Former Anchor Sues in Boston

Longtime former Boston news anchor, Kate Merrill, has filed a $4 million federal lawsuit against her former employer, alleging racial and gender discrimination. The suit targets WBZ-TV, which is the CBS owned and operated station in Boston, as well as its parent company Paramount, CBS itself, and four of her former co-workers.

In the complaint filed Tuesday, Merrill claims that the station took "career-ending action" against her to "advance a DEI agenda," referring to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Merrill, who is white, alleges she was discriminated against based on her race and gender.

Merrill first joined WBZ-TV as a reporter in 2004 and rose to become the co-anchor of the station's flagship morning news program. According to the lawsuit, the dispute began after Paramount opened an investigation into her conduct following separate complaints made by two Black colleagues.

The 57-page complaint alleges that while the company investigated her, it ignored her own complaints against one of those co-workers, meteorologist Jason Mikell. Merrill claims the station failed to investigate a sexually suggestive on-air comment made by Mikell. In a separate incident, she alleges Mikell yelled at her across the studio after she sent him a private text message correcting his pronunciation of the Massachusetts town "Concord."

The lawsuit contends that Merrill was subsequently demoted from the high-profile morning show to a weekend night anchor position "to make an example of her." Fearing the move would cause "catastrophic damage" to her career, Merrill resigned on May 24, 2024. She noted that a non-compete clause in her contract prevented her from working in journalism until June 1, 2024.

Merrill, who is seeking a jury trial and $4 million in damages, had previously filed discrimination charges with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. She withdrew those charges to pursue the matter in federal court.