Writer hits CBS on ‘blatant reverse bias’

CBS and parent Paramount Global were accused of “blatant” discrimination against a white, heterosexual male freelance writer as it imposed stringent diversity rules for writers on its “SEAL Team” TV series, according to a federal lawsuit.

Brian Beneker, a script coordinator and freelance scriptwriter for “SEAL Team,” was unlawfully denied a staffwriter position due to his race, sex and sexual orientation, according to the complaint, filed Thursday in US District Court of Central California.

Beneker, who became the script coordinator in 2017 on the pilot episode of “SEAL Team,” a drama about the pressure on a group of Navy SEALs, soon was offered to write an episode as a freelancer for the show’s second season.

To continue as a scriptwriter, Beneker was told, he had to quit his job as a coordinator, the suit said, noting that he was replaced by “a woman without any experience as a script coordinator” who “struggled to do the job” and “quit approximately two weeks into training.”

Beneker’s lawyers from America First Legal Foundation and JW Howard Attorneys cited a widely reported mandate from CBS Chief Executive George Cheeks to “set a goal that all writers’ rooms on the network’s primetime series be staffed 40% [with] BIPOC [black, indigenous and people of color] in the 2021-2022 season.”

CBS raised the requirement to 50% BIPOC writers in the 2022-2023 season of TV, and a requirement of 50% of cast members on their reality shows to be BIPOC, court papers said.

“This balancing policy has created a situation where heterosexual, white men need ‘extra’ qualifications (including military experience or previous writing credits) to be hired as staff writers when compared with their nonwhite, LGBTQ or female peers, who require no such ‘extra’ qualifications,” the suit added.