Black employees file class-action lawsuit against CNN

AJC.com ^ | December 7, 2016 | Rodney Ho

[BlackFemaleArmyColonel]

This was posted on Wednesday, December 7, 2016 by Rodney Ho on his Radio & TV Talk blog.

Former and current black CNN employees on Tuesday filed a class action lawsuit against Atlanta-based CNN, Turner Broadcasting and New York based parent company Time Warner for racial discrimination.

“As a result of the current discrimination lawsuit filed on behalf of DeWayne Walker vs. CNN, Time Warner & Turner, we have uncovered stories involving abuse of power, nepotism, revenge, retaliation and discrimination” said Daniel Meachum said in a press release.

The press release provided a photo of DeWayne Walker, a CNN producer who sued CNN individually in January for $50 million for racial discrimination and retaliation for filing a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. He accused CNN of not promoting him over 13 years because he is black, skipped over frequently for promotions in favor of white employees.

According to his LinkedIn page, Walker is an integrated marketing manager at CNN.

Walker is not actually a plaintiff in this particular case but is a client of Meachum’s and his individual lawsuit is still active. Celeslie Henley, a former executive administrative assistant at CNN, and Ernest Colbert, a senior manager at TBS, are the only named plaintiffs though Meachum said 20 to 30 other unnamed current and former Turner employees helped him out with information about their experiences.

The 40-page lawsuit filed in the United States District Court in the Northern District of Georgia, said blacks – especially black males – are discriminated against in evaluations, compensation and promotions. It says based on data provided by Turner, blacks are terminated at a higher rate than whites and promoted at a significantly slower rate. And the lawsuit said written and unwritten policies and practices for performing evaluations and promotions discriminate against blacks.

[bjorn14]

Does Don Lemon count? They got a twofer poofer there.

[diogenes ghost]

Methinks Van Jones is out mansion shopping already.

[hal ogen]

Hahaha. I guess those racists at cnn might have some explaining to do. LOL.

[\/\/ayne]

Remember Bernie Shaw?

My Dad had one of those early giant satellites that would get all sorts of feeds including CNN feed before they encrypted the transmissions. I remember seeing Bernie Shaw smoking a cigarette and then some assistant came and gave him some papers; they talked then he puts his ashtray aside, puts on his CNN face, tells the news story, then gets back his ashtray for one last drag.

[angry elephant]

Could it be that even if he has good knowledge of his job he speaks in a mumbled street dialect that makes him hard to understand and thus unable to supervise folks because they can’t make out what he says?

Being a small business owner for more than 35 years I have employed all races, gay men, gay women, punctured and tattooed and you name it. But some folks are virtually unemployable if one cannot understand them.

[smileyface]

Another Trump Win!

[wally_bert]

I’ve met a couple of them a few times years ago back in TV production land.

They paid the station to uplink news footage to CNN HQ.

Every time without so much as a gee thanks, they would come in, unhook my stuff and patch their stuff then leave it a mess. Their producer/director was a white guy. He didn’t bother to do anything either.

My main problem with the CNN crews was arrogance.

[A CA Guy]

With a racial discrimination suit, hiring a very white Kelly for 20 million has just been killed IMO.

[katana]

blacks are terminated at a higher rate than whites and promoted at a significantly slower rate.

Interesting to find out that CNN operates like a rational performance based organization.

[ex91B10]

“Quality” and “CNN” should not be used in the same sentence.

[exPBRrat]

...more negro drama.

[tinyowl]

The left is always accusing others of practicing what they practice. All insults come from their own behavior. Projection projection projection.

[publius911]

Who could see that coming?

< /s >

[publius911]

They like black people, really they do. Remember Bernie Shaw?

Yes, I do.
What I did not remember, is that he retired in 2001 after 21 years at CNN.

[Brooklyn Attitude]

Someone needs to explain the unpleasant truth to the class the suit was filed for. Most were not hired because they were good at their jobs. They were hired because they were black. Now they have to compete with people that were actually hired because of their qualifications.