An Emmy Award-winning CBS anchor claimed the Tiffany Network’s blind pursuit for diversity hires led to him getting canned because he is an aging, white, heterosexual male, according to blockbuster lawsuit.
Jeff Vaughn, 58, who spent eight years at a CBS-owned Los Angeles affiliate, alleged he was replaced by a younger, minority news anchor in 2022 in the $5 million discrimination lawsuit against CBS and parent company Paramount Global, which was filed in a California federal court Monday.
The complaint pointed to a CBS goal to ensure that half of all writers be nonwhite by 2023 and an initiative requiring half of all castmembers on their reality shows be minorities.
“CBS decided that there were too many white males at CBS, and it acted accordingly. It needed to solve its ‘white problem’ by firing successful white males,” the complaint alleged.
CBS declined to comment.
Vaughn’s lawsuit follows a similar suit in March by a fired white, heterosexual male freelance writer on CBS’ “SEAL Team” series who accused the network of “blatant” discrimination.
Earlier this year, a Post investigation revealed that CBS News president Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews had been accused by staffers of promoting minorities while unfairly sidelining white journalists, sparking a major internal human relations probe in 2021.
Sources claimed the probe, which was “cut short,” concluded that the exec was merely a “bad manager” with limited resources.
Vaughn, who was an evening anchor for KCBS 5 pm and KCAL at 8 pm newscasts, was told by the general manager at CBS News Los Angeles he would not be working at the network in six months and that he was going to be replaced, according to the lawsuit.
The anchor — who has over 30 years of experience in broadcast journalism and won four Emmys — alleged that his manager didn’t give him a direct reason for his removal but told him “it’s not about the ratings.”
According to the lawsuit, Vaughn noticed he was slowly being iced out at the network ahead of his firing by being excluded from several reporting and promotional events.
For example, during CBS News’ 20th anniversary 9/11 special coverage, the anchor was “completely left out and did not even appear on the program,” the suit said, noting that it was “extremely odd,” given the fact that Vaughn was at Ground Zero in Manhattan, reporting on the terrorist attacks that day.
He was the only member of the on-air team, who was at the World Trade Center, the suit said.
Adding further confusion to the situation, the suit said that management asked the team for story ideas.
Vaughn shared personal pictures, videos and interviews that he conducted at the Twin Towers site with President George W. Bush, Sen. Hillary Clinton and Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
When Vaughn wasn’t chosen to share his memories on camera, he allegedly wasn’t told why, just that it “would make others uncomfortable.”
The lawsuit said Vaughn was also excluded from CBS’ new promotional campaign for its evening shows in the fall of 2022, even though he was the premier evening anchor.
“The billboard included every one of Mr. Vaughn’s co-anchors, all of whom were either racial or gender minorities. He was the only anchor not placed on the billboard,” the suit said.
The alleged discrimination came at a time when the company was pushing to amp up diversity hiring, the suit said.
CBS, under George Cheeks, who now holds the role of co-CEO of Paramount and CBS CEO, had set a series of diversity goals, including staffing all writers’ rooms on the network’s primetime series to be staffed 40% BIPOC [black, indigenous or people of color] in the 2021-22 season.
Seventeen out of 21 shows hit or exceeded that target, Cheeks said at the time.
In 2022, Tiffany Smith-Anoa’i, the company’s executive vice president of Paramount’s entertainment diversity equity and inclusion department, said in a townhall meeting that the company’s “culture of belonging has doubled female representation, tripled people of color representation and we’re only getting started.”
Vaughn claims that the effort was “kicked into high gear” when CBS News and Stations president Wendy McMahon was hired in 2021.
“McMahon was publicly recognized for her work ‘to make the station group more diverse, on both sides of the camera and in leadership positions,’” the suit said, adding that the exec — who now holds the role of CBS News CEO, replaced him with Chauncy Glover, a 37-year-old African-American anchor out of ABC’s Houston bureau.
“The truth is, CBS News, at the direction of McMahon, implemented an illegal hiring, promotion, or retention policy based on age, race, sexual orientation and sex,” Vaughn’s lawsuit alleged.
On his last day, Vaughn was told by his manager to publicly announce he was saying goodbye and that it was “his decision to leave,” the suit added.
The journalist refused, but after his last day on Sept. 22, 2023, the news team issued a statement live on air that “implied” that he “left of his own accord,” the suit alleged.
“Friday was Jeff Vaughn’s last newscast with KCAL news,” his co-anchor read. “Now, he didn’t want to make a big fuss about leaving, but we wanted you to know. He has been a vital part of the KCAL news team for 8 years, and we have taken great pride working with Jeff to share your stories.”
