A former morning news anchor at the Boston-based broadcaster WBZ is suing the company for $4 million, claiming she was discriminated against for being white and for being a woman.
Kate Merrill joined the broadcaster as an anchor in 2004 and stayed with the company until 2024, according to the lawsuit.
WBZ, its parent companies CBS and Paramount, two of Merrill's former on-air co-workers, and station management were named as defendants in the case.
According to the lawsuit, Merrill was accused of of committing "microaggressions" and displaying unconscious bias toward a pair of recently hired Black employees at WBZ. It' is unclear who made the accusations against her.
In response to her alleged actions, Merrill was demoted in May 2024 and sent to work on weekend nights, Bostom.com reports.
According to the lawsuit, Merrill's demotion was celebrated outwardly by her manager, Justin Draper. She claims the manager never made similar celebratory remarks about her demoted male colleagues.
“Draper unnecessarily broadly announced Ms. Merrill’s demotion, humiliating her. In so doing, Defendant Draper acted with malice and ill will,” the lawsuit says. “Draper had not similarly broadly announced the demotions of any male anchors at WBZ.”
The lawsuit goes on to call the demotions "career ending." Merrill resigned in May 2024, and a non-compete clause in her contract kept her off the air until June of 2025.
In addition to the allegations about her workplace, Merrill also denies that any of her actions were "motivated by overt racism or unconscious bias."
The bulk of the lawsuit revolves around Merrill's relationship with Jason Mikell, a Black meteorologist who was hired to work at the station in 2023. He replaced an outgoing white meteorologist. The lawsuit alleges that the outgoing weatherman had been fired despite never being given any warnings about his work performance.
The lawsuit claims that Merrill and Mikell got along fine and that he even asked the anchor to help him learn correct local pronunciations.
“Kate, as I mentioned a short time ago to Liam, I truly appreciate the kindness, helpfulness, and openness during this transition to the show. I care about each of you and certainly the show and its performance,” Mikell allegedly said in January 2024, according to the lawsuit.
In 2024, Mikell allegedly made an inappropriate joke in which he implied that he and Merrill "had sexual relations at a gazebo," the lawsuit claims. The station's news director reportedly took no corrective action after the incident.
The filing further states that in April 2024, Merrill privately offered Mikell a correction on the word "Concord," which allegedly caused a confrontation between her and Mikell. Merrill's lawsuit claims that Mikell began screaming at her and insisting she was being critical of him. After that alleged incident, Merrill filed a complaint with the station's human resources department.
The lawsuit invokes a reckoning that CBS and the WBZ station reportedly had in 2020 about its lack of diversity. A former CBS executive told Variety that WBZ was "too white" at the time, and insisted it had the "least diverse station for on air talent," the lawsuit claims.
The lawsuit claims that Courtney Cole – a Black anchor named in the lawsuit who was hired in 2022 to replace a white man who had been demoted – was given time on the anchor desk over her more experienced white colleague in an attempt to boost the number of Black faces on the station.
“Ms. Merrill became concerned that WBZ was not providing sufficient support to her less experienced and recently hired colleagues, a number of whom were persons of color,” the lawsuit says.
After Merrill made her complaint to HR, the company told her she was being investigated for racial discrimination brought on by complaints from Cole and Mikell.
According to the lawsuit, the acts of racism that Merrill was accused of included telling Mikell he would "find his people" and that she was frequently critical of him and did not ask him about his weekends.
Cole claims that Merrill recommended she move to Nashville and aim to become a main anchor there. Merrill previously worked in Nashville. “Cole apparently interpreted as a suggestion that she go to Nashville because it would be a better racial fit for Defendant Cole (who is Black) rather than a comment about career opportunities and how much she (Ms. Merrill) enjoyed Nashville," the lawsuit says.
Merrill notes on the lawsuit that Nashville is not a majority-minority city.
The Independent has requested comment from WBZ and CBS.
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