Anchor Claims She Was Fired Because She's White

Wendy Bell

If former WTAE news anchor Wendy Bell were black, her attorney said, she would not have been fired for controversial comments she posted on Facebook about a mass shooting in Wilkinsburg.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports Sam Cordes made the comment Monday — the same day he filed a federal lawsuit on her behalf. Ms. Bell claims race discrimination against Hearst Stations and is seeking reinstatement.

“But for her being the race that she is, the decision would have been very different,” Mr. Cordes said. “The comment was not intrinsically racially pejorative. It was interpreted to be that way.”

Neither the general manager at WTAE nor a spokesman for Hearst could be immediately reached.

Two weeks after the March 9 shooting in Wilkinsburg that killed six people, Ms. Bell wrote on WTAE’s Facebook page: “you needn’t be a criminal profiler to draw a mental sketch of the killers who broke so many hearts two weeks ago ... they are young black men, likely in their teens or early 20s.”

The post was immediately divisive and controversial. Many called for Ms. Bell to be fired, and others praised her for being unafraid to speak what she felt.

However, according to the lawsuit, it wasn’t until March 30, the same day as a meeting with the Pittsburgh Black Media Federation to discuss Ms. Bell and issues of racial diversity, that she was terminated. She was told that her comments on the Facebook page were ”inconsistent with the company’s ethics and journalistic standards.”.

Mr. Cordes expects to add a claim for gender discrimination in Ms. Bell’s lawsuit, as well, as soon as he receives a right-to-sue letter from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.