Former CBS Anchor Files $5M Lawsuit Against Network Over Woke DEI Hiring Policies

Jeff Vaughn, 58, a veteran reporter with more than 30 years of experience, spent the last eight years as a news anchor at a CBS-owned Los Angeles affiliate.

Vaughn, an Emmy Award winner, was replaced by a younger minority news anchor in 2022 and has now filed a $5 million lawsuit against the network and Paramount Globe.

The lawsuit alleges that the network’s blind pursuit of diversity through woke-DEI policies led to his replacement since he is an older, white, heterosexual male.

The New York Post reports:

CBS decided that there were too many white males at CBS, and it acted accordingly. It needed to solve its ‘white problem’ by firing successful white males,” the complaint alleged.

Vaughn’s lawsuit follows a similar suit in March by a fired white, heterosexual male freelance writer on CBS’ “SEAL Team” series who accused the network of “blatant” discrimination.

Earlier this year, a Post investigation revealed that CBS News president Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews had been accused by staffers of promoting minorities while unfairly sidelining white journalists, sparking a major internal human relations probe in 2021.

Attorneys representing Vaughn claim he was “never given a reason for his firing,” although he suspects it had something to do with the network’s apparent desire to replace him with a younger, minority news anchor.

According to his attorneys, Vaughn was informed last August that he was being terminated and was given the opportunity to say goodbye to viewers.  But only if he said his departure was of his own making.

He declined to lie on air for the network.

Vaughn is represented by attorneys from America First Legal (AFL.)

AFL shared that CBS has been vocal about its explicit diversity quotas, including:

• Former CBS Executive Whitney Davis claimed CBS has a “white problem.”
• In 2020, CBS adopted an initiative requiring by “the 2022-2023 broadcast season: half of all writers will be nonwhite.”
• For the 2022-23 production season, CBS mandated that writers’ rooms be staffed with at least 50 percent black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC).

Gene Hamilton, America First Legal Executive Director, shared, “All racism is wrong. All racial discrimination is wrong. Making employment decisions using race as a factor in the process is racial discrimination and is wrong. We are proud to stand up for our client to vindicate his rights under long-settled law against what appears to be intentional and blatant discrimination by his employer because of his immutable characteristics. Too many employers in the United States have abandoned their commitment to the law, and we look forward to holding them accountable for any illegal actions.”

Read the lawsuit here.

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