too much” about the behavior of Ailes, O’Reilly and others. Fox has specifically denied the allegations against Brandi.