Trouble at the CBS O&O's
Over a month and a half ago, on Dec.1st, FTVLive told you in a Patron Only story that a lawsuit was being filed against CBS and the head of O&O’s Peter Dunn.
In our story we told you that former KYW )Philly) General Manager Brien Kennedy is claiming that he was let go for opening up to lawyer Mark Engstrom at CBS to answer questions during the investigation into top management at the company.
Kennedy was at first, hesitant to speak with those investigating the company, due to fear of retaliation. It seems those fears were spot on. After he spoke to the lawyers, he was soon out of a job.
In the Patron story we posted back in December, FTVLive wrote, “We hear that a major newspaper is looking into the lawsuit and is expected to drop a big story on it when it is filed.”
In the Sunday LA Times, that story that FTVLive teased dropped.
The Times spoke to a number of people that worked at the O&O’s under Peter Dunn and his right-hand man, WCBS News Director David Friend.
It paints a picture of a toxic management regime that was in total control.
In the complaint filed by Kennedy, it claims that Dunn engaged in “a pattern of discriminatory behavior through the instruction of others regarding hiring, firing, promotion and pay setting of employees based on race, gender and sexual orientation.”
The LA Times talked to former KYW News Director Margaret Cronan, who described working under Dunn and Friend as toxic. “I no longer could tolerate a culture in which I was expected to defend corporate decisions that I found offensive,” Cronan told The Times.
Cronan said, she witnessed racism and experienced verbal insults. At one 2016 meeting, with several executives in attendance, Cronan said Friend asked her: “What are you, a [expletive] idiot?”
Kennedy said that he walked into the KYW newsroom and saw little diversity on air and worked to change that. The Times writes that his first major move was to install a hometown hero, Ukee Washington, as lead evening anchor. Kennedy said the promotion of Washington — a Black journalist who has been with KYW more than 30 years — was long overdue. Washington started at KYW in 1986 as a sports anchor and, a decade later, became morning news anchor, where he remained for 19 years.
Dunn knew Washington from his KYW days and approved the promotion, but Kennedy said in an interview that Dunn frequently disparaged Washington, calling him “just a jive guy.”
“Peter would say: ‘All he does is dance ... dancing, dancing,’” Kennedy recalled in an interview.
In a 2016 budget meeting, Dunn asked about Washington’s transition to lead anchor.
“He’s not doing that ‘jive talking’ anymore? Sometimes, he’s just not speaking my language,” Cronan recalled Dunn saying in the meeting, which was attended by several people. Kennedy separately recalled the incident.
“I was shocked that a corporate head would use words like that to describe an African American,” Cronan said. “Besides, Ukee was such a valuable asset to viewers and internally to our team. I couldn’t believe Peter Dunn would even be questioning his performance.”
Cronan and the others alleged that Dunn and Friend cultivated a hostile work environment that included bullying female managers and blocking efforts to hire and retain Black journalists.
There also were complaints about a $55-million purchase of a TV station on New York’s Long Island — a deal that included privileges for Dunn and other high-level CBS executives at an ultra-exclusive golf club in the Hamptons.
In the allegations against Dunn, CBS issued a statement, “CBS is committed to ensuring an inclusive and respectful work environment for all its employees,” the company said. “In response to a CBS investigation in early 2019, senior management at the time addressed the situation with Mr. Dunn, and the company has not received any complaints about his conduct during the period since then.”
Dunn declined to comment to the Times.