Wendy Bell has filed a federal lawsuit against Pittsburgh-based WTAE for firing her this past spring, alleging that the TV station gave her the pink slip because she’s white.
Yes, she has really said this.
Back on March 21, Bell (a 21-time Emmy winner) took to Facebook in order to voice her opinion about the March 9 shooting of five African-Americcan people in Pittsburgh’s Wilkinsburg neighborhood.
This is what she wrote at the time:
You needn’t be a criminal profiler to draw a mental sketch of the killers who broke so many hearts.
They are young black men, likely in their teens or in their early 20s. They have multiple siblings from multiple fathers and their mothers work multiple jobs.
These boys have been in the system before. They’ve grown up there. They know the police. They’ve been arrested.
Bell wrote this without any actual knowledge of the assailants.
She simply assumed they were black men who fit this description… which is pretty darn racist, if you think about it.
Bell was relieved of her duties nine days after the station deemed her comments to be an ethical violation.
In her lawsuit, the journalist complains:
“Had Ms. Bell written the same comments about white criminal suspects or had her race not have been white, Defendant would not have fired her, much less disciplined her.
“Ms. Bell’s posting of concern for the African-American community stung by mass shooting was clearly and obviously not intended to be racially offensive.”
We’re not sure how clear or obvious that is, even if Bell did not mean any harm by her comments.
According to the Associated Press, Bell “is seeking back pay, punitive damages and her old job.”
Do you think she deserves it?
Was what she wrote just a citizen trying to be of assistance? Or was she being overtly racist and terrible?
