Shegerian & Associates: Employee Rights Attorney on Age Discrimination Suit Against Meredith

NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES, Dec. 19, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Meredith Corporation and WSMV, Nashville's NBC affiliate, have been sued by former anchor Demetria Kalodimos for age discrimination in a lawsuit filed November 27th, 2018. Meredith is already facing at least two other age discrimination lawsuits, one from a former employee in Kansas City, and another from several of Kalodimos' former colleagues in Nashville.

In December of 2017, WSMV terminated Kalodimos' contract without explanation after decades of reliable contract renewals. Kalodimos was 58 and had worked as an anchor for 33 years at WSMV. During this time she won 16 Emmys, 3 Investigative Reporters and Editors awards, 2 Edward R. Murrow awards, and was inducted into the Tennessee Journalism Hall of Fame.

Kalodimos believes there has been a pattern of age discrimination of on-air talent since 2015 when a new News Director replaced multiple Reporters with younger ones. Over the past two years, multiple lawsuits have been filed against Meredith claiming age discrimination. Kalodimos wrote Meredith and WSMV a letter explaining her point of view and the patterns she had witnessed, with no response to the original attempt to contact them or her follow up.

Carney Shegerian, the founder of Los Angeles-based employee rights law firm, Shegerian & Associates, has weighed in on the case. Shegerian is familiar with age discrimination cases, and represented Codie Rael in her age discrimination lawsuit against Danaher Corporation, winning a $31.1 million verdict.

"The alleged pattern of age discrimination that Kalodimos describes is a widespread issue in a number of industries, including the entertainment industry," according to Shegerian. "Employees need to understand how to recognize the signs of age discrimination in the workplace."

Age discrimination has long been an issue for female broadcast journalists. Although men face the pressure of looking put together and trimmed, women are expected to stay looking young. If a broadcasting station feels like their female anchors are getting too old, they may say something along the lines of, "We are looking for a fresh face or new talent."

In response to the lawsuits against Meredith, they stated that Meredith would "fight vigorously" against these claims. They then elaborated on the fact that the majority of their staff is female and they have more women in higher up roles. With that said, the lawsuit states that the average age of women for all 17 of Meredith's news stations is 40 while the men's average age is 51.

There has been no response from Meredith to Kalodimos' claim, but since her departure over 2,000 Nashville residents have joined a Facebook group called "I Stand with Demetria" and have stated the shame the news station should feel. The community is in uproar over their beloved news anchor's untimely departure.

About Shegerian & Associates:
Shegerian & Associates has won clients over $200 million in employment-based disputes and maintains a 98% success rate. We have offices in Los Angeles, San Diego, Riverside and New York. 

Media Contact:
Pace Public Relations
Caroline Kropke
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SOURCE Shegerian & Associates

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