Midstate news reporter sues TV station, alleging race discrimination

A reporter has filed a race discrimination suit against television station WMGT, alleging that she expressed interest in becoming a news anchor but was passed over because she is a black woman.

Karlisha Booze filed the lawsuit Tuesday in Bibb County Superior Court seeking back pay, to be hired as an anchor, compensation for mental and emotional suffering and other damages.

Reached Wednesday, a representative for the Macon station declined comment on the complaint.

According to the lawsuit:

Booze contends that a Hispanic woman and two white men were hired as anchors between 2013 and 2016, even though they had less experience in the news industry. A former sales consultant also was allowed to work as a fill-in anchor for the station’s 41Today show despite having no news experience.

She alleges that the anchor positions weren’t formally announced or posted so employees could be aware of the openings.

Booze, a Macon native, worked at Macon’s WGXA-TV station as a production assistant and fill-in anchor before going to work for WMGT in 2013 as a producer. She later became a news reporter at the station.

Holding a mass communications undergraduate degree and a master’s in organizational management, she’s working on a doctorate in business administration. Booze works as an adjunct professor at Fort Valley State University, teaching courses in broadcasting and mass communications.

Booze said she told the station’s news director that she wanted to be hired as a news anchor, but was told she needed more reporting experience.

She contends that the news director initially refused to hire Taylor Terrell — a black woman hired in 2013 as an intern and later as a reporter — as an anchor in 2014, but did so after being forced by the station’s then-general manager. Terrell, then a morning news anchor, died in a 2016 fall from a waterfall in North Carolina.

Included in the lawsuit filing is a June 15 email Booze sent to the station’s news director, current general manager and human resource manager:

She expressed her concern that reporters “fresh out of college” were given opportunities to fill in on the anchor desk and to take those positions permanently.

“Over the years, this has continued to occur repeatedly and it makes me feel like I have been treated unfair and discriminated against because of my race,” Booze wrote.

As of the lawsuit’s filing, Booze alleges she hasn’t received a response to her email and the station’s human resources department hasn’t investigated her complaints.

The need to hire two news anchors was discussed at June 30 meeting attended by Booze, the station’s news director and general manager, and an experienced anchor, according to the lawsuit.

Booze said the station refuses to interview her for the positions.

This story was originally published July 19, 2017 at 10:54 AM with the headline "Midstate news reporter sues TV station, alleging race discrimination."