Fox News anchor Kelly Wright is the latest on-air personality to be suing the network. This afternoon, Wright joined a racial discrimination case filed last month in Bronx Supreme Court against Fox News, its parent company 21st Century Fox, general counsel Dianne Brandi, and former comptroller Judith Slater. That suit now has 11 plaintiffs.
Wright joined Fox News as a reporter in 2003 and did a stint co-hosting the weekend edition of Fox & Friends. He currently co-hosts America’s News Headquarters on Saturdays. In the suit, Wright alleges he was “forced to endure many racist comments” at Fox which were “intended to paint [him] as a caricature of a Black entertainer – i.e., a Jim Crow.”
According to the suit, Bill O’Reilly suggested that Wright should “sing the National Anthem at the Fox News Town Halls” and refused to book Wright during the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri because Wright’s proposed segment “showed Blacks in ‘too positive’ a light.” Wright says he reported the alleged racial discrimination to Fox News co-president Bill Shine, executive vice president for programming Suzanne Scott and Brandi, specifically telling them that Fox is “too blonde and too White.” According to the suit, “nothing was ever done to remedy the discrimination.”
“Fox News and Dianne Brandi vehemently deny the race discrimination claims in both lawsuits,” a network spokesperson said. “They are copycat complaints of the original one filed last month. We will vigorously defend these cases.”
Slater denied the allegations as well. “These are meritless and frivolous lawsuits and all claims of racial discrimination against Ms. Slater are completely false,” said her attorney, Catherine M. Foti. “Given how outrageous and offensive these suits are, it’s incomprehensible to imagine how anyone has joined or would join these legal actions.”
