Fox News is facing renewed legal claims that it mistreated non-white employees, including a television anchor who said he was depicted as “the racist caricature of a black entertainer.”
Eleven current and former Fox employees, including anchor Kelly Wright, filed an amended lawsuit in New York state court on Tuesday claiming they were demeaned, humiliated, paid less than white co-workers, and passed over for promotions.
The lawsuit was originally filed last month by two Fox News payroll employees. Tuesday’s complaint added class action racial discrimination claims to the case.
Separately on Tuesday, a former Fox News accounts payable specialist, Adasa Blanco, filed her own lawsuit in federal court in New York claiming her complaints about racial discrimination were ignored and she was forced to quit in 2013 as a result.
A Fox News spokesperson in a statement said the network vehemently denies the claims.
“We will vigorously defend these cases,” the spokesperson said.
The complaints came less than a week after Fox parent Twenty-First Century Fox Inc severed ties with its biggest star, Bill O’Reilly, over sexual harassment claims.
(Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York)
