Reporter Sues Her Former Station

Back in November of 2019, FTVLive told you that WBTS (Boston) had sacked Investigative Reporter Karen Hensel.

Hensel said at the time that she was fired due to the fact that she was dating a local police chief.

She later landed a job with WSVN in Miami and she is now suing her old station, NBC Boston.

Some of the complaints she addressed in her lawsuit:

During her employment at NBC10-Boston, plaintiff was continuously subjected to a pattern and practice of ongoing harassment, gender discrimination and retaliation. During her employment at NBC10-Boston, plaintiff was continuously and repeatedly subjected to a sexually-hostile work environment.

The sexually-hostile work environment at NBC10-Boston was primarily perpetuated by Jane Doe, another female investigative reporter and co-worker employed by defendants. Ms. Doe’s conduct and actions were designed and intended to interfere with plaintiff’s work performance and career success in an effort to make Ms. Doe stand out as the leading female investigative reporter at the station.

In or around May 2017, plaintiff complained to her supervising producer regarding Ms. Doe’s conduct and the sexually-hostile work environment at NBC10-Boston. The producer advised plaintiff to “deal with [Ms. Doe] the best you can. You know how she is.” Defendants did not investigate plaintiff’s complaint regarding Ms. Doe’s conduct and/or the sexually-hostile work environment.

Upon information and belief, a male assistant news director of the NBC10-Boston management team did not disclose that he was involved in a personal relationship with a subordinate NBC10-Boston female on-air journalist until that relationship came to light by way of (1) anonymous complaints to NBC10-Boston and/or NBCU; and (2) a reported confrontation at the station involving the male assistant and the spouse of the on-air journalist.

The assistant news director (who directly supervised the on-air journalist) was not terminated from his employment, let alone subjected to progressive discipline, despite (1) defendants’ termination of plaintiff; and (2) NBCU’s Conflicts of Interest guidelines directing employees to refrain from making “any employment decisions regarding a family member or close personal relationship (including hiring, promoting or directly supervising).”

The assistant news director not only failed to disclose his own personal relationship, but also engaged in an actual conflict of interest where he had the ability to influence NBC10- Boston decisions relating to employment that involved a subordinate with whom he was involved in a personal relationship.

Instead, after the relationship between the assistant news director and on-air journalist became widely-known within the NBC10-Boston newsroom, station management responded only by re-assigning the assistant’s responsibilities for handling the day-to-day scheduling of on-air talent.