DEI policies started behind closed doors but quickly transitioned to something companies proudly tout and openly embrace. Now they are in the limelight, on both sides of the camera. Par for the course is the treatment of an Emmy Award-winning CBS news anchor who had over three decades of experience in broadcast journalism. He alleges that he was dismissed from CBS Broadcasting due to his inability to meet newly imposed DEI criteria set by CBS leadership.
Jeff Vaughn is an older, white, straight male. He sued CBS for discriminatory treatment based on race, sex, age, and sexual orientation, represented by America First Legal (AFL). Title VII prohibits discharging an individual because of the person’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Similarly, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) prohibits discrimination on the basis of an individual’s age. Vaughn alleges that CBS violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and the ADEA when it fired him.
The facts appear to be on his side. The General Manager, Joel Vilmanay, allegedly informed Vaughn, without prior warning, that he would be terminated within six months. CBS apparently afterward told him the company had already been seeking his replacement. Vaughn asked the Vice President News Director of CBS, Mike Dello Stritto, about his termination and reports he was told: “It is not about the ratings.” How could it be about the ratings, when Vaughn hosted one of the highest-ranked segments on CBS?
If not the ratings, what was it about? Vaughn’s lawsuit highlights CBS’s public statements bragging about its diversity quotas. For example, former CBS executive Whitney Davis claimed CBS has a “white problem.” In 2020, CBS adopted an initiative requiring that by “the 2022-2023 broadcast season, half of all writers will be nonwhite.” Finally, 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) writers.
As CBS started to openly implement these diversity quotas, Vaughn experienced overt discrimination. He was allegedly excluded from CBS News’ special coverage of the 20th anniversary of 9/11, despite the fact that he was the only one on the news team who had reported from Ground Zero during the events of September 11, 2001. Instead, the feature was allegedly hosted by a nonwhite team. Vaughn also alleges that he was excluded from CBS News’s fall 2022 promotional campaign, and from covering America Fest Fourth of July Ceremonies, Children’s Hospital fundraisers, Taste of Soul, Race for the Cure, and the LA Rams Super Bowl Victory Parade.
This is not the first time AFL has filed a lawsuit against the entertainment industry for illegal discrimination against white Americans. Last year, AFL sued Meta Platforms, the Association of Independent Producers, and others. AFL also sued Paramount Global and CBS Studios on behalf of Brian Beneker for alleged illegal discrimination based on age, race, and sex. Mr. Beneker is a white, heterosexual male, and he was the script coordinator for CBS’s “Seal Team” television series from 2017 until its last season in 2024. He wrote four freelance episodes for Seal Team, yet was allegedly denied a staff writer position multiple times with the show. Instead, CBS allegedly hired and promoted non-white or female individuals who lacked experience and screenwriting credits. CBS and Paramount moved to dismiss the case, saying the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution permits them to engage in race and sex discrimination as part of their free speech. As argued in Beneker’s response, CBS is wrong when it argues that it can discriminate based on status; discrimination is not expressive conduct.
There is no doubt that Title VII and Section 1981 apply to white employees. The Supreme Court resolved this question in 1976 in McDonald v. Santa Fe Trail Transportation Company. These new employment programs favoring one race, sex, or sexual orientation over another are discriminatory. Everyone deserves equal protection under the law. As Chief Justice Roberts said in Parents Involved, “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.” This applies equally to all discrimination. It will take clients, attorneys, and judges to ensure that Congress’s enactments are equally enforced, and to uphold the American ideal that everyone is equal before the law.
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