Well, that’s rich: A white, blonde TV anchor is replaced by another white, blonde TV anchor, and somehow that’s reverse discrimination.
Only in 2025.
I’m scratching my head over a federal lawsuit filed this week that has this town buzzing: Kate Merrill, a former anchor for WBZ-TV, alleges that she was forced out of her job last year because the CBS station was advancing a “DEI agenda.”
In her lawsuit, Merrill goes after WBZ-TV; CBS and its parent company, Paramount Global; a former boss; and two Black colleagues who are still at WBZ — anchor Courtney Cole and meteorologist Jason Mikell — seeking $4 million in damages.
Not named? Paula Ebben, a longtime colleague at WBZ who took Merrill’s morning anchor slot after she left. Perhaps because Ebben is white, and that wouldn’t fit Merrill’s narrative of what happened.
After reading Merrill’s 57-page civil complaint, it’s hard to take seriously the allegations that her career was harmed because she’s white. WBZ-TV should want to diversify its staff and put on air talent that reflects the diversity of the market it serves.
What is apparent from the court case — which so far only provides Merrill’s side of the story — was that there were microaggressions flying around WBZ’s newsroom. Sometimes Merrill felt aggrieved; other times her Black co-workers did.
Like the time Merrill accused Mikell of making an “inappropriate sexual innuendo” about her on air and the station did not discipline him. Or the time Merrill told Mikell he was mispronouncing “Concord” in a broadcast and, she claims, he confronted and yelled at her. Meanwhile, Cole apparently did not appreciate Merrill’s suggestion that she move to Nashville, a smaller market where the younger Cole could become a main anchor.
I don’t know enough to take sides, though it’s clear WBZ is a station where on-air talent didn’t get along.
More than anything, it looks like Merrill is attempting to cash in on the political moment, hoping her case will end in a big payday from a station owned by Paramount, which recently agreed to pay President Trump $16 million to settle a lawsuit over a “60 Minutes” story he didn’t like.
Paramount caved because it needed the Federal Communications Commission to bless its merger with Skydance Media, which the FCC then did. The $8 billion deal closed this week, so Merrill’s timing is impeccable.
The last thing the new company needs is a high-profile lawsuit alleging discrimination against white people. For the media giant, $4 million is a rounding error, and a settlement with Merrill could be another way to appease Trump, whose popularity comes from white people who feel they’ve been wronged and that diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts have gone too far.
In that sense, Merrill’s suit is just as savvy as it is sad.
Merrill and her lawyers are likely counting on a June decision from the US Supreme Court that opened the door for more reverse discrimination suits. Historically, the burden of proof in discrimination cases has been higher for plaintiffs who are part of a majority class, like white people, but the court ruled that they should now be held to the same legal standard as everyone else.
Cornell University Law School professor William Jacobson said he can’t speak to the merits of Merrill’s case, but noted that lawsuits like hers highlight some of the problems with how diversity policies have been rolled out in many workplaces.
“It’s a cautionary tale for employers that you need to be extremely careful when you adopt DEI sort of policies,” said Jacobson, who is also founder of the Equal Protection Project, a nonprofit that challenges DEI programs in higher education. “You are now opening yourself up to multiple angles of complaint, from multiple types of people.”
Merrill resigned abruptly in May 2024, not long after she was stripped of morning anchor duties following the outcome of an HR investigation that sided with Mikell and Cole. She’d been at WBZ for 20 years, and we never knew why she left.
And now we know Merrill had no intention of going quietly. In September, she filed a complaint with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination claiming unlawful discrimination and retaliation by WBZ, CBS, and Paramount. That set the stage for her civil suit.
Even if Merrill loses her case, the whole situation is embarrassing for WBZ, CBS, and Paramount. She’s getting her revenge with every headline about it all.
With a lawsuit like this, it’s not likely she’ll work again in the Boston TV market. I doubt she wants to. And I’m not sure if she needs the money. Her husband, Mike Dunham, earned millions over a decade as a goalie in the NHL and now works as a coach with the Boston Bruins.
Or maybe Merrill is just angling for a job at Fox News. She’d fit right in.
Shirley Leung is a Business columnist. She can be reached at shirley.leung@globe.com.