Former Philly Anchor Loses Lawsuit Against his Old Station

Former WTXF Fox Philly Anchor Tom Burlington sued his former station after they canned him.

Burlington was sacked after using the N-Word in a news meeting.

Burlington, who is white, showed his Anchor ego and dared to use the racial epithet while discussing the word with black coworkers.

He said that his black co-workers used the word, so he should be able to as well.

A federal jury disagreed and rejected his  racial discrimination lawsuit against his former employer.

The verdict came after a trial in which the all-white panel was asked to decide who in the newsroom had used "the n-word" before, how many times, and whether there was ever a situation in which a white person could appropriately use it.

"I can't believe that in this day and age, he didn't have an idea that using the full n-word in the workplace was outrageous, and it didn't matter the context," Jerome Hoffman, lawyer for Fox29, said in his closing argument to jurors.

He declined to comment after the verdict. So, too, did Burlington, who quickly left the courtroom with his wife as soon as the jurors were dismissed.

Burlington said that he has not been able to find a TV job since he was sacked and had to start selling houses to make a living. 

"For the past eight years, he's been out there on the street, trying to sell houses, trying to salvage his reputation one person at a time," his lawyer said. "What is eight years of being labeled a racist worth?"

According to the jury, it's worth absolutely nothing. 

H/T Philly Inquirer