Oh the Irony

“We believe that if you can see her, you can be her,” reads the slogan of the #SeeHer initiative, a gender equity campaign led by the Association of National Advertisers.

It is a great goal and and big companies like Ford, Walmart and Microsoft have all committed to examining how women are being portrayed in their advertising.

Meredith, which owns 15 television stations has also signed on to the initiative of gender equity.

It is here that we should point out that Meredith has been or is being sued for age discrimination by female talent.

As FTVLive told you, KCTV in Kansas City, fired news anchor Karen Fuller, then 47, from the station and replaced her with a 32-year old. I

n Dec. 2017, NBC affiliate WSMV in Nashville let anchor Demetria Kalodimos, then 58, go, and replaced her with someone a decade younger.

Both women filed a lawsuit.

According to Fuller’s suit, KCTV sought a replacement with a “hometown girl” look, and voiced concerns about how candidates would appear on camera in the years to come. “She can be cute and young but also able to dress up and be more serious and respectable … How will she age I wonder?” said the station’s creative director in an email about one prospect.

Meredith is not the only broadcaster who has faced discrimination claims. But their decision to join the #SeeHer campaign gives the company an opportunity to force its local broadcasters to face some longstanding problems in television news, to take the lead in promoting all manner of image metrics, including race, body type and, yes, age.

Let’s hope they put their money where their mouth is.

H/T NY Times

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