Judge allows suit by ex-TV anchor fired after online remarks
PITTSBURGH — A federal judge has declined to throw out a lawsuit filed by a former Pittsburgh newscaster fired after her comments in a Facebook post about a shooting were deemed racially insensitive.
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (http://bit.ly/2gxQq9e ) reports that the judge Friday denied an attempt by Hearst Stations Inc. to dismiss the lawsuit by former WTAE news anchor Wendy Bell. She is seeking back pay, punitive damages and her old job back.
Bell, who is white, had commented on the March 9 shooting of five black people and an unborn child during a cookout in the poor Pittsburgh suburb of Wilkinsburg.
“You needn’t be a criminal profiler to draw a mental sketch of the killers who broke so many hearts,” Bell wrote March 21. “They are young black men, likely in their teens or in their early 20s. They have multiple siblings from multiple fathers and their mothers work multiple jobs. These boys have been in the system before. They’ve grown up there. They know the police. They’ve been arrested.”