The New York Times and its top executives Thursday were socked with a race, gender and age discrimination class action lawsuit by two older black female employees who claim they were denied promotions in favor of younger whites.
For those keeping track at home, here is the scorecard of known current and recent worker complaints against the once mighty liberal paper of record and its counterpart in our nation’s capital, both of which, of course, regularly accuse Republicans, Donald Trump, cops, whites and even “Saturday Night Live” of racism, sexism and insufficient commitment to “diversity” and income inequality
The Washington Post
–fighting for nearly three years a federal lawsuit alleging business side of the paper systematically purged older blacks, including two subject or racist jokes by a white supervisor, and replaced them with younger, cheaper whites
–sued November 2014 in D.C. Superior Court for tolerating sexual harassment by woman supervisor of male underling she asked to schlong ferociously because they are both “hot niggas”
–hit with a related EEOC complaint because the harassment allegedly occurred at its Springfield, Va., plant
–settled EEOC complaint filed in 2014 by a Latino advertising worker represented by Kate Edwards, daughter of Democratic war on women soldier John Edwards
–settled lawsuit filed by independent distributor who claimed paper cooked its circulation figures and did not reimburse distributors for unsold papers as promised
The New York Times
–sued this February by a female employee who was fired after she irked managers by taking four months maternity leave
–earlier this year settled race, age and gender discrimination lawsuit filed by an Asian-American executive, Tracy Quitasol, fired by now chief revenue officer Meredith Levin after she complained of obstreperous treatment by male subordinate
The lawsuit, filed Thursday by Ernestine Grant, 62, and Marjorie Walker, 61, cite the allegations in Quitasol’s case, to argue that Levien and Times company CEO Mark Thompson are responsible for rampant age, race and gender discrimination at the paper.
“Unbeknownst to the world at large, not only does the Times have an ideal customer (young, white, wealthy) but also an ideal staffer (young, white, unencumbered with a family) to draw that purported ideal customer,” it says, contending the advertising workforce is “systematically becoming increasingly younger and whiter.”
“Older advertising directors of color found themselves pushed out through buyouts, or outright terminated, but those vacancies were rapidly filled with younger, white individuals.”
Grant and Walker claim they were both passed over for promotions because of the paper’s institutional ageism and racism.
Times spokesman Eileen Murphy said, “This lawsuit contains a series of recycled, scurrilous and unjustified attacks on both Mark Thompson and Meredith Levien. It also completely distorts the realities of the work environment at The New York Times. We strongly disagree with any claim that The Times, Mr. Thompson or Ms. Levien have discriminated against any individual or group of employees.”
That sounds like a cut and paste job of her statement to the New York Post that followed up the exclusive report her about Quitasol’s lawsuit: “Ms. Quitasol was terminated for cause, and The New York Times denies the malicious and false allegations that are contained in the complaint she filed in June”
Despite vowing to fight Quitasol’s supposedly frivolous lawsuit, the Times quietly settled it about one month after court-ordered mediation.
Meanwhile, Washington Post media blogger Erik Wemple reported the lawsuit against the New York Times but has ignored for 19 months the nearly identical complaint against his own paper.
