Former Nashville anchor Sues Station
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Longtime former WSMV (Nashville) Anchor Demetria Kalodimos accused her old station of age and gender discrimination in a federal lawsuit filed against the TV station's parent company, Meredith Local Media Group.
The Tennessean writes that the lawsuit described WSMV as creating a "hostile environment" that favored men and younger on-air personalities.
"Channel 4 and Meredith have a culture of discarding women once they reach a certain age, as if women have some expiration date," her attorney Kenny Byrd of Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, a national law firm with an office in Nashville, said in a statement issued Wednesday.
Kalodimos "observed and was subjected to age-motivated ridicule, public berating and criticism from Channel 4 management," her lawyers, Byrd and Kelly M. Dermody, allege in the filing.
Kalodimos said she started bringing gender and age discrimination allegations from her coworkers to station management years ago.
"When problems are happening right under your own nose, if you will, you can’t ignore those. Especially when they’re hurting people — and people that you know and work with," Kalodimos said.
"I felt not only my responsibility as a journalist but as a friend and as a woman and as an employee to make people aware of problems. And there were persistent problems."
WSMV general manager Dale Woods did not respond to an email and voicemail asking for comment.
