Five anchors sue NY1 for age and gender discrimination
Five veteran NY1 anchorwomen have lost their airtime to younger female reporters by the local news network who resemble them — even as older male talent like Pat Kiernan remains the news channel’s golden boy, a blistering new lawsuit claims.
Some of the local news network’s most famous female faces — Roma Torre, Kristen Shaughnessy, Jeanine Ramirez, Vivian Lee and Amanda Farinacci — filed the age- and gender-discrimination suit Wednesday in Manhattan federal court against NY1’s parent company, Charter Communications.
The women, who range in age from 40 to 61, claim that Charter’s 2016 merger with founding parent company Time Warner Cable marked the beginning of a precipitous decline for their careers that continues to this day — and they want to make clear that their fight is with Charter.
“This has nothing to do with the talents and abilities of those who were coming up behind us,” Lee, 44, told The Post.
“It has everything to do with staking our claim to what we have earned rightfully.”
Despite racking up awards and having collectively logged more than a century with NY1, the quintet say their careers’ upward trajectories hit a wall shortly after the merger ushered in sweeping management changes.
Though the women dodged layoffs that culled roughly 40 longtime employees over the age of 40 from the NY1 ranks, “they have since been forced to work in an environment that has become exceedingly hostile,” the suit claims.
“Their on-air time has been dramatically reduced, anchoring opportunities have disappeared, prime reporting roles have been taken away and promotional efforts have vanished,” the suit states.
“All these opportunities which have been snatched from plaintiffs have been distributed to numerous younger women and men with substantially less experience.”
The architects of that youth movement, the suit claims, were assistant news director Melissa Rabinovich and since-resigned news director Anthony Proia, who both came aboard in 2017.
Shaughnessy, Ramirez, Lee and Farinacci say some of their respective shifts shunted to virtual doppelgangers, female talent alike in their appearances and ethnicities — only years younger.
Bree Driscoll, like Shaughnessy, is white and blonde. Angi Gonzalez and Lydia Hu, like Ramirez and Lee, are Latina and Asian, respectively.
“Mr. Proia and Ms. Rabinovich appear to be grooming literal ‘replacements’ that track each of Plaintiffs’ respective appearances and ethnic backgrounds,” the suit claims, noting that nearly all of the younger journalists were hired by Rabinovich.
Neither Proia nor Rabinovich are named as defendants in the suit and they did not immediately return calls for comment.
Though Torre, a mainstay with NY1 since it came onto city airwaves in 1992, didn’t have to stare down a younger look-alike, she found herself forced into the shadow of one of the network’s other most recognizable personalities: Morning host Kiernan.
While Torre, 61, had her anchor shift abruptly “chopped up” and divied among other anchors under the new regime — going from four hours of consecutive daily airtime to the one-hour solo show “Your News Live at Noon” and a two-hour slot from 3 p.m. through 5 p.m. — she watched Kiernan, 50, flourish, the suit claims.
“A newly formatted morning show was created for Mr. Kiernan called “Mornings on 1,” complete with a multi-million dollar state-of-the-art studio,” while Torre was banished to a second, “completely inferior” studio — even after Kiernan’s show had wrapped, the suit claims.
“When Ms. Torre asked Mr. Proia why she could not use the morning studio for her live noon show, she was told to ‘stop complaining,’” according to the suit.
Torre tried to address her overarching fears of age discrimination with Charter’s HR department, but the step did little to move Proia.
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“I don’t want to hear any more. That’s just the way it is,” he purportedly told Torre. “Too bad. Boo hoo.”
While 2017 saw Kiernan’s 20th anniversary with NY1 toasted with over-the-top promotions, the same year marked Torre’s 25th year with the network — not that you’d know it by their promotions, the suit claims.
“NY1’s promotion of Mr. Kiernan’s anniversary included dedicated on-air segments, website tributes and montages, an in-house party, advertisements on city buses and three food trucks that traveled throughout the city with Mr. Kiernan on board and TV cameras in tow,” the filing states, while Torre’s milestone went by unacknowledged.
The behind-the-scenes drama spilled into public view at the 2019 New York Emmys, where Torre won for her theater reviews — a victory marked by NY1 on Twitter with a photo of Kiernan photographing Torre.
“Congratulations @RomaTorreNYC on your Emmy for your theater commentary!” the caption read. “Here is @patkiernan getting the shot of his longtime co-anchor.”
When one viewer called out the spotlight-stealing tweet, Kiernan was put in position to sheepishly write to them, “I’m so sorry you interpreted this like that. I was just trying to get the shot. … But the moment belongs to Roma.”
A Charter spokeswoman said the company is reviewing the allegations, but so far has “not found any merit.”
“NY1 is a respectful and fair workplace and we’re committed to providing a work environment in which all our employees are valued and empowered,” said Maureen Huff.
Additional reporting by Yaron Steinbuch and Andrew Denney
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